Protected in fenced Aberdare habitat
Black rhino
The Eastern Salient still holds one of Kenya’s most important black rhino concentrations, behind the fence that started Rhino Ark in 1988.
Black rhino (Diceros bicornis) browse thick Aberdare forest by night and need dense cover away from poachers and stray cattle. Numbers crashed here before the 1980s as ivory demand and habitat overlap grew.
Inside the salient, rhino now move within a fenced block larger than many national parks. Patrol data and KWS security planning focus on keeping breeding females safe and dispersal routes open where designed.
Rhino Ark and Kenya Wildlife Service are developing a dedicated black rhino sanctuary in the Eastern Salient, intended as Kenya’s first mountain-forest rhino sanctuary, adding intensive protection without removing the wider forest context.