Among our primary conservation initiatives is to help resuscitate the Black Rhino population that has been decimated by years of illegal poaching in Africa.
Although the Serengeti is the most intact grasslands ecosystem on earth, the problems of poaching, over-hunting and encroachment of developed lands in Tanzania have taken their toll. Among the “Big Five” (Lion, Leopard, Elephant, Cape buffalo and Black Rhinoceros), one member was completely hunted out in the Western Corridor over the last four decades: The surprisingly shy yet magnificent Black Rhinoceros. Guided Safaris® CEO Sophie Hyet grew up in Kenya taking countless safaris across the continent. These are the journeys and experiences that have inspired the exclusive adventures tailored at our studio in San Francisco today. Here, she shares her stories and encounters with Black Rhino in some of Africa’s wildest plains. “A childhood memory,” she recalls, “driving through the Rift Valley in the 80s on a quiet, sleepy dust trek when suddenly the entire atmosphere was electric; dust and commotion everywhere… love how that happens on safaris. The dust settled to reveal an enormous Black Rhino, smack in the middle of the path… He was panting like he’d just been out on his morning jog. A sharp intake of breath from everyone in our tiny family Peugeot - and an equally started jolt from him. He shakes off the dust and angles his progress back into the bush, leaving us speechless. We carefully followed his progress through the thicket of thorny Masai bush and clouds of red dust, and to our astonishment there he was in the clearing with his female companion. We spend a brief while, photographing and observing them at a distance. Suddenly, a third rhino erupts through bush... complete pandemonium with the two males giving chase to each other, heads angled, an awesome territorial display, before the intruder was finally driven off. It's the most exhilarating encounter with these incredible animals that I can recall.”
Shamefully, most of the slaughter of the rhino has been for the use of its horn in dagger handles and for its wrongly presumed medicinal properties. From 65,000 animals in 1960, poaching reduced the rhino population to less than 2000 by the 1980s. Today, the black rhino population in Tanzania is estimated to be somewhere between 60-70 individuals. Shocking to think that such a lordly lineage, one that thrived for nearly 50 million years could be exterminated in so short a time. For that reason, one of the highest priority wildlife goals has been to return the black rhino to its native range. From Kruger to the lowveld of Zimbabwe to the caldera of Ngorongoro, our conservation partners have time and again taken on the arduous, exacting and delicate task of seeking out suitable stock to start a new population and then transporting and acclimatizing them to their new home. Under the auspices of the Rhinos without Borders, the team have committed not only to the re-introduction of the species but also to assuming the financial responsibilities for safeguarding our rhino into the future. In this regard, the resources that tourism makes available to local conservation results in each and every visitor to their supported regions becoming an indispensable partner in rhino conservation. The plan is to repatriate and introduce 34 wild rhino into the area through this program. To protect and ensure safe habitat the anti-poaching relief requires economically-viable fencing, employment, training and management of a team of 120 scouts from the local areas, who in addition to patrols also help contribute to wildlife research and monitoring of Rhino populations.
Regions that support Rhino
Every encounter with a rhino in the wild is so charged with energy — All these fleeting moments that we glimpse from their secret world, remnants of a storied, photographic record of these magnificent creatures stays vividly impressed with you. I can’t imagine an Africa without them, never encountering another journey seeing one of these monumental icons roaming free in the wild again. It’s more than just a traveler’s reminiscence of “Paradise Lost”. It wrenches at the heart of man’s place in Africa. That any species suffer such peril for sport and ruthless commerce, that man would rob from something so positively brimming with life.
- Sophie Hyet, Guided Safaris®
