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Kenya: Rhino Breeding to Restore Stock
Nairobi - The Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) has started breeding rhinos to restock the dwindling numbers of the animal hunted for its horn that some people believe is an aphrodisiac.

The breeding project was launched last October. The conservation body is currently setting up the necessary facilities and infrastructure.

KWS Rhino Programme coordinator Ben Otita said the animals would be released into the parks for natural reproduction later this year, where they will be under surveillance against poachers.

Mr Otita said the organisation, in its 2007-2011 strategic plan, seeks to increase the number of the rare animals from the current 540 to 700 in the next five years.

"Our target is to ensure that we have at least 2,000 black rhinos in the next 25 years though at the moment we are more emphatic on the first five years target of 700," he said.

Speaking by telephone from his Nairobi office, Mr Otita said widespread poaching in the country had reduced the black rhino population from about 20,000 in 1970 to below 350 by 1990.

There are only 3,725 black rhinos in the world in both the zoos and the wild. Kenya has the third largest rhino population in Africa after South Africa and Namibia. In Tsavo, Mr Otita said, there were about 100 rhinos distributed within Tsavo East, Tsavo West and Chyulu national parks.

Following the poaching threat that rocked the country in the past decades, all Kenya's black rhinos have been kept in sanctuaries since 1985 but KWS will start releasing them into open spaces in the park this year to reproduce.

Besides poaching, the animals are also prone to disease attacks that can wipe them out if not checked. But Mr Otita said KWS veterinary doctors who look after the health of the animals.

KWS will encourage communities living near national parks and game reserves to take up rhino conservation.

Kenya also holds 280 southern white rhinos as part of its programme to conserve rare species.

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