(i) Mkomazi Rhino Sanctuary
Mkomazi Rhino Sanctuary (MRS) was constructed by GAWPT in 1995 at the request of the Government of Tanzania. Managed by conservationist Tony Fitzjohn and his team, the MRS is the first and only rhino sanctuary in Tanzania. Currently 14 black rhinos live in the Sanctuary, and the animals are intensively protected by a team of dedicated anti-poaching patrols. Currently there are just 67 Eastern black rhinos in Tanzania and together with Tsavo National Park in Kenya on its northern boundary, the Tsavo / Mkomazi ecosystem (now a trans-frontier national park) forms one of the largest protected areas in Africa.
The overall aim of this project is to:
• Establish a viable breeding population of 25 Diceros bicornis michaeli whose offspring will be used to reinforce existing populations in Tanzania and Kenya.
This can be achieved through:
• Ongoing management of the current population and its habitat to maximize breeding and security
• Pursuance of negotiations for translocation of new animals from other successful sanctuaries / wildlife parks to diversify the gene pool and increase the trans-frontier conservation of the species (eg. the recent translocation of 3 black rhino from the Dvur Kralove Zoo in the Czech Republic to Mkomazi Rhino Sanctuary).
• The completed extension of the existing Rhino Sanctuary area to allow for population growth and thereby increased carrying capacity, which will include increased optimum vegetation and natural water holes.
Establishing the Rhino Sanctuary involved the construction of a 31 km fence line, enclosing a 45 sq km area in prime rhino habitat. The fence stops the rhinos from straying out and provides the project staff with an alarm if someone tries to break in. The Tanzanian men and women who work within the Rhino Sanctuary are courageous and loyal and they take the responsibility of protecting these rhino very seriously. They still hold the reputation as being one of the most loyal and dedicated workforces in Africa. They also feel the benefits of a secure fence from which they can tackle a security situation and have some form of protection.
In order to fulfil the objectives of the project, the practical and logistical day-to-day management of the MRS has to be maintained to its existing high standard. A major element of this is keeping the surrounding fence line in good shape. Other wildlife also benefits from non-disturbance. Staff at MRS have noted a rising number in other species, including impala, giraffe, eland, lesser kudu, warthog and large and small cats.
The fence requires regular maintenance and repair. More wire, wooden talinised posts and staples are needed annually, to replace sections of the fence that have rotted or been damaged. The MRS has recently been extended by a further 9km and this has been supported by Wildize Foundation. Four security outposts were established along the fence-line itself with back-up security provided from internal outposts on hilltops as well as the main base-camp at Kisima - just over a mile away. External security was, and is, provided through the establishment of strategically placed outposts within the National Park, several miles away, and also through the deployment of mobile teams who patrol on a 20km radius of the Sanctuary. Tanzanian National Parks (TANAPA) have recently deployed their ranger teams to GAWPT external security outposts to work alongside the GAWPT personnel to enhance this protection. To date there have been no attempts on the rhinos or on the Tanzanian security guards who put their lives at risk to protect these animals.
In addition to extending the current fence line, GAWPT is also in the process of replacing the original fence-posts which were installed in 1996. There are 10,000 original fence posts and we estimate that we should replace about 1,500 per year. This is an undertaking requiring heavy physical manual labour and massive logistics.
The new talinised poles strengthen the fence line, and are either sustainably sourced (made from fast-growing species on renewable plantations) or are made of steel. Maintaining the fence is a continual process.
(ii) Wild Dog Captive Breeding, Veterinary and Translocation Programme
GAWPT is now committed to reintroducing the African Wild Dog to areas where they have previously had success.
The captive breeding and innoculation programme continues to be managed practically and run along the past fifteen years' established protocols. Breeding alpha pairs remain at our camp in the breeding compounds. Offspring, having helped the mother raise the subsequent litter, are separated and released into areas where they have most chance of success. Genetic analysis concluded "there is considerable genetic variation in the African Wild Dog population in The Mkomazi Project" (Dr Kappe, Gendika) which will satisfy reintroduction criteria.
The reintroduction of wild dogs is a highly complex operation due to their unique and complicated social structure and their requirement of a large home range with adequate prey species.
Discussions with relevant Government authorities in both and Kenya have taken place on reintroductions. A suitable reintroduction area on the Mkomazi / Tsavo border was identified which satisfied most of the criteria and two reintroduction compounds were constructed and manned at the site and reintroductions have since taken place on a regular basis.
