The programme’s first objective focuses on
the critically endangered Black rhino population
(one of the only two remaining “indigenous”
populations remaining in the country), which remains under serious
threat from commercial poaching and diminishing habitat, and has
suffered from very slow population growth over recent years.
Actions included focus on enhancing monitoring collaborations with
KWS and TANAPA, and supporting the implementation of the new
National Black Rhino Strategy.
There are currently around 37 Black rhinos in the
MMNR (18 of which are ear-notched). Although this represents a
significant increase from a low of 11 individuals in 1984, this
number is still well below the Reserve’s recorded population
high of around 150 in the 1960s. The MMNR Black rhino population is
exceptionally important as it is one of two
“indigenous” populations in Kenya (i.e. with no
inward translocation of individuals from other areas), and is the
only unfenced, free-ranging population outside of a national park
in the country. The population is also ecologically connected to a
sub population of around 10 individuals in the adjacent Serengeti
National Park, and individuals frequently move between the two
countries. The effective management of this population will also be
vital in achieving the goal of establishing “a minimum
population of 150 rhinos ... in free-ranging
areas” in Kenya by 2011, as specified in the recently
developed National Conservation and Management Strategy for the Black
Rhino (2007-2011)19.
Although recent studies20 have shown that the
current sex ratio of the MMNR Black rhino population
is around 1:1.2 males to females, which is in line
with other East African populations, and that recruitment
and age structure is also close to that expected,
concerns have been raised about slower than anticipated
population growth and range expansion within the MMNR. This
has been attributed to a number of possible
factors, but most commonly the decline in woodlands within
the Reserve, which may have in turn reduced
the area’s ability to support rhinos and be
resulting in the increased migration of individuals to the
Serengeti. In addition, and connected to this issue, is the need
to enhance the coordination of rhino monitoring and
surveillance within the Reserve, and between the Kenyan and
Tanzania sides of the ecosystem, which has
made it difficult to confirm whether the current
decline in the MMNR population increase is due to migration
to the SNP, or other potentially more serious
factors.
In order to address these and other key issues
impacting on the MMNR Black rhino population, and
to strengthen the conservation and management of
Black rhinos in the MMNR, five management actions
have been developed; these are elaborated in detail in
the following sections.
