The problem of the rhino has been its beauty, the horn. It is made of keratin, a substance found in human hair and nails. Powdered Rhino horn has been used extensively in traditional medicine in Asia and to make ornamental dagger handles in the Yemen. The demand is so great that traders are prepared to pay poachers vast sums to kill rhinos for their horns.
Because of these, Rhinos have faced wholesale slaughter. To stop these abuse governments and bodies such as Save the Rhino teamed up together to halt the abusive. Thanks to them, the overall decline of the rhino has been halted, and populations in Africa are beginning to stabilize.

A CLOSER LOOK.....

The rhino belongs to the family Rhinoceroteridae. They are 5 species placed in 4 genera.
Three of these species are found in south-central Asia and the other two live in Africa south of the Sahara. Rhinos inhabit savannahs, shrubby regions and dense forests.
The African species live in more open areas than do the Asian species.
Their habitat has to generally have access to water. They usually drink everyday.
Their horns are dermal growths originally composed of compressed keratin. Usually they have 1-2 horns. Both hind and forefeet have 3 digits with a small hoof. They are known to have poor eye sight but strong hearing and smell. The tough and wrinkled skin has very few scattered hairs. The tail ends with stiff bristles.

BREEDING...

Female rhinos give birth every 2 years to a single calf, which is active soon after birth.
The calf remains with the mother until the next offspring is born.
Gestation is 420-570 days. Sexual maturity is reached at 7-10 years for bulls and 4-6 years for cows.They a life span of up to 50 years.

Note that the African rhinos are more aggressive than Asian species.

• They use their horns to attack and toss their enemies.
• This can be especially dangerous and can kill attackers instantly.
• African white rhinos have a preference of feeding low to the open grounds whereas the black rhino usually browse on leaves and have a tendency to stay hidden.
• They have been noted to be more active in the evening, through the night and in early morning, spending their days resting in heavy cover.

Rhinos sleep in both standing and laying positions and love to wallow in muddy pools and sandy riverbeds. They penetrate dense thickets by shear force, often leaving behind a trail that other animals later use. Rhinos run with a cumbersome motion, reaching top speed at a canter. They can, however, attain speeds of up to 45 km per hour for short distances.Basically the black rhino is more solitary and territorial except for the mother-child unit.
Groups of adult cows or bachelor bulls are sometimes formed, however, and during the mating season pairs of rhinos may stay together for up to 4 months.

Rhinos mark their territories with urine and by dropping their dung in well-defined piles that can reach up to 1 m in height. They often furrow the areas around these piles with their horns and make the piles even more conspicuous.
The black rhino has a wide vocal range and can possibly communicate like an elephant,
through frequencies below the range of human hearing. Breathing is an important part of communication.
Unlike the white rhino-calf, the black rhino calf normally runs behind its mother.

CURRENT STATUS…

There were an estimated 20,000 black rhino in Kenya in the 1970s.
By 1982 the population was reduced to fewer than 400. Since then, their number has
increased and now stands at over 450. The number in fenced areas has risen at an average
rate of four percent each year when the conditions are good.
Since 1984 the Kenyan government has pursued an active program devoted to the
recovery of Kenya’s black rhino, with efforts centering on the development of specially
protected or fenced sanctuaries on government and private land, such as Lewa.

Rhino populations under custodianship both on private land (Solio Ranch) and in some
State-run areas (such as Nairobi National Park) have provided set up for new populations
(including reintroducing animals into an electrified-fence sanctuary inside the KWS-run Tsavo West and Meru National Parks). The private sector thus plays an important part in the conservation of rhino in Kenya and currently supplies many of the animals being used to restock state parks.

Kenya is currently the stronghold of the Eastern African subspecies Diceros bicornis michaeli, a home to about 88 % of the population in 1995. Like South Africa and Namibia, Kenya is doing translocation to set up new populations while aiming to ensure that donor populations remain productive. The public plight of the black rhino has attracted support from many different areas. Today, scientists are formulating a method of «fingerprinting» rhino horn based on the nutrient content of each specific rhino conservation area. This will enable them to pinpoint the area a rhino came from, its family group, and even its preferred diet. It is also an important step toward eradicating poaching, as scientists will be able to determine where a rhino was when it was killed.

In the traditional African society, the Hyena has been branded 'the coward one'.

This has been due to the way of feeding of the hyena. Known as a scavenger, the hyena is actually a great hunter and scavenging only makes 5%- 10% of their meals.

They rarely leave any evidence especially because they devour everything. For example they can make a kill in the night and the only sign will be light blood stains.