There are reintroduction examples to draw on, especially in southern Africa and we are committed to keep reintroducing on a ‘pulse' basis annually, as some dogs will be successful whilst others may fail. We hope to develop the formulas that suit the different dynamics of reintroduction packs.
The next stage of reintroduction concentrates on building more reintroduction compounds along and close to the Mkomazi / Tsavo border at sites with suitable distances between them and the original site.
We have successfully bred wild dogs in captivity, we have successfully vaccinated wild dogs against rabies and canine distemper and we have had success with reintroduced packs. We will now endeavour to overcome the problems with reintroduction above-mentioned. Our main priority is to re- establish viable populations of healthy and genetically diverse stock back in the wild.
2011 Letter from Tony Fitzjohn to Eli and WildiZe
2010 Letter from Tony Fitzjohn, OBE
Photo Gallery for Mkomazi Rhino Sanctuary
Photo Gallery for Mkomazi Wild Dog Breeding Program
Mkomazi Game Reserve is an intiative by the Tanzanian Government, George Adamson Wildlife Preservation Trust Fund and other Non-Government Organizations to re-establish the reserve such that nature (both flora and fauna) will survive in the long term as an ecosystem and to provide sanctuary for two endangered species of animals: the Black Rhino and the African Wild Dog.
WildiZe Foundation funds supported the:
- Construction of permanent security outposts,
- Purchases of communications equipment,
- Purchases of solar equipment to power electric fences
- Establishment of captive breeding programmes for endangered species,
- Establishment of educational, health and nature awareness programmes in the villages surrounding Mkomanzi Game Reserve.
WildiZe is a proud supporter of these critical efforts. Our funds have gone to upgrade security outposts in the Rhino sanctuary to deter poaching; educating bordering communities on wildlife and economic security; collaborating with TANAPA (Tanzanian National Park personnel) on poaching determent; and private and public security improvement.
Additional important projects that were augmented thanks to WildiZe support is the continued reintroduction of wild dogs to the natural ecosystem and hopeful reintroduction into bordering Tsavo National Park in Kenya. We also provided security guards with radios and chargers to connect outpost to base stations, and funded the installation uni-ports and solar equipment to power electric fences.
WildiZe has also funded the start up re-furbishment of George Adamson's old Kora camp inside Kora National Park near Meru, Kenya- home of Christian the Lion, Elsa and Born Free fame. The camp was destroyed upon the death of George Adamson, whence Tony Fitzjohn moved his efforts to Mkomazi.
Project web Site: http://www.georgeadamson.org/mkomazi
July 8th 2009: Update - from Tony Fitzjohn
We are having a fascinating time with these new rhinos from Czech. It's a 
whole different business reintroducing zoo-bred animals into the wild but we are extremely fortunate to have Berry White (ex head rhino keeper from Port Lympne Wildlife Park in the UK) to help slowly reintroduce them back into the wild.
All is going well with the WildiZe project. Uniports are on their way to both Kora National Park and Mkomazi National Park. Radio and solar equipment is all ordered for the Mkomazi Rhino Sanctuary, and all is on track.
We are also getting on with putting up the Mkomazi Rhino Sanctuary Fence Extension which is a huge clearing and fencing job, and the WildiZe funded uniport will then be put into this new extended area and it will house the security force who will patrol the area and keep the rhinos there safe.
We have 22 wild dog puppies so reintroductions will start next year.
And yesterday our Tanzanian school pupils had a lesson with HRH Prince Michael of Kent sitting in the classroom as one of their fellow pupils. They obviously had no idea that the man with the beard was the cousin of the Queen of England and it was so touching to see them trying to categorise mammals and fish and reptiles and amphibians with him watching.
Read all about the Chzech Rhino translocation...
Expert Action
Mkomazi National Park, Tanzania, George Adamson Wildlife Preseveration Trust (GAWPT)
Updated By:
Herewith a report for WildiZe Foundation for the period May to November 2011, which will give you further updates on your generous donations to both Mkomazi and Kora.
Kora National Park, Kenya
Tractor. The tractor is working well and is driven by Jamie Manuel who is now spending a lot more time in Kora working as my assistant. He has recently been GPS'ing the whole area to give us a base-line from which to continue development.
