EAZA Campaign Project 1: Chyulu Hills black rhino project

 
Location: Chyulu Hills, Kenya
Species: Black (Diceros bicornis bicornis)
Coordinator: Richard Bonham, the Maasailand Preservation Trust / Ben Okita, The Kenya Wildlife Service
Type: Anti-poaching and monitoring / research
Amount awarded: 25,000 euros

Abstract
This project focuses on an indigenous black rhino population situated in the northern section of the Chyulu Hills. 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 Hills rhino project.

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).

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.

Support
Funds from the EAZA Rhino Campaign will be used to help pay salaries, rations and medical expenses for some of the Imbirikani game scouts, village scouts and sergeants who work on anti-poaching and monitoring patrols, together with transport costs incurred by taking poachers to be prosecuted. About a quarter of the grant will be put towards a gund DNA research project due to commence in September 2007.