[March 07, 2006]

Moving Mountains - Protecting Kenya's Rhinos

(East African (Kenya) Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge)KENYA'S JUST-CONCLUDED translocation programme saw 30 rhinos taken to the Meru National Park Rhino Sanctuary between January and February.

Of the animals, 10 were black rhinos from the Nairobi National Park, one white from Lewa private ranch in Laikipia, and 19 from the Nakuru National Park (10 black and nine white) from a herd introduced there in 1986.

This is a credit to the endless efforts of securing a species that was on the brink of extinction three decades ago.

The Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) says translocation of rhinos is meant to decongest their habitat, promote genetic diversity to avoid inbreeding and enhance the geographical spread of the species nationally.

The Meru National Park Rhino Sanctuary, where the herd was destined, measures 38.5 sq km and is to be expanded to 50 sq km before April.

The programme, which cost 400,000 euros was paid for by the French groups Fonds Francais pour Environment Mondial and Agence Francais de Development.

THREATENED BY POACHERS, the rhino population in Kenya has plummeted from a high of 18,000 to less than a hundred countrywide.

At the height of the poaching menace, the Save the Rhino project was launched by the KWS with the help of the government and various donors, mainly the World Wide Fund for Nature.

The number of black rhinos in Africa fell from 6,500 in 1970 to 2,475 by 1992 according to the WWF and KWS. The population stabilised by 1995 and has since been increasing steadily. Rhino sanctuaries have been credited for the growth in the species population, to 710 countrywide currently.

But as conservation takes root in the region, sport hunting is making its way back down South.

In October 2004, South Africa and Namibia successfully lobbied at a Cites forum in Bangkok, Thailand for a quota of four black rhinos for sport hunting per annum.

The move was hotly contested by Kenya, among other states.

Coveted by poachers for its horn, which is reputed as an aphrodisiac in the Arab world and in the Far East, the rhino is a pre-historic mammal, weighing anything between a tonne and two tonnes.

The female rhino starts breeding at the age of 6-8, with a gestation period of 15 months, while the male starts mating at the age of 10.

According to Martin Mulama, National Rhino Programme co-ordinator at KWS, there are four sub-species of the rhino found in Africa of which only one, the diceros binornis michaelis (the black rhino), is indigenous to Kenya.

The Western rhinoceros, found only in Cameroon, is the most endangered, with only 10 known to exist.

The white rhino, whose population is steadily increasing in Kenya, is a migrant from South Africa.

The black rhino is shy and thrives in serene habitats. The white rhino is to be found in the open and the male is considered to be very aggressive.

With a rhino population of 78, the Nairobi National Park which measures 117sq km has had several rhino relocations and has acted as "the seed" for the rest of the national parks, the largest being in 1999, when 14 rhinos were translocated to Tsavo East.

The translocation involved seven veterinary surgeons, two wildlife science researchers, four field assistants, 35 game rangers, 3 pilots and a helicopter, a fixed-wing light plane, three lorries, a water bowser and four Land Cruiser vehicles.

During a-charge, Dr Adeefa Sayyid, is the first to reach the scene once an identified animal has been successfully tranquillised.

She quickly makes a physical assessment to determine whether the animal is a prime candidate for translocation. Once this is established, a uterine test for pregnancy is run for females.

Ticks and other parasites from the animal's underbelly are extracted, then the rangers pour several buckets of water over the rhino to cool the animal's body temperature and prevent death by heat stress.

The rangers then cut off the tip of the horn and drill a 6cm by 3cm wide hole into its forehead for fitting a transmitter to track the animal round the clock.

The time taken between administering the tranquilliser and loading the animal into a crate is just under 30 minutes.

On February 17, three rhinos - 22-year old Lilian, her one-and-a-half-year-old daughter Raha and four-year-old Makena, took 4 hours and 48 minutes to translocate.

Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media. (allafrica.com)

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