Apart from general camp duties, one of the more recent tractor tasks was to move the windmill water pump in Asako village from the original site to the new site. Water collection for Kampi ya Simba carries on apace. We now have clean water in newly constructed sedimentation tanks and we have upgraded the pumping system. The camp area has been extended and new loos and a workshop area being created. Riverbed sand is being brought into the camp to cover up where the electric wires and pipelines have been laid. On occasions, the tractor un-hitches the trailer and fits on the scraper blade to improve the road surface.
We do need a WildiZe Foundation sticker to put on the tractor! The Trustees of Tusk Trust visited in June and they provided their sticker to represent their contribution.
VSat. The VSat has been working well. We have recently had a dispute with the agent, who advised that the provider has doubled the charges and cut services, but it seems that the agent is willing to stick to our side of the deal and continue to provide the same service for the same cost for the period of the contract that we paid upfront for and then swap it for a system with a more stable platform. But the satellite communications are essential and an enormous bonus to the camp, most significantly for security reasons. When we travel there with Trustees or supporters, we are all able to work and keep up with our communications and this adds to some peace of mind.
Radio Communications. The VHF radio system is now fully installed. Antenna, repeater box, solar power system, controllers and wiring are all in place on the top of Kora Rock and a base control station in Kampi ya Simba. Coverage reaches from Kyuso town to Kampi ya Simba and reception is also found in Asako and Boka. Magic! The base station has now been installed in the Kenya Wildlife Service camp on the airstrip. Another base station will be installed at the Kora Park HQ.
Chain Link Fencing. This has been purchased in Nairobi and was transported up to Kampi ya Simba in October. Jamie Manuel, Omar and Ahmed have now re-fenced part of the camp where the old chain link had not held up and had no strength, as well as re-fencing parts of the lion holding compounds. Again, it is this sort of donation that makes all the difference to the integrity of projects such as these.
We attended the 22nd memorial to George Adamson on August 20th 2011. Again, this was a wonderful event put on by KWS to celebrate the memory and vision of George. I have had a few meetings with KWS both at HQ and in the field on the future development of Kora. The rains are now on, thankfully.
We have now constructed a third uniport at Kampi ya Simba for both GAWPT and KWS personnel. This stands next to the other two uniports that were so generously donated by WildiZe Foundation. These all have solar lighting and clean water.
The lodge developer is also keen to continue with the siting, design and construction of his camp in Kora and we are in close communication with him on this. Work is expected to start in January next year.
Mkomazi National Park, Tanzania
Mkomazi Rhino Sanctuary: With thanks to your donation towards the main sanctuary fence repair, we ordered and transported the fence posts to Mkomazi. A permanent fence repair team is undertaking this enormous task, replacing the intermediary posts with both wooden and pre-drilled steel posts. As the price of timber continues to rise and supply becomes increasingly difficult, we are now placing one steel post for every two wooden posts.
We also continued with the fitting of the larger strainer posts, which are on every corner or slight change in fence-line direction, where the terrain is extremely difficult, rocky and uneven and placed every hundred metres. All these strainer posts also have to be set in concrete with cross bars fitted horizontally to the ground and wiring re-done to hold the porcelain insulators. We have brought in more high tensile wire and we have fitted new alarms and energizers where necessary.
Repair work continued on the entire fence line with plant machinery continuing to work on the culverts and wash-aways and keep the integrity of the fence line intact. This has involved re-grading, re-cambering, clearing soil away from the lower live fence wires, laying stone down to a two foot depth for the wash-away sections and early burning the sections that could be affected by fire. This involves months of work with plant machinery (Cat Grader and tractor / trailer / slasher) and our labour force. We are also currently joining up two sections of the sanctuary to increase possibilities for breeding management.
There are 14 black rhino in the Sanctuary. Very sadly, we lost a newborn female calf to a leopard. This is a highly unusual event but it has happened in other sanctuaries. We have worked closely with TANAPA to start to put in place a translocation programme for the leopard. Fred has made the trap and we have surveyed and agreed upon the right area to move the leopard to. Based on many years of experience with leopard, I think we have come up with a sensible and workable solution to a sensitive problem.
The rhinos (Deborah and Jamie) translocated from the Czech Republic in 2009 have just produced a calf! These are early days and we are obviously concerned about the dangers posed to this calf by the leopard so the personnel are keeping a very tight eye on the situation and we hope to move the leopard by early January at the very latest.
We have also just been offered three more rhino (2 females and 1 male) from a wildlife park in the UK.
