The Nature Conservancy. Protecting nature. Preserving life.™

Hirola are carried from helicopter to holding pen, Ishaqbini Hirola Community Conservancy, Kenya. © Michael Dalton-Smith/Digital Crossing Productions

The first two dozen hirola have been relocated into the sanctuary. Will you support this critical work?

With fewer than 500 left, the hirola antelope (Beatragus hunteri) is on the brink of extinction. Without immediate action, a mammalian genus will go extinct for the first time on mainland Africa in modern human history.

A Partnership to Protect the Hirola

The hirola is the last living representative of an evolutionary lineage that originated over 3 million years ago. The surviving herds live along the Kenya-Somalia border, inhabited by the Pokomo community and Ishaqbini Conservancy. Resembling a hybrid of impala and hartebeest, the hirola is instantly recognizable by its trademark white "spectacles."

One of The Nature Conservancy's key partners in northern Kenya, Northern Rangelands Trust (NRT), in 2006 established the Ishaqbini Hirola Community Conservancy to save the hirola. Ishaqbini is home to Somali pastoralists who voluntarily established a dedicated area for hirola. The people of Ishaqbini have been quietly conserving this landscape for centuries and regard the hirola as a blessing.

But hirola numbers continued to decline. When traditional conservation measures proved inadequate, The Nature Conservancy, NRT and its partners launched a plan to improve hirola protection, one that also benefits the communities that share hirola habitat. Our partnership is...

• Creating a predator-proof sanctuary
• Providing anti-poaching security
• Protecting habitat
• Fostering ecotourism opportunities

Our combined efforts will allow for a sustainable recovery effort and ongoing hirola monitoring and management.

You Can Be a Hirola Hero!

You can help save the hirola by acting today. Your support will go directly to helping maintain Ishaqbini's predator-proof sanctuary. Be a "Hirola Hero" today and help save this beloved animal from extinction.
 

Partners

Thank you to our partners in this critical effort:
Ishaqbini Hirola Community Conservancy, Northern Rangelands Trust, Fauna & Flora International, Kenya Wildlife Service and Zoological Society of London.