Earlier this year, RRF grantee Loisaba Community Trust successfully reintroduced 21 eastern black rhinos to Kenya’s Loisaba Conservancy. These Critically Endangered black rhinos were sourced from Ol Pejeta Conservancy, Lewa Wildlife Conservancy, and Nairobi National Park, and will act as a founder population that will grow into a free-ranging population within Loisaba.
Black rhinos have not been present in Loisaba since 1976. The Rhino Recovery Fund provided a grant to Loisaba Community Trust to support the preparatory work necessary for this translocation. With crucial help from the Kenya Wildlife Service, they safely moved these black rhinos to their new home over the course of three weeks and helped the species reclaim some of their historic range. This entire project was prompted by the fact that Kenya’s 16 black rhino sanctuaries have become so successful that they’re running out of room to house all of their rhinos, signifying a dramatic turnaround for the species after they were nearly poached to local extinction decades ago.
Relocations like this one alleviate any overcrowding in established sanctuaries, and help expand the species into new territory. A lot of careful planning and execution went into accomplishing a project of this size, and the RRF is thrilled to see this collaboration between so many conservation groups and government agencies go so well. These 21 rhinos will be monitored and protected by conservancy staff as they acclimate to their new home, and more operations to reintroduce rhinos to new protected areas will be carried out soon.