African Wild Dogs: The extra meat supply is still doing an enormous amount of good for the dogs in the breeding compounds. We are extremely grateful to WildiZe for understanding these very essential needs.
We lost 6 wild dogs earlier this year to aflatoxin poisoning from the local maize meal that we have brought in to bulk up the food. This was an extremely frustrating and sad event as we have successfully fed wild dogs every single day in a very remote area of Tanzania for sixteen years, with all the challenges that this presents. Thankfully we were able to work with the TAWIRI vets to make an early diagnosis and we nipped the problem in the bud. The dogs are now fed the cow meat, fish, rice and eggs. The increased meat supply has helped hugely. Thankfully, two of our alpha females gave birth to fifteen pups shortly after these losses and the numbers increased again.
We will be undertaking further translocations at the end of this year or beginning of next year, after the rains. Some of our reintroduced wild dogs from last year linked up with a wild pack and were seen between October 2010 and October 2011. Other ‘wild' wild dogs come through the Kisima base camp. The sightings of wild dog packs in the Tsavo ecosystem are encouraging.
Once again, all our sincerest thanks to WildiZe Foundation for understanding the essential needs of this field work both in Kora and Mkomazi. I am attaching our newsletter for 2011, which will give you further information on the scope of work going on in the field. It's all about systems, maintenance, repetition and keeping up the momentum and we are extremely grateful for your understanding and great support.
From September, 2011
I will send you a formal report but I just wanted you to know that all is going well.
Mkomazi Rhino Sanctuary fence post replacement continues apace. It is extremely hard physical work and we have a dedicated team carrying out the engineering and replacement work as an ongoing project. I will send pics and a report very shortly.
The wild dogs are in great shape. The extra meat has done them an enormous amount of good. We have two groups scheduled for reintroduction at the end of this year. The two new litters of pups are in good shape (15 pups in all) and we now have a new breeding pair and the female is pregnant.
We have just received a visit from the Hon. Minister for Natural Resources and Tourism (Ezekiel Maige) and the Director General of TANAPA (Alan Kijaze) who visited to look at the Rhino Sanctuary and Wild Dog programme and to ask us about our visions and plans for the future and to discuss our strategies. It was a very positive visit.
Kora is still suffering from the severe drought. However, Tony visited a couple of weeks ago and the new chain link has gone in so he is delighted. The tractor and trailer / water bowser are hard at work when Tony, Mike Harries and Jamie Manuel are there. Radio comms are working well as are satellite comms.
From February, 2011
All fine here, raining on and off and Mkomazi is in very good shape. We undertook another translocation of wild dogs this week to the reintroduction compound (new compound!) at Maore and they will be reintroduced in a couple of weeks. Four of our alpha females are pregnant again so we expect the next litters of pups to be here by April.
Tony has just been over to the Serengeti National Park to meet with the warden at the request of the directors of TANAPA to help them plan out the placing and construction of a Rhino Sanctuary there.
We are putting up a new security outpost in the Rhino Sanctuary (up on a hill) to further increase security and we will put another one up at the Observation Bunker. Fence maintenance continues all the time. Semu is going around today on his motorbike with a small generator to charge up all the solar batteries at every single security outpost both within the Rhino Sanctuary and at Kifakua and Maore (external) as we have had a cloudy week.
Project Field Photos:
Tractor heading off to move the windmill pump in Asako, Kora National Park
Moving the windmill pump in Asako
Satellite communications working well, Kora.
KWS 22nd Memorial to George Adamson
Tony Fitzjohn with new KWS Warden Kora, Wilson Njue
Kora After the First Rain
Tana River
Mkomazi Rhino Sanctuary
New Fence Posts
Permanent Fence Repair Team at Work
Strainer Posts fitted
Semu Pallangyo with his team
African Wild Dog Feeding Time
African Wild Dog New Pups in the Mshamba Compound being fed by alpha pair
Rhinos are on the brink of extinction. Poaching and habitat loss are the biggest killers, reducing the world rhino population from around half a million at the turn of the century to fewer than a few thousand surviving today. Although protected by international laws (the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species), rhinos are still illegally poached for their horns. Black rhinos, one of the five species of rhino, are defined as "Critically Endangered" by the IUCN which means they "face an extremely high risk of extinction in the wild". Numbers have slowly been increasing over the past 10-15 years as a result of better law enforcement and community engagement, and today there are around 4,200 animals in sub-Saharan Africa. However, with rhino poaching currently at a 15-year high, the need for constant vigilance remains high.