The Mount Kenya Game Ranch was founded in 1967 by the late William Holden, Julian McKeand and Don and Iris Hunt. Goals of the Game Ranch /Conservancy are: To set aside land for the purpose of conserving rare and endangered species in order to establish safe gene pools. (Apart from the Government operated National Parks no such facility existed in East Africa at the time.)
The Ranch land itself was a mixed live stock and wheat farm, with very little or no game on it. The first task was to securely game fence the land of 1200 acres and let it go back to natural Mount Kenya bush and forest. Dams were established and indigenous flora preserved. Some private roads and a private airfield were built as well as staff accommodations, an animal orphanage and other animal holding facilities. Vehicles and farm equipment were purchased, a self contained mobile bush camp and Kenyan capture team was trained and mobilized by the partners.
Back at the ranch an animal orphanage was established and overseen by Don and Iris Hunt. It was the only privately funded facility available to care for injured, orphaned or endangered animals and prepare them for eventual release back into the wild.
In 1970 the founding father of Kenya, President Kenyatta asked the Game Ranch capture unit to assist in capturing wildlife in Kenya for re-stocking programs in Ghana, Nigeria and other African countries.
As poaching increased in Kenya, the Game Ranch capture program was encouraged to save wildlife by capturing in areas where poaching was decimating wildlife. As more wilderness areas in Kenya came up for settlement the Game Ranch’s capture team was again called in to capture/rescue countless wild animals. For this legal capture licenses were obtained from the Government and paid for.
Some of the rescued animals from these areas were sent to Europe and the United States as well as African countries for breeding programs. Others were rehabilitated at the Mount Kenya Game Ranch and formed the first breeding stock. Here they began to thrive, protected and safe from poachers and the encroachment of civilization.
Many species were saved. A good example is the mountain bongo which later became extinct on Mount Kenya except for the herd bred at the Game Ranch and the offspring of the animals that had been sent out of the country now increasing dramatically.
In cooperation with the Kenyan Government the Ranch financed and assisted in many Kenyan as well as inter-African game translocation projects.
Following the death of William Holden in 1981 Don and Iris Hunt purchased his shares from his estate and continued to operate the Game Ranch, financing it with their own resources.
In 1984 Stefanie Powers was invited and appointed a Director of the Game Ranch.