Sanctuaries & Conservancies

Rhino Sanctuaries: Laikipia is a stronghold of the globally endangered Black Rhinoceros, home to half of Kenya’s back rhino population. In the 1980s, as a wave of rhino poaching swept across Africa, the Black Rhino was, from an abundant species, brought to the verge of extinction. To save the species, Kenya adopted a policy of creating fortress reserves. The north’s last remaining rhinos were located and captured and then placed in sanctuaries where – under intensive protection – numbers have since built up, enough in some cases for there to be surplus animals available to repopulate other areas. Poaching remains a constant threat, obliging ranches with rhinos to maintain high levels of security.

Mugie Ranch

Mugie is 46,000 acres but 22,000 acres were set aside to create Mugie Rhino Sanctuary. The sanctuary has electrified fencing making it a secure home for the rhino with gaps to allow other wildlife to move in and out. In 2002 the first two rhinos to arrive on Mugie were Boyo and Victoria. The white rhino now have their own private sanctuary to avoid conflict with the black rhino. In 2004, 20 black rhino were translocated from Nairobi National Park, Lake Nakuru National Park and Solio to Mugie. By 2009 the population has grown to a total of 24 after 11 births and seven deaths.  Mugie is also home to elephant, buffalo, lion, cheetah and leopard.

www.mugie.org/conservation/rhino-sanctuary

Ol Pejeta Conservancy

The Ol Pejeta conservancy is home to 85 black rhinos after the single largest rhino translocation ever undertaken in East Africa on February 3, 2007. The translocation was a combined effort between the Ol Pejeta Conservancy, the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) and Lewa Wildlife Conservancy. In a period of 2 ½ weeks, 27 more black rhinos were successfully released into the enlarged 75,000 acres of the Ol Pejeta Conservancy. The black rhinos were moved from adjacent Solio Rhino Sanctuary – which held a surplus of 30 rhinos.

A world-class tourism destination, the 90,000 acre Ol Pejeta Conservancy is also the closest reserve to Nairobi with the ‘Big 5’ and holds some of the highest predator densities in Kenya.

www.olpejetaconservancy.org/wildlife_conservation/rhino_sanctuary

Lewa Wildlife Conservancy

The Black rhino live on the Lewa Wildlife Conservancy as their flagship species. High-performance research and security teams monitor black rhino in a protected environment, combining age-old wisdom and cutting-edge technology. Since 2000, Lewa’s black rhino population growth rate has averaged 10 percent – higher than the national target of only 6 percent. The Conservancy aims to maintain the rhino numbers below the ecological carrying capacity (ECC) - the maximum population sustainable in an ecosystem - in order to keep the population healthy and growing.

Spanning 62,000 acres, Lewa is Kenya’s leading model for wildlife conservation on private land and a leading destination for conservation tourism. Lewa holds over 10% of Kenya’s black rhino population and has the largest single population of Grevy’s zebra in the world.

www.lewa.org/wildlife-conservation/rhinos-on-lewa/

Solio Game Reserve

The world's first private rhino sanctuary, established in 1970, Solio’s 17,000 acre Game Reserve is home to over 200 black and white rhino, and is internationally recognised as the most successful private Rhino Sanctuary in Kenya. In 1970 when Courtland Parfet, the owner of Solio cattle ranch, fenced off a large section of land and dedicated it to conservation; since then, breeding has been so successful that rhino from Solio have stocked game reserves all over Africa.

The Chimpanzee Sanctuary

Visitors to the Ol Pejeta Conservancy have free access to the Sweetwaters Chimpanzee Sanctuary, which is open daily from 9:00am to 10:30am and 3pm to 4:30pm. The Sweetwaters Chimpanzee Sanctuary is incorporated within the Ol Pejeta Conservancy and is the only place in Kenya where this highly endangered and remarkably intelligent species can be seen.

Opened in 1993 in a negotiated agreement between the Ol Pejeta Conservancy, the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) and the Jane Goodall Institute, the facility was initially established to receive and provide life-long refuge to orphaned and abused chimpanzees from west and central Africa. Over the last decade Sweetwaters Chimpanzee Sanctuary has been compelled to keep accepting chimpanzees rescued from traumatic situations bringing the total number of chimpanzees in the sanctuary to 41.

www.olpejetaconservancy.org

Mount Kenya Wildlife Conservancy

Since 1969, the animal orphanage at the Mount Kenya Wildlife Conservancy continues to be home to countless animals that were orphaned, injured or needed special care. Many are successfully returned to the wild. Join the dedicated keepers for a “hands on” close encounter with their charges. Photograph the magnificent rare Bongo Antelopes.  The Mount Kenya Wildlife Conservancy capture unit has also translocated hundreds of threatened animals to safe areas and National Parks and Game Reserves, away from poachers and other dangers.

The Conservancy is also working to return the extremely rare White Zebra to the Lerogi Plateau.

www.animalorphanagekenya.org