The art of being treed by a rhino (The Horn, Spring 2006)

The Chyulus are a range of staggeringly beautiful volcanic hills in Kenya, adjacent to Tsavo West National Park and Amboseli. The lava that once flowed from these hills has some of the most dense and varied acacia growing from its dark, solid mass. It is in here that the elusive black rhino hides, and it is here, due to increased human activity in the Park in recent years, that the rhinos have become more vulnerable to poaching.

On my last visit to the Chyulu Hills National Park, I saw an enormous stockpile of sandalwood at the Park headquarters, which had been confiscated from the local Kamba people illegally trading in this expensive commodity. Charcoal burning is another major problem.

Due to the increased threats, the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS), in collaboration with Richard Bonham and his Mbirikani game scouts, has stepped up its presence, patrolling the Park and keeping an eye on the rhinos’ whereabouts. More recently, with funding from SRI, Chester Zoo, the International Rhino Foundation and US Fish and Wildlife Service, waterholes for the rhinos have been built, vehicles supplied, and equipment and training provided to aid these men in their anti-poaching and monitoring work.

I made two trips to the Chyulus in the past three months, on the first occasion with Tom Kenyon-Slaney, one of Save the Rhino’s Trustees. Tom and I, as usual, were on a tight schedule, so a dawn patrol with Richard’s scouts seemed a good use of our short time there. We set out from the newly built waterhole and within minutes were finding fresh dung, very fresh dung! Brimming with enthusiasm (and perhaps lacking a little in tracking nous), the scouts pushed on, eager to find a rhino for us. The lava flow is tricky to walk on. Its hard and uneven basalt ground rips through walking boots whilst the acacia, particularly the wait-a-bit thorn, rips your legs and arms. What was intriguing about this seemingly dry landscape were the numerous succulents, mainly from the euphorbia plants that thrive here, which perhaps explains why the rhinos are not yet needing to use the waterholes. We passed one euphorbia which had most certainly been upturned by a rhino. The spongy root was filled with liquid which poured from your hand when squeezed.

Having never seen more than months’ old dung on my previous rhino patrols in the Chyulus, I was very excited to see such fresh dung and browse. As I was musing over this there was a large crashing of branches just ahead of us, a loud snort and, before I knew it, our once-chivalrous hosts fled past us and in a few deft moves, were neatly huddled in the nearest tree! (Verb, intransitive: “to be treed”). With nowhere to go, Tom and I crouched down and hoped the rhino was not coming our way. Of course it had fled in the other direction and, because of the dense vegetation, neither of us actually saw each other. But what an adrenaline rush; it was hard to believe we had virtually bumped into one of these shy creatures!

The next visit, in January 2006, was with Mark Pilgrim and Roger Wilkinson from Chester Zoo, which has become such an important funding partner in our East African programme.

This time the KWS rhino unit was our host. Richard Kech, who is employed by SRI as Field Research Officer in Tsavo East National Park, was on secondment to the Chyulus for six weeks to do the same here, during which they had identified seven individual animals. I was staggered to hear this and even more pleased to learn that there are probably between 10-12 rhinos in the Park that they know about, which implies there are more here than that figure. There is talk of biological management of this population starting with DNA analysis of the dung, which would be used to look at individual identity (and from that population size) and sex ratio. In the meantime, increased protection and enhanced monitoring skills is the priority to conserve this newly found population. It is crucial that the team keeps on top of this work, as the threat of poaching is ever present.

David Stirling
Project Advisor