Wildlife and People:
Conflict & Conservation in Masai Mara, Kenya

Black Rhinoceros Conservation

The black rhinoceros Dicoreos bicornis suffered dramatic declines throughout the 1970s and 1980s as a result of poaching to supply the illegal trade in rhino horn. Massive efforts to protect and manage rhino populations throughout the 1990s has resulted in a stabilisation and slow recovery of the continental population, particularly in the southern African rhino strongholds of South Africa, Namibia and Zimbabwe. Kenya holds the largest concentration of the East African subspecies D.b.michaeli, that numbers around 400 individuals or 15% of the continental rhino population.

The Masai Mara holds one of the last unfenced rhino populations in Africa. The Mara population declined from 150 animals to less than 15 in under two decades, but began to recover in the late 1980s due to the efforts of Narok County Council in partnership with Friends of Conservation. However, the recovery peaked in the mid 1990s at around 35 animals, and has since declined again to 23 individuals from 1999 onwards.

Our work in the first phase of the programme tried to find out why the black rhino population was no longer recovering.

We worked closely with a team of council rangers led by the late Sergeant Phillip Bett. Armed with binoculars and GPS units, this team patrolled the Reserve twice daily in a 4WD patrol vehicle, locating and identifying the rhinos. At the same time we conducted surveys of the woody vegetation of the reserve to find out what the rhinos were eating and which other species they were competing with for food. We also conducted surveys of human disturbance including tourism and cattle incursions into the Reserve.

The results were startling. The compression of the elephant population into the reserve by poaching has caused a major decline in woody plants on which black rhinos rely for food. Elephants themselves are mixed feeders and can rely on grazing for much of their dietary needs, so a reduction in browse does not necessarily reduce their population. Black rhinos, however, have no choice but to eat what woody resources remain. Large declines in the palatable Acacia species have meant that rhinos have changed their diet to feed on less palatable but more common species. Most importantly, however, rhinos have disappeared into the northern Serengeti where woodland has been recovering due to fewer elephants. This is an area of intense insecurity where rhinos are unlikely to survive for long.

An equally significant pressure on rhinos is the daily invasion of the Reserve by thousands of Maasai cattle, sheep and goats that are brought in to graze. The cattle, their herders and accompanying dogs disturb the rhinos and have resulted in a constriction in rhino range away from the northern and eastern borders that have been increasingly settled by Maasai families and their livestock. Coupled with the impact of woodland decline, this is having a significant effect on the carrying capacity of the Reserve for black rhino and their ability to recover from poaching in the past.

Our findings have helped to shape the latest Kenyan Rhino Conservation and Management Strategy.

In the second phase of the programme we are working with communities outside the Reserve to monitor wildlife and conflict. In one area a few black rhino have survived unprotected in relatively inaccessible areas of thick bush. These animals have been monitored by Friends of Conservation (FoC) for many years. We are now assisting FoC to develop this monitoring programme and to identify the range of the remaining rhinos outside of the Reserve so that a conservation area can be formed to protect it.

Publications

Walpole, M.J. (2002). Factors affecting black rhino monitoring in Masai Mara National Reserve, Kenya. African Journal of Ecology 40, 18-25.

Walpole, M.J., Morgan-Davies, M., Milledge, S., Bett, P. & Leader-Williams, N. (2001). Population dynamics and future conservation of a free-ranging black rhinoceros population in Kenya. Biological Conservation 99, 237-43.

Walpole, M.J. (2000). GIS as a tool for rhino conservation. Pachyderm 28, 65-72.

Walpole, M.J. & Bett, P. (1999). The need for cross-border monitoring of the Mara rhinos. Pachyderm 27, 74.

Walpole, M.J. & Bett, P. (1999). An apparent decline in the Masai Mara black rhino population. Pachyderm 26, 123.