Eastern Black Rhino Re-establishment Project

Since its inception in 2002, one of the Grumeti Fund’s main goals has been returning eastern black rhino to the western Serengeti; establishing a founding population contributing to the genetic pool and bolstering the greater Serengeti-Mara ecosystem’s rhino population.

Eight-year-old Eric was the first eastern black rhino to be brought home to the Serengeti by the Grumeti Fund. Donated by the San Diego Zoo Safari Park, he arrived on the 11th of September 2018, joining one female (known as Laikipia) already residing in the 276-hectare Black Rhino Intensive Protection Zone.

In 2019, the Grumeti Fund, in partnership with government stakeholders (primarily the Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism and the Tanzania Wildlife Management Authority), translocated a breeding nucleus of rhino from an out-of-range population in South Africa. Following an arduous journey in crates, trucks and airplanes, nine black rhino arrived safely in Tanzania in September. After a few months acclimatizing in custom-built rhino enclosures, they were successfully released into the reserve in November, with the birth of the first calf following seven months later. The pair are thriving under the watchful eye of the aerial and ground teams who monitor their movements 24/7.

In June 2020, this ambitious conservation project reached an important and exciting goal: the birth of the first rhino calf at Singita Grumeti in decades. Born to Lindiwe (which means “awaited”), one of the females translocated from South Africa, the new arrival gives fresh hope to a species that is considered critically endangered and, for many years, was locally extinct in this part of Tanzania.