Rhino Family

The rhinos at our sanctuary are the only wild rhinos in Uganda today!

Our first rhino residents arrived at the sanctuary on July 20, 2005 from Solio Ranch in Kenya. They are: Taleo, Moja, Bella, and Kori. After a short adjustment period in the boma, they started roaming the sanctuary.

Taleo is our dominant male. Taleo spends some time with the rest of the rhinos, but he also spends a lot of time roaming the sanctuary on his own and marking his territory.

Moja is our second in command male and is dominant when Taleo is not with the other rhinos. Sometimes Moja and Taleo fight for dominance, but Taleo remains the dominant rhino at the sanctuary.

Bella was the first female to become pregnant. Unfortunately, she had a still born calf on March 13, 2008. Fortunately, she became pregnant again quickly and gave birth to a healthy baby boy, Augustu on October 7, 2009! She is currently pregnant and expecting her second calf next year. See below for photos.

Kori is our third female rhino. She delivered a baby boy on January 2, 2010. Kori has found her place with the other mothers and is doing great!

In August 2006 two more rhinos, Hassani and Nandi, a brother and sister, arrived from the USA as a donation from Disney's Animal Kingdom. They quickly became comfortable with their new place and new friends.

Hassani is our juvenile male and spends his time grazing with the females.

Nandi gave birth to a baby boy on June 24, 2009. This is the first rhino born in Uganda in a generation. Congrats to Nandi! Nandi is also pregnant again and will be due next year (see below for more about baby).

Our rhinos roam freely in an area of 70 square km (about twice the size of Mgahinga National Park) consisting of dry combretum savannah, laced with swamps and the cactus-like euphorbia candelabrum trees.

The rhinos spend most of their time together, except when Taleo is out exploring, and have formed a very close family. They spend their mornings and evenings grazing for food. In the afternoons, when the sun is hottest, they find shade trees to rest under or go to the swamp to roll around and wallow in the mud.

We are very excited about our rhino babies! They are the first generation of rhinos born in Uganda in over 25 years. We have also been working on bringing more rhinos to our sanctuary and are expecting six new arrivals from South Africa in 2010.