 Reference Base  Status of the black rhinoceros in the Masai Mara National... |
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Morgan-Davies, M., 1996. Status of the black rhinoceros in the Masai Mara National Reserve, Kenya. Pachyderm 21: 38-45, figs. 1-5, table 1
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| Location: |
Africa - Eastern Africa - Kenya |
| Subject: |
Distribution - Records |
| Species: |
Black Rhino |
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The Reserve is centred on 1?30' S and 35?0' E in the Narok District of Kenya, approximately 200 km south-west of Nairobi. It covers an area of 1510 km? (Cumming et al., 1990). Altitude varies from 1450m ASL along the lower reaches of the Mara River where it crosses the Kenya/Tanzania international boundary, to 1950m on top of the Siria Escarpment and Ngama Hills tothe west and east respectively.
The Reserve forms the northern portion of the Serengeti/ Mara ecosystem (Dublin, 1991). It is bounded on the north-east by the Loita Plains, on the east by the Laleta Hills, on the west by the Siria Escarpment, and on the south by the northern Serengeti National Park.
There is an annual mean gradient in rainfall across the Reserve from ca. 900 mm in the east around the Ngama Hills to ca. 1.500 mm in the west along the Siria Escarpment (Masai Mara Ecological Monitoring records).
The poorly drained `black cotton' soil areas supports the vast undulating areas of Themeda triandra grasslands that are the major vegetation community of the Reserve. This is the dry season habitat for the annual migration of wildebeests, zebras and Thomson's gazelles from the adjoining Serengeti National Park. The grasslands are intersected by the Mara, Talek and Sand Rivers and their numerous tributaries. The riverine forests and thickets provide shelter and security for rhinos. But it is the higher ground and hills with their shallow, porous, sandy soils, their greater cover of Croton and Euclea thickets, with the possibly greater abundance of herbs, legumes, shrubs and other favoured food plants, that constitute the preferred habitat for the majority of rhinos.
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