Update on Rhino death incidents in Lake Nakuru

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Old skulls and bones from three rhinos have been found in Lake Nakuru National Park.These are the ones that had been earlier reported as two rhino carcasses in Lake Nakuru National Park.

The weather-eroded bones and skulls estimated at about six months old or more were found  by Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) rangers on patrol in a swampy part of the park that had previously been inaccessible. One of the skulls is for a black rhino while the other two are for white rhinos. KWS teams have also cross-checked with rhino databases and determined that the three cases are new findings and were yet to be captured in the database.


Earlier, two rhinos had been poached in two separate incidents over the last one week. The first rhino killing occurred about a week ago in Lewa Conservancy in Isiolo County. The week-old carcass of a pregnant white rhino was discovered on Wednesday, April 11, 2012  with its horn missing. Lewa Conservancy rangers together with Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) and police are still investigating the incident.

The second case occurred in Solio Ranch in Laikipia County on Tuesday night April 10, 2012  where a black rhino was killed and the horn taken as well.  A joint KWS and General Service Unit (GSU) security team moved in when gunshots were heard to determine the circumstances of the shooting.

A short while later, they stumbled on a fresh carcass of a known male rhino aged 12 years without its horn. The team immediately embarked on tracking the poachers and discovered that the poachers had cut the electric fences at two points, one for entry into the rhino sanctuary and the other for exit. Two spent cartridges from a 303 rifle were recovered at the killing scene. A follow up operation is ongoing. Security in the sanctuaries has been beefed up, especially at this time of moonlight when most poaching occurs.