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WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — <\/span>Corralling a wild rhinoceros into a small chute to give it eyedrops might seem like a crazy plan. But if it’s crazy and it works, then it’s not crazy.<\/p>\n Animal behaviorists partnering with the Palm Beach Zoo & Conservation Society<\/a> in Florida traveled to Africa in August to help an endangered white rhino with a life-threatening, parasitic eye infection.<\/p>\n Daniel Terblanche, a security manager with Imvelo Safari Lodges<\/a>, said no one in Zimbabwe would have come up with the plan.<\/p>\n \u201cBelieve me, we didn\u2019t think of it; it was a completely ridiculous idea to us,” Terblanche said. “But without trying all of the things that we could to rectify that situation, we would have been in trouble, I think.\u201d<\/p>\n Outside of Zimbabwe\u2019s Hwange National Park, the Community Rhino Conservation Initiative<\/a>, with support from Imvelo Safari Lodges, engages local communities to reintroduce southern white rhinos to communal lands for the first time in the nation\u2019s history.<\/p>\n Palm Beach Zoo CEO and President Margo McKnight was visiting the area last year when Imvelo Safari Lodges managing director Mark Butcher told her a health scare with a male rhino named Thuza could jeopardize the future of the program.<\/p>\n \u201cThis rhino had bleeding eyes. He was rubbing his eyes,” Butcher said. \u201cAnd I was looking at a potential where this guy was gonna lose his eyesight. And this is in a pilot project that\u2019s got fantastic vision for a future for conservation throughout Africa.\u201d<\/p>\n