In the recent years the complexity of the hyenas has been revealed. Lots of time has been dedicated to studying them. This article is about hyenas and their survival tactics in the savannahs of Kenya. They range throughout sub-Saharan Africa in savannah, arid areas, and open woodlands. So far they aren't present at the coast.
There exist three species of hyenas in Africa. Two species are found in Kenya.

The most common being the spotted hyena, crocuta crocuta.

They live in groups called clans and the clan is under the leadership of the oldest female, the alpha female. Interestingly, the females are dominant over the males and are heavier than them. The females genitalia are very masculinized which contributes to their being aggressive. Such sex dimorphism is not common with other wildlife. This is due to the presence of higher level of testosterone in the female's body than that of the males.

A distinguishing feature with the hyenas is the 'haunch-back' and short hind legs. They hold their head low when they walk. Usually the head has a rounded skull and long ears. They have extremely strong jaws and a complex acidic digestion system. This is one of the factors that give them a step ahead for survival. They are capable of ingesting bones, horns, hooves and the tough animal skins.

Only the hair is not digested and this usually comes out in the form of bolus or locally referred to 'hyena hair ball'. All this bone matter that they eat is what makes the hyena feces chalk-white.

They hunt in packs in a way that could be termed as ruthless as they do not have a killing bite. They lack in hunting technique and most cases they run down their victim to exhaustion. Usually they attack their prey and tear chunks before their victim dies.

It is interesting to know that lions steal lots of their kills. It is true that hyenas do the final cleaning by chewing the bones and the skins left by others. In some cases the hyenas have succeeded to steal from the lions but in most of occurrences the reverse is more common.

The reproduction and life cycle is not seasonal. The females do not however mate with their members of the clan. They can take any other wandering male for mating and discard him. Four months is the gestation period and usually give birth to up to four cubs. These are usually black in color with some others having small taint of black. A weird thing that happens with the cubs is competition over who nurses first.

This in most cases result in fighting for dominance. The looser usually starves to death and this is only with the female cubs. Hyenas, unlike other wildlife take very long to wean their cubs. It may take between 14-18 months. The female can lactate up to 12 months with milk that is very high in protein percentage.( 14%). The cubs start following the mother to the point of kill when they reach 1 year.

They do not bring back food to the den. They eat to their fill on the spot.

The female cubs stay in the clan of their birth but males are kicked out when they reach around 2 years. Apart from playing with the cubs the male has no role in upbringing of the cubs.

One clan can have between 20-100 members, all on the matriarchal system. All the members are related. Each clan digs its own den which comprises of deep and long tunnels to accommodate the clan. They mark their territory through anal sac secretions. This is a paste that they use to define their boundary and is deposited at the edge of their territory. That is their home-territory that they protect and intruders are not welcome. They have a greeting system of sniffing each others genitalia and also as a way of identification or recognition within members of the same clan.
To the untrained eye, it is difficult to differentiate between males and females. This is because of the physical resemblance of the female's genitalia to that of the male. But in any case they are female organs. The females are not hermaphrodite as some have claimed at first sight.

Hyenas have 'toilets' whereby all the members go to deposit their dung. This adds to the boundary markings of their territory.

They communicate in a number of ways: When about to attack the tail is held high, when it is held forward over the back, it is a sign of excitement. And when frightened they hold the tail tucked between the legs. When there is presence of food, this is the time you hear the famous 'hyena laughter' especially in the night. This laughter
is a call to other clan members and can be heard up to 3 kilometers away.

It is important to note that though hyenas portray cowardly behavior, they can be extremely dangerous. They should be left alone, least intimidated and their respect awarded to them.

So you are thinking and planning for your next vacation spot, well why not travel to Kenya? Kenya has the most diverse of tourist attractions that you will not miss something that you will absolutely like. The country has been blessed with all the animals of the jungle and its wilderness is amazing.

When you travel to Kenya in June to September, you will witness the migration of the wildebeest from the Serengeti in Tanzania to the Masai Mara in Kenya. This spectacular event usually attracts a lot of tourists from all over the world and it has even been named as one of the wonders of the world.

The breath holding moment during this season is when the wildebeests cross the Mara river that has crocodiles all over. Most manage to make it to the other side.

You will see the largest mountain in the whole of Africa when you travel to Kenya. This is at the Amboseli national Park which is also the home the largest herds of elephants in the country and region as well. Exotic bird and plant species can also be found here. Waking up to a snow caped mountain with clouds at the top and watching the sun set at this mountain is one moment in your life that you can imagine you are in paradise.

Truly Kenya is the best place to travel to for a nice vacation. Another thing is that Kenya won the award of best country in Eco tourism in the world on the recent Travel Awards in China.