Gunshots rang out across the wilderness on 23 May when poachers shot to death one rhino in Lake Nakuru National Park. Then three days later on 26 May they struck two sites, Solio Ranch near Nyeri in central Kenya, and at Ngulia Rhino Sanctuary in Tsavo West National Park killing one rhino in each protected area. The very next day they struck again at Meru National Park in the north of the country where they shot yet another rhino. Two days later on 29 May, three more rhino were poached on a private ranch Oserian Wildlife Sanctuary.

 

All of these sanctuaries were created specifically to save rhinos in Kenya. Although the authorities heard the gunshots in every case, and even saw the poachers cutting horns in Oserian, no arrests have been made, and all the horns except those of the Oserian rhinos were taken.

 

These coordinated attacks bring Kenya's annual rhino death toll by the end of May to 24. Unless something changes, the country will lose at least 55 rhino in 2013, which would be an increase of nearly 100% on 2012, when 30 were killed. The Kenya Wildlife Service puts Kenya's official rhino population at just over one thousand individuals.