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Lightning Strikes Kill Cattle, Start Fires in Greece during Heat Wave

An aircraft sprays water in an attempt to extinguish a wildfire in the village of Trilofos, near Thessaloniki on July 18, 2024. (Photo by Sakis MITROLIDIS / AFP)
An aircraft sprays water in an attempt to extinguish a wildfire in the village of Trilofos, near Thessaloniki on July 18, 2024. (Photo by Sakis MITROLIDIS / AFP)
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Lightning Strikes Kill Cattle, Start Fires in Greece during Heat Wave

An aircraft sprays water in an attempt to extinguish a wildfire in the village of Trilofos, near Thessaloniki on July 18, 2024. (Photo by Sakis MITROLIDIS / AFP)
An aircraft sprays water in an attempt to extinguish a wildfire in the village of Trilofos, near Thessaloniki on July 18, 2024. (Photo by Sakis MITROLIDIS / AFP)

Lightning strikes in northern Greece killed cattle and started fires during a dayslong heat wave affecting most of southern Europe.
Several fires were reported near the city of Kozani, 450 kilometers north of Athens following a dry thunderstorm in the area, authorities said Saturday.
Further north, near the Greek town of Florina, officials from a public agricultural insurance organization said nine cows were killed by lightning strikes at a cattle farm and several other animals were injured.
Cattle farm owner Alexandros Tsikos told The Associated Press that he found the animals dead in a grazing area next to the cattle barn.
Temperatures eased slightly Saturday but remained as high as 40 Celsius in parts of the country, while the risk of wildfires was very high outside Athens and in much of southern Greece.

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10 Endangered Black Rhinos Sent from S.Africa to Mozambique

Kenya Wildlife Services veterinarians and rangers rush to aid a sedated female black Rhinoceros that has been selected for translocation to the Segera Rhino Sanctuary from the Lake Nakuru National Park on June 07, 2025. (Photo by Tony KARUMBA / AFP)
Kenya Wildlife Services veterinarians and rangers rush to aid a sedated female black Rhinoceros that has been selected for translocation to the Segera Rhino Sanctuary from the Lake Nakuru National Park on June 07, 2025. (Photo by Tony KARUMBA / AFP)
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10 Endangered Black Rhinos Sent from S.Africa to Mozambique

Kenya Wildlife Services veterinarians and rangers rush to aid a sedated female black Rhinoceros that has been selected for translocation to the Segera Rhino Sanctuary from the Lake Nakuru National Park on June 07, 2025. (Photo by Tony KARUMBA / AFP)
Kenya Wildlife Services veterinarians and rangers rush to aid a sedated female black Rhinoceros that has been selected for translocation to the Segera Rhino Sanctuary from the Lake Nakuru National Park on June 07, 2025. (Photo by Tony KARUMBA / AFP)

Ten black rhinos have been moved from South Africa to Mozambique to secure breeding of the critically endangered animals that became locally extinct 50 years ago, conservationists said Thursday.

The five male and five female rhinos were transferred to Mozambique's Zinave National Park in a 48-hour road trip last week, said the Peace Parks Foundation, which took part in the translocation.

"It was necessary to introduce these 10 to make the population viable," communication coordinator Lesa van Rooyen told AFP.

The new arrivals will "secure the first founder population of black rhinos since becoming locally extinct five decades ago,” South Africa's environment ministry, which was also involved, said in a statement.

Twelve black rhinos had previously been sent from South Africa to Zinave in central Mozambique but the population was still not viable for breeding, Van Rooyen said.

Twenty-five white rhinos, which are classified as less threatened, were also translocated in various operations.

The global black rhino population dropped by 96 percent between 1970 and 1993, reaching a low of only 2,300 surviving in the wild, according to the International Rhino Foundation.

Decades of conservation efforts allowed the species to slowly recover and the population is estimated at 6,421 today.

Once abundant across sub-Saharan Africa, rhino numbers fell dramatically due to hunting by European colonizers and large-scale poaching, with their horns highly sought after on black markets particularly in Asia.

Mozambique's population of the large animals was depleted during the 15-year civil war, which ended in 1992 and pushed many people to desperate measures to "survive in very difficult circumstances", van Rooyen said.

Years of rewilding efforts have established Zinave as Mozambique’s only national park home to the "Big Five" game animals -- elephant, rhino, lion, leopard and buffalo.