Nairobi's national park has rhinos to spare

NAIROBI (AFP) Jul 25, 2004
Nairobi's national park, so close to the capital that the city's skyscrapers form a backdrop, is the least known of Kenya's game reserves abroad yet it boasts more rare black rhinos than anywhere else in the country.

So much so, that it can afford to spare some to boost populations elsewhere, the chief game warden of the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS), Paul Gathitu, told AFP.

"We provided about 30 in the last 15 years to other Kenyan parks," he revealed.

"They are safe here, in a favourable environment for black rhino, particularly with regard to food," he explained.

While rhino populations elsewhere have been savaged by poachers, who kill them for their precious horn -- prized in Asia for its alleged aphrodisiac qualities -- black rhinos have quietly flourished in this park of 117 square kilometres (45 square miles) on the outskirts of Nairobi, to the extent that they have become too numerous for the environment to sustain.

"We have got 76 in the park, an excess of about 20," Gathitu said as the park wardens prepared to mount an operation to capture two males and one female.

A few hours later, it was mission accomplished, following a tried and trusted strategy.

KWS officers in a light plane track down the rhino, which is then put to sleep with a dart fired from another colleague in a helicopter.

Vets then arrive at the scene to ensure that the animal is in good condition, notably dousing it with water to prevent it getting overheated and taking blood samples.

They also remove the tip of the beast's horn to make genetic examinations. The horn grows back like human fingernails. They also chisel a hole in the horn to install a transmitter.

Then all that remains to be done is to give the rhino a dose of antidote to get it back on its feet and before it is fully conscious heave it into the box in which it is to be transported.

By the time it wakes up fully, it will be on its way in a lorry to its destination -- in the case of this latest haul, a private ranch near Samburu in the north of the country.

Next month, the Nairobi park is planning to "export" more rhinos, this time to the national park in Meru which has been ravaged for the past 25 years by poachers and armed bandits. KWS is hoping to restock the park with the help of the French development agency AFD.

TERRA.WIRE