Rhinos are returned to a plateau in central Kenya, decades after poachers wiped them out

By TOM ODULA and DESMOND TIRO
Associated Press

LOISABA CONSERVANCY, Kenya (AP) — Conservationists in Kenya are celebrating as rhinos were returned to a grassy plateau that hasn’t seen them in decades. The successful move of 21 eastern black rhinos to a new home will give them space to breed and could help increase the population of the critically endangered animals. It was Kenya’s biggest rhino relocation ever. The rhinos were moved over the course of nearly three weeks from three parks where their numbers are increasing to a private conservancy where herds were wiped out by poaching decades ago. The project was sensitive, given a previous attempt to relocate 11 rhinos in 2018 to a different park ended with them all dying soon after being moved.