Farwa, Libya: Cocooned in white bags and nestled in the arms of volunteers, eight young rhim gazelles -- an endangered species native to North Africa -- have been transferred to an uninhabited Libyan island. Environmentalist hope their new home on Farwa island, near Tunisia, will be a haven for the vulnerable animal. Also known as Gazella leptoceros, or simply rhim, the slender-horned gazelle lives in desert areas in Algeria, Tunisia, Libya and Egypt.
But its population has declined significantly as it is a prized target for hunters. According to an International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) assessment in 2016, there were only between 300 to 600 mature rhims in the North African wild. Environmentalists "wanted to relocate the wild animals in Farwa", a 13-kilometre-long (eight-mile) sandbar, as part of the gazelles' conservation efforts, Mohamed al-Rabti, one of the volunteers, told AFP.
A first group of rhims was released a few weeks ago, "followed by eight individuals, including one male and seven females" on July 18, Rabti added. As soon as they were released, the young gazelles took off frolicking before promptly disappearing behind the island's wild bushes. The animal with long slender horns is small, nimble, and well adapted to desert life with a pale coat that enables better survival by blending into sandy landscapes.
The colouring is less effective against hunters, which for a while have been the gazelles' major predator. Equipped with binoculars, automatic .