Tsavo - Black Rhino Experience

Black Rhinoceroses have been successfully kept and bred at Chester for many years, and with their numbers reaching dangerously low levels in Africa they were identified as being of significant importance to our collection. The decision was taken to expand our group, but to do this extra accommodation and more space was required.

Tsavo – the Black Rhino Experience was officially opened in June 2003 by Martin Mulama, the head of the Kenya Wildlife Service’s Black Rhino project.

Tsavo is a purpose-built enclosure, named after a region of Kenya, to provide natural surroundings for Chester Zoo’s group. Chester has seven Black Rhinos including Manyara, Kitani, Kata-Kata, Pangani, Rosie, Sammy and Baringo II.

Managing and breeding of Black Rhinos can be difficult and scientific research has identified certain areas that effect breeding success. Rhinos are quiet, shy creatures and too much exposure to the public can be stressful for them. Some enclosures are also found to interfere with social communication, in particular anything that effected their olfactory (smelly) environment such as the use of cleaning materials. Design and management of Tsavo was based on these recommendations and our rhinos have settled in well. The exhibit, with its interesting interpretation and African feel, is also proving to be a huge success with our visitors.

The species is critically endangered in the wild with the numbers declining with to less than 400 East African Black Rhino left in Kenya – 85 per cent of the global population. We hope that Tsavo will bring home to our one million visitors the difficulties facing the Black Rhino in the wild.

Chester Zoo is an active member of the European Endangered Species Programme (EEP) for this critically endangered species of rhinoceros. Their association with and support for ‘Save The Rhino’ began in 1994 when the Zoo made a three year commitment to fund the costs of game guard protection of Northern White Rhinoceros in Garamba, Democratic Republic of the Congo.

In 1999, in partnership with ‘Save the Rhino’, Chester Zoo gave substantial financial support to Kenya Wildlife Service to enable the translocation of 20 Black Rhinoceroses from other reserves to Tsavo East. The zoo has also allocated funds for the maintenance of vehicles used by the game guard team protecting the Black Rhinoceros in Tsavo East.