In this edition of Field Notes, we delve into the extraordinary measures we take to save this iconic species.

– Angela Sheldrick

Today, black rhinos are the figureheads of a tentative comeback story: They are a sober reminder of the toll of human greed, but also of the strides that can be made when we band together to undo the havoc wreaked by our kind.

But in my youth, it was utterly unimaginable that rhinos would be symbols of nature’s fragility, rather than its ubiquity. At the beginning of the 20th century, Africa was home to 150,000-200,000 black rhinos. When Kenya established its National Parks system in 1946, the black rhino was its chosen logo — and for good reason; they were everywhere. No game drive was complete without a rhino bulleting out of the bush, branding many a vehicle with the telltale dent of a charge. In fact, they were seen as ‘vermin,’ notorious for crop raiding farms and clobbering unsuspecting passersby.

Rhinos were not immune to the devastating drought of 1970–1972, which crippled wildlife populations across Kenya and particularly in Tsavo. However, their numbers would have recovered — had the drought not been swiftly followed by a wave of poaching unlike anything Africa had seen before. This was exacerbated by a disintegration of Kenya's management system at the time and disillusioned rangers who became part of the problem. Beginning in the 1970s and accelerating through the 1980s and beyond, demand for rhino horn — prized for its perceived medicinal properties, as a status symbol, and even carved into dagger handles and other objects — soared to catastrophic levels.

We had a front-row seat to the devastation. As Daphne wrote of the dark times, “There had been around 8,000 rhinos in Tsavo out of 20,000 countrywide, but by now they were mostly all gone — just a few outliers holed up in thickets, widely separated from one another; effectively a dying breed. Being fiercely territorial, the few remaining isolated survivors would never meet up to be able to perpetuate the species, so something needed to be done rapidly.”

When the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust was established in 1977, it was to address the most pressing conservation issues at the time. The orphaned elephants would come later. Our first decade focused largely on rhino conservation — as Daphne said, “something needed to be done rapidly.” We were keenly aware that, without immediate action, Kenya ran the very real risk of losing all its rhinos.

The Trust helped fund Tsavo West National Park’s first dedicated stronghold for rhinos — Ngulia Rhino Sanctuary, a modest fenced sanctuary covering three square kilometres and built on a shoestring. Its founding rhinos came from Kibwezi and Taita Taveta and were all quite old; in fact, everyone was flabbergasted when one of the elder females had a baby!

We also supported the foundation of Lake Nakuru Rhino Sanctuary and later Meru Rhino Sanctuary. Like the others, Meru has been an extraordinary success, emerging yet another important stronghold for the species. Working in partnership with the Kenya Wildlife Service, we provide ongoing support, including the funding of a fencing expansion that more than doubled the size of the sanctuary, installed essential infrastructure, and implemented multiple security upgrades to ensure the safety of its threatened residents. (You can read more about our work with Meru Rhino Sanctuary in this past edition of Field Notes.)

Over the years, Kenya’s rhino sanctuaries have emerged as a hugely effective way to bring the species back from the brink. In fact, several have experienced symptoms of their success: Some sanctuaries have already reached their ecological and social carrying capacity. For a territorial creature like a rhino, population over-saturation leads to inter-species fights, which cause fatalities and inhibit successful growth, as young calves are especially vulnerable in these clashes.

It’s a problem — but it’s a good problem to have. To reduce interspecies fighting, it has become necessary to move rhinos out of sanctuaries and into free-release populations in protected areas. The Kenya Wildlife Service is spearheading this initiative. Last month, we joined other stakeholders in a large-scale effort to translocate 19 black rhinos from Ol Pejeta, Lewa, Borana, and Lake Nakuru into Segera, a conservancy in Laikipia with capacity to grow its rhino population.

Over the course of two weeks, the SWT helicopter logged 20.3 flight hours, successfully helping to dart and translocate nine black rhinos from Ol Pejeta and three from Lake Nakuru. It was a challenging operation — anything involving rhinos comes with a host of complexities — but I am so proud of Taru Carr-Hartley, my son and one of our helicopter pilots, for the professionalism and dedication he brought to the job, helping the various teams meet their translocation target.

In the course of this operation, the helicopter was also called to support two unrelated rhino missions: First, the treatment of a white rhino on Solio Conservancy who had been wounded in a clash with another rhino; and then yet another white rhino in Meru who had similar fighting injuries. We also helped with the capture and translation of a black rhino who had ventured out of Solio.

Rhinos are familiar faces for our vet teams. Over the years, our six SWT/KWS Mobile Veterinary Units have attended to 653 black rhinos and 392 white rhinos. (Note: This figure includes repeat treatments of the same individuals.) In a positive sign of the times, the vast majority of their patients are now victims of natural causes, such as fight injuries, rather than poaching.

