Conservationists in Kenya are celebrating as 21 rhinos were returned to a grassy plateau that hasn’t seen them in decades.

The successful relocation of these eastern black rhinos to a new home will provide them with space to breed and could help increase the population of these critically endangered animals. It marks Kenya’s largest rhino relocation ever.

The rhinos were transferred from three parks facing overcrowding to the private Loisaba Conservancy, where herds were decimated by poaching decades ago.

"It’s been decades since rhinos roamed here, almost 50 years ago," said Loisaba security manager Daniel Ole Yiankere. "Their numbers were severely impacted by poaching. Now, our focus is on rejuvenating this landscape and allowing rhinos to breed, aiming to restore their population to its former splendor."

Safely moving rhinos is a significant challenge. The 18-day operation involved tracking the rhinos via helicopter and tranquilizing them with darts. Each animal, weighing about a ton, had to be carefully loaded into the back of a truck for transportation.

Disaster nearly struck early in the relocation effort when a tranquilized rhino stumbled into a creek. Veterinarians and rangers held the rhino’s head above water with a rope to prevent drowning while administering a tranquilizer reversal drug before releasing the rhino.

Some of the rhinos were relocated from Nairobi National Park, making a 300-kilometer journey, while others came from two parks closer to Loisaba.

Rhinos are typically solitary animals and thrive in large territories. With populations increasing in the three parks where the rhinos were originally located, wildlife officials opted to relocate some in hopes of promoting happier and more conducive breeding conditions.

David Ndere, a rhino expert at the Kenya Wildlife Service, noted that reproduction rates decline when territories become overcrowded.

"By removing some animals, we expect that the rhino population in those areas will rise up," Ndere said. "And then we reintroduce that founder population of at least 20 animals into new areas."

Loisaba Conservancy has allocated around 25,000 hectares for the new arrivals, comprising a mix of males and females.

Kenya has achieved relative success in revitalizing its black rhino population, which plummeted from around 20,000 in the 1970s to below 300 in the mid-1980s due to poaching, according to conservationists. This decline raised concerns that the animals might face extinction in the country. Kenya now boasts approximately 1,000 black rhinos, the third-largest population behind South Africa and Namibia.

Save the Rhino organization reports that there are just over 6,400 wild black rhinos left in the world, all of them in Africa. Tom Silvester, CEO of Loisaba Conservancy, outlined Kenya’s plan to increase its black rhino numbers to 2,000 over the next decade. "Once we have 2,000 individuals, we will have established a population that will give us hope that we have brought them back from extinction," he said.