Mkomazi Rhino
Sanctuary
Eastern Black Rhino
1995 – 2019
The African black rhino is a magnificent animal whose ancestors have roamed the earth for 60 million years. Now, tragically, this mighty creature has come dangerously close to the end of the trail. Only a few decades ago there were still perhaps as many as 65,000 black rhino in Africa. At the end of 2018, approximately 5,620 were left and every survivor lives with a price on its head. The subspecies found in Mkomazi, the Eastern black rhino (Diceros bicornis michaeli), has been classified by the IUCN as Critically Endangered, meaning they “face an extremely high risk of extinction in the wild.”
The rhino’s downfall has been brought about by the value of its horn. In some Arab countries these horns are carved into dagger handles. In Yemen, a single horn can fetch up to $85,000 on the black market. The largest and most consistent demand comes from Asia, especially Taiwan, South Korea and mainland China, whose traditional pharmacists promote powdered rhino horn as an analgesic for a large range of ailments, or where it is preserved whole and displayed as a status symbol. There it is worth more than twice its weight in gold. Most, if not all, horn from Kenya and Tanzania is believed to be shipped to Vietnam and China, via routes as varied as Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines.
The serious poaching of rhino began in Kenya during the early 1970s. From there, like a deadly epidemic, it swept through Tanzania, then into Zambia and Zimbabwe and deep down into Namibia. Uganda’s rhinos were wiped out during Idi Amin’s regime, when the protection of game reserves collapsed. During this time, rhino in Sudan, Chad and the Central African Republic also fell to poachers.
Today, wildlife managers are moving rhino like threatened pieces in a chess game. One of the safest environments for these animals is now inside a securely fenced and guarded sanctuary of the kind in the Mkomazi. In the late 1960s, as many as 250 Eastern black rhino (Diceros bicornis michaeli) roamed wild in Mkomazi. By the late 1980s there were none left. But with the help of the George Adamson Wildlife Preservation Trusts, the black rhino returned to Mkomazi.
In 1989 the Government of Tanzania invited Tony Fitzjohn, the field director of the George Adamson Wildlife Preservation Trust, to work with them on a programme of habitat restoration, followed by the reintroduction of endangered species, including black rhino and African wild dogs. Roads, boundaries and airstrips were cleared, fences built, a radio communications network installed, water sources sited and pumped, dams constructed and de-silted, aircraft patrols undertaken, a base-camp and workshop established, security outposts constructed, personnel recruited and trained, rangers equipped and an outreach programme established in the local villages.
By the late 1980s, East Africa’s black rhino populations were at their very lowest ebb after an upsurge in poaching. Rhinos had become locally extinct in Mkomazi. The main threat to the rhino is poaching for the international illegal trade in rhino horn. Most, if not all, horn from Kenya and Tanzania is shipped to Vietnam and China, via routes as varied as Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines. In the end-user countries it is ground and used as medicine for a range of ailments (fevers, hangovers, even now as an aphrodisiac) or preserved whole, and displayed as a status object.
In 1991/92 it was recognised that there was a clear need for the establishment of a new secure breeding population of black rhino in quality habitat within former range. The habitat of Mkomazi and the Tsavo ecosystem in general has a very high carrying capacity (in terms of density) for black rhinos, far exceeding those of southern Africa. With a rich diversity of favoured food plants and vegetation cover based on rich volcanic soils with a bimodal rainfall pattern, the rhino densities recorded by Goddard in Tsavo (including Mkomazi) in the 1960’s indicate densities typically one order of magnitude higher that those that could be carried by most rhino conservation areas in southern Africa.
Reintroduction of the
black rhino
The subspecies found in the Mkomazi Rhino Sanctuary, the Eastern black rhino, (Diceros bicornis michaeli), has been classified by the IUCN as Critically Endangered, meaning they “face an extremely high risk of extinction in the wild”. Continental black rhino population figures in 2018 were estimated at 5,620, with 163-176 Eastern black rhinos in Tanzania, of which 34 were in the Mkomazi Rhino Sanctuary at the time of the handover, making it the third-largest of Tanzania’s five D. b. michaeli populations and therefore an integral part of Tanzania’s efforts to breed and recover numbers of black rhino.
The Mkomazi Rhino Sanctuary was planned by the Trust and the Wildlife Division in 1991/92 and constructed by the Trust between 1995-1997. Through a series of complex international operations, 15 black rhino were translocated to Mkomazi from South Africa, the UK and the Czech Republic. It was originally an area of 45 km2 enclosed within a 30km-long perimeter fence.
The black rhino reintroduction and breeding programme commenced in 1997. Since the first reintroduction of four rhinos from Addo Elephant National Park in South Africa in 1997 (a highly successful out-of-range population of D.b.michaeli), the rhino population grew through births and further introductions from Addo (four rhino in 2001) and from European zoos (Dvur Kralove Zoo, Czech Republic – three in 2009 and one in 2016 – and Port Lympne Wild Animal Park in the UK – three in 2012). The Mkomazi Rhino Sanctuary was expanded by the Trust over the years and plans had been presented for the longer term to expand the area by at least 100%. When the Trust handed over their projects to Tanzania National Parks in 2019, the Mkomazi Rhino Sanctuary was 55km2, enclosed within a 40 km-long perimeter fence with a rhino population of 34.
The Trust constructed, stocked, managed, maintained and funded the Mkomazi Rhino Sanctuary from its inception in 1991 to the handover at the end of 2019 (supported by TANAPA from 2008-2019).
Over the years, the Trust built up an impressive network of loyal supporters to help cover the Sanctuary’s operating costs, as well as providing technical advice.
The operations and field work of the Trust included the maintenance of Mkomazi Rhino Sanctuary’s full complement of personnel and security duties, the maintenance of the security systems, regular aircraft patrols, the inspection and maintenance of the Sanctuary fence and infrastructure, the provision of a constant and reliable supply of water for both rhinos and personnel, the replacement of sections of the Sanctuary fence that were no longer viable, the daily management of the resident rhino population, the expansion of the Sanctuary area and the running of the environmental education programme, Rafiki wa Faru, for students in the villages surrounding the park.
A well-established sanctuary such as the Mkomazi Rhino Sanctuary is important in securing the future of not just Tanzania’s black rhino, but also for its contribution to the survival of the Eastern black rhino.
Latest News
October 2024
September 2024
August 2024 Update
July 2024 Update
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