Black rhino

Poaching and land clearing for agriculture and human settlement in the 1970s and 80s decimated black rhinoceros populations across Africa, with numbers plummeting from 100,000 to fewer than 4,000 animals.

Today black rhinos are found in habitats ranging from desert in south-western Africa to the montane forests of Kenya. The eastern black rhino (Diceros bicornis michaeli) is the most endangered of the surviving black rhino subspecies, with fewer than 950 individuals remaining.

• The black rhino has a pointed, prehensile upper lip, which it uses to grasp leaves
• Black rhinos actually have dark-brown or dark-grey skin, not black, and they can weigh up to 1,400 kg
• Poaching has already driven one subspecies – the western black rhino – to extinction
• For the three remaining subspecies, poaching remains the critical threat

Black rhinos have been brought back from the brink of extinction but remain critically endangered. The primary threat to rhinos in East Africa is still illegal poaching for their horn. However, in countries with concerted conservation programmes, based on intensive protection and biological management to ensure high population growth rates, black rhino numbers are stable or slowly increasing.

Kenya is home to around 80% of eastern black rhinos. To protect them, Fauna & Flora International (FFI) supports Ol Pejeta Conservancy, a crucial sanctuary in Kenya’s Laikipia County that holds the largest population of black rhinos in East Africa.

The conservancy was established in 2003 when FFI, with the help of the Arcus Foundation, purchased a 364-km² cattle ranch that forms part of a key wildlife corridor at the foot of Mount Kenya. The ranch was converted into a wildlife conservancy – Ol Pejeta – and ownership was transferred from FFI to a Kenyan non-profit entity in 2005 under a long-term management agreement.

FFI has continued to work with Ol Pejeta ever since its establishment, including assisting with the translocation of black rhinos into the conservancy, and providing ongoing support to protect these animals from poaching, ensuring high standards of monitoring, and developing incentives for local support for rhino conservation through Ol Pejeta’s community development programme.

Through the Northern Rangelands Trust we are also supporting the Sera Wildlife Conservancy and the Borana Conservancy, and their respective rhino conservation programmes.

Key to the success of all these conservancies is the support from local communities, garnered through engagement, awareness and employment programmes in each area.