The rhinos are long gone, as are other large mammals like the now-extinct quagga and bluebuck. Conservationists are now fighting to preserve what remains of the renosterveld, South Africa’s most threatened ecosystem, from quiet destruction. Characterized by shrubs and grasses that are still home to diverse flowers, insects, birds and small mammals, the renosterveld (Afrikaans for “rhinoceros field”) may have gotten its name from the color of some of its vegetation, which resembles the gray hides of rhinos, or from the fact that black rhinos once foraged in its thickets before they were wiped o…

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