But it has taken extreme — and, crucially, continued — commitment to get to this point. Kenya’s rhino populations are vigilantly protected by the Kenya Wildlife Service and a dedicated network of field partners, among whom we are proud to count ourselves.

As with so many areas of modern wildlife conservation, effective rhino conservation requires an elevated approach. At the request of KWS, the SWT Aerial Unit conducts near-daily rhino patrols, supporting KWS by flying over rhino populations in the greater Tsavo Conservation Area to monitor individuals and detect and deter illegal activities. The dense terrain favoured by black rhinos can be very challenging to patrol, which is why a bird’s eye view is invaluable. We are only halfway through 2025, but already this year, our Aerial Unit has logged 231.5 hours to dedicated rhino patrols, on top of all their other conservation flying.

For the second year running, we provided aerial support to the Mara Black Rhino Monitoring Program, a large-scale operation to ear-notch selected individuals and fit them with long-range (LoRa) radio ear tags. These tiny, low-impact devices use LoRa technology to allow field teams to better track rhino movements.

To support Maasai Mara management, together with other stakeholders, two SWT pilots — flying a fixed-wing aircraft and a helicopter — provided aerial support, locating and identifying rhinos from the fixed-wing plane and deploying the helicopter for veterinary teams to dart individuals. In 2024, we assisted in the identification and aerial darting of 13 black rhinos in the Mara, followed by 14 in 2025.

Not so long ago, there were too many black rhinos to possibly identify. Today, at a time when every single individual plays a role in the future of the species, this level of forensic monitoring has become essential. Visual markers like ear notches allow pilots, rangers, and other personnel to easily identify individual rhinos, while advanced tools like LoRa radio transmitters enable teams to remotely track their movements over long distances. To further support this level of oversight, we funded the installation of an extensive LoRa network across the Tsavo Conservation Area, along with a VHF repeater network in Tsavo East. This ensures LoRa tracking devices and radio communications remain live, and that every field team has full coverage in what was historically a communications dead zone.

And the radios certainly tell interesting stories. Last year, a well-known black rhino named Captain Ngugi left his Tsavo patch behind. He eventually ended up in Tanzania, reported by the Tanzania authorities and identified by his ear notches — an astonishing 160 kilometres from where he started! It quickly became clear that this was a romantic mission; astonishingly, he had navigated his way to a distant rhino sanctuary in Tanzania, no doubt in search of a girlfriend.

Everyone braced for a major operation to bring him home. Just as the KWS translocation teams were preparing themselves on the boundary of Tanzania, one of our Anti-Poaching Teams reported him crossing a road that bisects the southern end of Tsavo West. To everyone's relief, he had decided to start the journey back on his own! The whole operation pivoted: Captain Ngugi was darted — but not without some drama, as he took off into a nearby farm before the anaesthetic took effect. In the end, however, he was safely returned home, where we have no doubt he will find plenty of females to his liking. To date, he has remained there.

As we commit ourselves to the protection of Kenya’s rhinos, we are especially devoted to a few remarkable individuals. Since Daphne and David first began rescuing orphaned wildlife, black rhinos have held a special place in our eclectic orphan family. Rufus, who was rescued in the early 1960s, was followed by 19 black rhinos raised through the Trust. Today, we have four black rhinos in our care: our ‘Nursery patriarch’ Maxwell, who is blind and thus has a forever home with us; Apollo, an impressive six-year-old who is working his way back to the wild; and our enchanting toddlers, Raha and Chamboi.

All well, a black rhino can live upwards of 40 years. We owe it to the next generation — Raha, Chamboi, and all their peers in the wild — to secure that future. Forty years ago, the outlook for rhinos was bleak. The intervening decades show us just how much can change, thanks in no small part to the Kenya government and the KWS — but they also serve as a cautionary reminder of how much still hangs in the balance. We must never grow complacent with success.

Despite the heavy losses rhinos suffered at the hands of poachers, Kenya has climbed back. We now hold the third-largest rhino population in Africa, behind only South Africa and Namibia, with approximately 2,102 individuals: 1,059 black rhinos, 1,041 southern white rhinos, and the world’s two remaining northern white rhinos.

Kenya is rewriting its rhino story — and we are proud of the role we play in it. Every year, we witness a population increase. Last year alone, our teams recorded 1,783 rhino sightings. While this number obviously includes duplicate individuals and does not reflect the country’s total population, it offers an insightful glimpse into the state of Kenya’s rhinos today. They may no longer be found behind every bush or in every farm field, but they are very, very present — especially for those who know where to look. For a species that all but disappeared just a few decades ago, that is a triumph worth celebrating.