Isn't he a handsome beast? This is the first photograph of one of the Chyulu Hills' population of Eastern black rhinos in Kenya, taken by Richard Bonham's Imbirikani game scouts.
And, as yet, he is a rhino with no name, so we are inviting sealed bids - £1,000 or over please - for the right to name this charismatic megaherbivore.
If you'd like to make a donation, which will be sent on to the Chyulu Hills black rhino project, please email cathy@savetherhino.org with your name, contact details, your name for the rhino and your bid, by Thursday 23 August, when the highest bid will be accepted. We reserve the right not to sell the naming right if no bid is received worth £1,000 or over.
This project focuses on an indigenous black rhino population situated in the northern section of the Chyulu Hills. The habitat in which they live is mainly within the Chyulu National Park which was gazetted in 1983 as an extension to Tsavo-West National Park, but also extends on to the 300,000 acre Imbirikani Group Ranch. Imbirikani Group Ranch is collectively owned by approximately 300 Maasai families.
Owing to the overlap of the rhino's habitat, this project is in effect a partnership / collaboration between Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) and Imbirikani Group Ranch (IGR). This partnership is co- ordinated by Richard Bonham, of Maasailand Preservation Trust (MPT).
The Chyulu rhinos are the remnants of a much larger population that was decimated in the poaching debacle of the 1970s and early 1980s, and only survived as a result of the extremely dense lava strewn forests that covers the area.
Up until the mid 1990s, a policy of non-interference was maintained under the surmise that the least attention drawn to their existence, the better. However, in 1998, it became apparent that these rhino were under severe threat and that pro-active initiatives had to be taken to protect them, and so began the Chyulu Rhino Project.
Initially KWS deployed four men from the N'gulia Rhino Sanctuary in Tsavo and the MPT deployed six men to monitor the areas within the Group Ranch and adjacent to the Chyulu Park. The greatest threat to these rhino was the lack of water within their relatively safe core area, this necessitated them to leave every four to five days in search of water, which in turn exposed them to human habitation and poaching.
Now that funding has been secured for water provision and monitoring equipment, the requirement is for ongoing anti-poaching and monitoring work. There are thought to be around 12 black rhinos in the Chyulus. This population is indigenous, rather than re-introduced, and is breeding, making it a crucial component of Kenya’s black rhino management programme.