We want to end the week on an uplifting note.

Last November, we shared the exciting news of a new baby rhino calf in the Chyulu Hills area. It was tiny and vulnerable and we had lost many at this age before, so our hope was also tempered by worry.

Big Life and KWS rangers kept close tabs on the camera traps in the area it had been seen, and tracks were also helping us keep tabs on it. Then the signs dried up, and weeks went by. It wasn’t necessarily bad news, but it was concerning.

So imagine our excitement in spotting it on camera again: bigger and still very much alive.

The Eastern black rhino is critically endangered. There are estimated to be fewer than 1,000 remaining, so this calf is a major event, taking our resident population from 7 to 8. The calf is still young, but every day that it survives, it gets stronger and more likely to make it to adulthood.

These are some of the last wild and unfenced black rhinos in East Africa and the remnants of a population that we intend to re-establish as a stronghold for the species in Kenya.

Thanks to Big Life’s rangers, working in partnership with the Kenya Wildlife Service, we haven’t lost a single rhino to poachers in more than 8 years, but births have been rare in such a small population.

These are the successes that make it all worthwhile. Thank you to all who support our rhino program, particularly USFWS and Chester Zoo, as well as our partners at Royal African Safaris.