( CNN ) Rhinos are coming back to Uganda . The animals , indigenous to the country , were completely wiped out by 1982 . Now , thanks to the combined effort of several private and public bodies , they are making a comeback . About 110 miles ( 177 kilometers ) north of the capital Kampala lies the privately own , non-profit Zhiwa Rhino Sanctuary , 7,000 hectares of suitable savannah and native woodlands . Six southern white rhinos were introduced here in 2005 . Now there are fifteen . These rhinos are heavily protected . A 2 meter electric fence surrounds the whole 70 square kilometer sanctuary , and the animals themselves are kept under armed guard at all times . A team of about 70 park rangers and guards tracks the herd 's movements and follows them around , even at night . To avoid scaring the rhinos or interfering with their lives , the guards use bird-like noises to communicate . Also , keeping quiet is essential to avoid giving away the animals ' location . They are entitled to shoot if they encounter armed poachers . So far , none have entered the sanctuary . The original group was composed of four animals from Kenya , bought from the Solio Ranch in the Rift Valley Province , and two from the United States , donated by Walt Disney 's Animal Kingdom in Orlando . The first birth was in 2009 : the mother was from the U.S. and the father from Kenya , so the calf was called Obama . But the six were evenly split between females and males , which caused a bit of a problem . A group needs more females to allow for a dominant male : the gender balance causes too much fighting . Before they can be reintroduced into the wild , the program needs to reach a minimum of twenty animals , with ideally a five-to-one ratio between cows and bulls . The surrounding land has been ravaged by poachers in the past decades , but it was n't just the animals suffering . Plants have also been collected to the point of extinction . Locals have used medicinal plants as remedies for various ailments for centuries , but now people are collecting them for commercial gain . And unlike rhino horns , which are used in alternative medicine without any scientific backing whatsoever , some of these plants have been shown to be effective in lab tests , for example in increasing sperm count in mice . Add to that the illegal cutting for firewood , and vegetation is disappearing at an alarming pace , hurting both the land and the local populations who depend on it . It wo n't be easy to reverse the damage , but identifying the problem is a good way to start . Fixing it will require patience and a coordinated effort . Just like with rhinos , which are coming back to Uganda one calf at a time .
A wildlife sanctuary is bringing rhinos back to Uganda . The country lost its last indigenous rhinos in 1982 . Hide Caption Other species , including plants , are at risk in the country .