In January 2024, the Kenya Wildlife Service led the translocation of 21 critically endangered eastern black rhinos to Loisaba Conservancy in Laikipia—the species’ return after a 50-year absence. Lantern Comitas led the communications strategy, upheld a strict multi-stakeholder embargo, and coordinated the global media break with images and footage captured first-hand.
The Facts
Headline Results
Loisaba Conservancy is a 58,000-acre wildlife conservancy in Laikipia County, northern Kenya, operated by the Loisaba Community Trust for the benefit of surrounding communities. In November 2020 it received conditional approval from the Kenya Wildlife Service to become a rhino sanctuary; after a series of delays including COVID-19 and flooding, the translocation took place in January–February 2024.
With the arrival of 21 critically endangered eastern black rhinos, Loisaba became Kenya’s 17th officially designated rhino sanctuary. The translocation was led by the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) with critical support from The Nature Conservancy, San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance, Space for Giants, Elewana Collection, Ol Pejeta Conservancy and Lewa Wildlife Conservancy.
Lantern Comitas was tasked with leading the communications effort for the ambitious operation of relocating 21 rare eastern black rhinos to Loisaba Conservancy. Given the sensitive nature of the operation—the rhinos are critically endangered, individual animals weighing up to 1,400 kilograms, and translocations historically carry risk to both the animals and the reputations of the authorities involved—the agency needed to prepare meticulous communications plans and work closely with a wide range of stakeholders: local communities in Laikipia, conservation NGOs (The Nature Conservancy, San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance, Space for Giants), Kenya Wildlife Service, tourism partner Elewana Collection, and the sending conservancies (Ol Pejeta, Lewa, Nairobi National Park).
The agency also had to ensure strict adherence to a media embargo while orchestrating global coverage of the event to maintain its integrity and impact. Translocation began on 16 January 2024 and the final animals arrived on 2 February; the embargo had to hold across multiple jurisdictions, multiple partner organisations and a roughly three-week operational window before KWS and partners could announce the successful completion on 13 February.
Lantern Comitas built and managed the communications architecture connecting Loisaba, KWS, the supporting conservation NGOs and the local Laikipia community network. The brief required every partner to be aligned on what would be said, when, and through which channels—and required the discipline to keep the operation off-record across all of them through the entire translocation window.
The agency’s team accompanied the rhinos through the operation, travelling with the convoys and present at the release points. This produced the verified imagery and footage the global announcement would later run on—rather than relying on second-hand material or wire-service photography.
The first crate opened on the morning of 18 January, when six-year-old female rhino Ushindi ran out into her new home; women from the Ewaso community lined the road in brightly coloured garments to welcome the convoy.
The strict embargo was held across all partners through to the public announcement, with global media briefings sequenced behind a single coordinated release. Upon successful completion of the translocation, the embargo was lifted and Lantern Comitas ensured global dissemination of the captured images and footage to the agreed media partners simultaneously.
Alongside the international press programme, Lantern Comitas contributed to community-led celebrations at Loisaba, marking the rhinos’ return to a landscape from which they had been absent for five decades. The Laikipia community engagement was a deliberate counterweight to the global media moment, ensuring local stakeholders saw and shaped the story alongside the international audience.
The agency’s efforts resulted in widespread coverage worldwide, including, per the client, prominent platforms such as The Times, Bloomberg and The Guardian. The broader corroborating coverage was extensive across international and African media. Associated Press wire coverage was syndicated worldwide—see “Rhinos are returned to a plateau in central Kenya, decades after poachers wiped them out” (AP / phys.org). Long-form conservation coverage ran in Mongabay and The Nature Conservancy’s own magazine feature. African continental coverage included Africanews and Kenya’s leading newspaper Daily Nation. Local Kenyan coverage included Tuko, and UK conservation coverage by Save the Rhino.
The conservation milestone the story carried is independently verified by the partner organisations involved. Space for Giants confirmed the operation—“the successful translocation of 21 eastern black rhinos to Loisaba Conservancy, establishing a new viable breeding population in a country that now has 17 sanctuaries where the species has recovered.” The Nature Conservancy’s account details the multi-week operation, the involvement of the named KWS veterinary team, and Loisaba’s role within Kenya’s National Rhino Range Expansion Project. Two calves have since been born to the translocated population, making the founder population’s purpose—establishing a new breeding population for the critically endangered subspecies—measurably underway.
The Outcome
A 50-year absence ended—and a new breeding population established, with the conservation milestone carried globally by tier-one media, verified by every partner, and already extended by two calves born at Loisaba.
Verified, structured recap of the engagement—each fact phrased so it can be cited in isolation.
The questions we’re asked most often about the Loisaba black rhino translocation—each answer phrased so it can stand alone.
Lantern Comitas led the communications strategy for the translocation, working with Loisaba Conservancy, the Kenya Wildlife Service and the supporting conservation NGOs (The Nature Conservancy, San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance, Space for Giants). The agency upheld a strict multi-stakeholder media embargo through the operational window and coordinated the global media break on embargo lift.
21 critically endangered eastern black rhinos—10 bulls and 11 cows—were translocated from Nairobi National Park, Ol Pejeta Conservancy and Lewa Wildlife Conservancy to Loisaba Conservancy in Laikipia County, Kenya. The operation began on 16 January 2024 and the final animals arrived on 2 February 2024.
The species had been locally extinct at Loisaba since 1976—a 50-year absence ended by the 2024 translocation. The arrival of the founder population made Loisaba Kenya’s 17th officially designated rhino sanctuary, contributing to Kenya’s National Rhino Range Expansion Project, which aims to grow the country’s black rhino population to a stable 2,000 individuals.
Yes—the Loisaba translocation is an example of the firm’s embargo discipline across multi-stakeholder conservation programmes. The full practice is described on the Conservation & Wildlife sector page.
