Kenya: Death of Rhinos a Big Blow to Kenya's Conservation Efforts

The world was greeted with the sad news that nine endangered black rhinos had died while being tanslocated from the Nakuru and Nairobi national parks to the Tsavo National Park two weeks ago. It took a while before the Kenya Wildlife Services responded on the cause of the deaths, and when the Cabinet Secretary for Tourism and Wildlife, Najib Balala, issued a press release, initial reports attributed the deaths to salty water.

The news caused outrage around the world. Questions were raised on the lack of proper planning that would have included a study of the new home for the rhinos before translocating. Maybe KWS did consider the many risk factors when relocating the rhinos as per earlier successful translocations. However, risks to moving 14 endangered black rhinos, all as one lot, despite environmental differences between Nakuru and Tsavo, ended up in the nine deaths, which is a costly blow to Kenya and the entire world.

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