A breeder prepares to clean a rhinoceros at Yunnan Wild Animal Park in Kunming, the provincial capital, last Thursday. LI LI / FOR CHINA DAILY

Rhinoceroses from South Africa will be moved into a national park in Pu'er on Saturday, as officials rebuild a home for the species that vanished 80 years ago from Southwest China's Yunnan province.

The move is expected to produce a herd of rhinos in the wild in three to five years.

In July 2010, seven rhinoceroses, originally from the wild, arrived at Yunnan Wild Animal Park in Kunming, the provincial capital. After two years and eight months of getting accustomed to the local environment, the rhinos can now be released back into the wild, experts said.

In 2009, Yunnan Wild Animal Park initiated a plan with Taiyanghe National Forest Park in Pu'er city to reintroduce some rhinoceroses into the province from South Africa. After a year of negotiations, South Africa approved the request and sold Yunnan nine rhinos, of which seven were kept in an area inaccessible to visitors in the wild animal park.

"Considering South Africa has more rhinos in the wild, we turned to the African country for help," said Tang Yangchun, deputy general manager of Yunnan Wild Animal Park.

Yunnan's history as a habitat for rhinos ended in 1933 when the last two rhinos were hunted down, Tang said during a symposium on rhinos in Kunming four years ago. Animal experts agreed rebuilding rhino groups in Pu'er was a feasible way to reintroduce the species in the area. Unlike carnivores, rhinos won't fundamentally change the local ecology in Pu'er, Tang said.

Before coming to Kunming, the rhinos lived in the wild in South Africa.

Jiang Xuelong, a researcher at the Kunming Institute of Zoology of Chinese Academy of Sciences, said the establishment of rhino groups in China will raise awareness of the harmonious interaction of animals, nature and humans.