 Reference Base  Kenya Colony and Protectorate: Game Department, Annual Re... |
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Kenya Game Department, 1937. Kenya Colony and Protectorate: Game Department, Annual Report for 1935. Journal of the Society for the Preservation of the Fauna of the Empire 31: 31-45
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| Location: |
Africa - Eastern Africa - Kenya |
| Subject: |
Distribution - Records |
| Species: |
Black Rhino |
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The settlers of Nyeri and Ngobit decided, early in the year, that rhino had greatly increased on and in the vicinity of farms and that their numbers must be drastically reduced. The matter was brought into tragic prominence by the death of Mr. H. Carpenter, who, while out riding, was caught and killed by a rhino. Mr. Cunningham, Honorary Game Warden, carried out the work brilliantly, killing twenty rhino at Ngobit and twenty-seven round Nyeri. Major Kingdon took part in the campaign on his side of the district and shot fourteen.
This wholesale killing of rhino will be regretted by game lovers, but one should hesitate before condemning it as unjustifiable. The dwellers in the Nyeri area are just as keen on game and game preservation as any other community, perhaps more so; but they have found, many of them by unpleasant experience, that to treat rhino as foolish and deny them vindictiveness is to make a generalization which is unduly optimistic and certainly not borne out by facts.
One thing I think is clear : if on account of forest fires, climatic conditions, or other causes, a rhino moves from his normal haunts to a strange beat, he is certain to be more bellicose than usual. It may in some cases be direct cause and effect; he may have changed his ground as a result of being driven off by another animal, and this may have affected his temper. Be that as it may, I think the mere fact of being on unfamiliar ground is in itself sufficient to make them more prone to attack. If this belief is correct it will account for much of the trouble in the Nyeri area, since I think that many of the rhino that were shot there last year are animals that have come down from high on the Aberdares, the burning of scrub above the forest zone doubtless having much to do with the migration.
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