The Hluhluwe-Umfolozi Game Reserve is the jewel in the crown of the KwaZulu Natal game reserves. Proclaimed in 1895, it is also the oldest game reserve in Africa. Initially two separate reserves, they were joined to create a single 94 000 hectare reserve which is home to one fifth of the world's black and white rhino population. It was here that the internationally acclaimed Operation Rhino started in the 1960s, successfully capturing and relocating white rhino to havens within South Africa and abroad. As a result, this country's white rhino population is now 12 times the 1960 count of 500. Today Hluhluwe-Umfolozi is focusing its efforts on saving the endangered black rhino, whose number in Africa dwindled from 14 000 to a pitiful 2 550 in the 1990s. The Hluhluwe-Umfolozi Game Reserve was the first reserve to introduce walking safaris and its Wilderness Trails are internationally renowned.