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Tag: Rhinoceros

  • The number of rhinos is slightly up but poaching has increased too

    The number of rhinos is slightly up but poaching has increased too

    NAIROBI, Kenya — The rhino population across the world has increased slightly but so have the killings, mostly in South Africa, as poaching fed by huge demand for rhino horns remains a top threat, conservationists said in a new report.

    The number of white rhinos increased from 15,942 in 2022 to 17,464 in 2023, but the black and greater one-horned rhino stayed the same, according to the report published by the International Rhino Foundation ahead of Sunday’s World Rhino Day.

    Another subspecies, the northern white rhino, is technically extinct with only two females being kept in a secure private conservancy in Kenya, known as Ol Pejeta. A trial is ongoing to develop embryos in the lab from an egg and sperm previously collected from white rhinos and transferring it into a surrogate female black rhino.

    A total of 586 rhinos were killed in Africa in 2023, most of them in South Africa — which has the highest population of rhinos at an estimated 16,056. The killings increased from 551 reported in 2022, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

    With all five subspecies combined, there are just under 28,000 rhinos left in the world, from 500,000 at the beginning of the 20th century.

    Rhinos face various environmental threats like habitat loss due to development and climate change but poaching, based on the belief that their horns have medicinal uses, remains the top threat.

    Philip Muruthi, the vice president for species conservation at the Africa Wildlife Foundation, said protection has played a big role in increasing rhino population. In Kenya, their numbers rose from 380 in 1986 to 1,000 last year, he said. “Why has that happened? Because the rhinos were brought into sanctuaries and were protected.”

    Muruthi advocates for a campaign that will end the demand for rhino horn as well as adoption of new technology in tracking and monitoring rhinos for their protection while also educating communities where they live on the benefits of rhinos to the ecosystem and the economy.

    Known as mega herbivores that mow the parks and create inroads for other herbivores, rhinos are also good for establishing forests by ingesting seeds and spreading them across the parks in their dung.

    Murithi lamented that the northern white rhino — whose only two females are left in the world — should have never gotten so close to the brink of extinction.

    “Don’t get the numbers to where it’s very expensive to recover and we are not even sure that it will happen,” he said.

    The body of the last male northern white rhino – named Sudan – that died in 2018 has been preserved and displayed at the Museums of Kenya in Nairobi.

    A research scientist and curator of mammals at the museum, Bernard Agwanda, said preserving Sudan will tell the story of how the species lived among humans and why conservation is important.

    “So we expect that the northern white rhino behind us here is going to live for one or two centuries to be able to tell its story for generations to come,” he said.

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    Follow AP’s Africa coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/africa

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  • Newborn white rhino Silverio takes his giant first steps in a Chilean zoo in a boost to his species

    Newborn white rhino Silverio takes his giant first steps in a Chilean zoo in a boost to his species

    SANTIAGO, Chile — Hannah, a 13-year-old white rhinoceros, has delivered a newborn calf in a rare zoo birth for the almost endangered species.

    The arrival of the male calf, named Silverio, two weeks ago marked the third time that a white rhino had ever been born in South America. The Buin Zoo in Chile’s capital of Santiago unveiled Silverio to the public on Tuesday as he took his first giant-footed steps after 12 days of medical care in confinement.

    The zoo hailed his birth as a “big achievement” for conservationists worldwide. Over the past year, only eight other southern white rhinos have been born.

    The director of Buin Zoo explained that a recent string of failed rhino romances had dashed the hopes of conservationists attempting to breed the species across the continent. But Hannah and Oliver — a pair of southern white rhinos shipped to Santiago all the way from sub-Saharan Africa just over a decade ago — have hit it off, producing three calves in this one zoo.

    “There are several zoos in Latin America that have a rhino pair and did not manage to reproduce,” said zoo director Ignacio Idalsoaga. “We are contributing with a ninth calf to a species that has only a few left in the wild.”

    A team of veterinarians closely monitoring Silverio declared him healthy on Tuesday.

    The success story comes as fewer and fewer white rhinos roam the African plains. Northern white rhinos have effectively gone extinct, although the international scientific community has started to revive the species through assisted reproduction and stem cell research.

    Southern white rhinos, the northern’s close cousin and a more common species, have been classified as “nearly endangered” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, the world’s main scientific authority on the status of species. There are just over 10,000 individual southern white rhinos left in the world, the vast majority of them in zoos.

    That’s still a major improvement from the turn of the 19th century, when the species was hunted to near oblivion. Intensive conservation efforts in the last few decades pulled southern white rhinos away from the brink of extinction, a rare example of robust reocovery in the face of peril.

    But that could change, conservationists say, as hunters continue to kill rhinos for their horns and the mammals can struggle to reproduce in captivity, with a gestation period of 18 months and often more than one male needed to stimulate reproduction.

    Humans are the only predators to rhinos, reports the international conservation union, with hunters killing an estimated 1,000 rhinos a year. It says that roughly 17 rhinos are born each year.

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  • A baby rhino was born at the Indianapolis Zoo on Super Bowl Sunday

    A baby rhino was born at the Indianapolis Zoo on Super Bowl Sunday


    The Indianapolis Colts may have lost any hope of making it to the Super Bowl last month, but the city celebrated a different sort of win this Super Bowl Sunday: the birth of a white rhinoceros calf. 

    Mom Zenzele, 19, gave birth at around 9:15 a.m., local time, the Indianapolis Zoo said. Zenzele’s newborn is her seventh calf, but the zoo’s first baby rhino.

    “Zenzele is an experienced and confident mom and everything is going very well,” senior rhinoceros keeper Amber Berndt said.

    The zoo has not yet shared information about the baby rhino’s sex. Keepers said Zenzele is relaxed and her calf is doing well.

    The zoo is now home to a herd of five rhinoceroses, including Spike, Mambo and Gloria, who is also Zenzele’s grandmother, according to the zoo. Zenzele and her baby will spend time together before they’re introduced to the rest of the herd in the spring.

    The calf’s father, Kengele, lives at The Wilds, which is home base for the American Institute of Rhinoceros Science. Zenzele had also lived at The Wilds in Ohio until she came to the Indianapolis Zoo in June. 

    Zoo workers describe the mom’s personality as laid back, but very outgoing and curious. She also enjoys getting pets and scratches. 

    White rhino pregnancies last for a whopping 16 to 18 months. Newborns weigh between 100 and 150 pounds.

    The zoo shared the news of Zenzele’s pregnancy last month. Rhinoceros care staff at the zoo started overnight watches this month after Zenzele began producing milk and showing signs of impending labor. 

    Southern white rhinos are classified as “near threatened” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources. They are the only one of the five rhino species that are not considered endangered, according to the World Wildlife Foundation.

    “The number of white rhinoceroses in the wild continue to decline, and it is crucial to raise awareness for their plight,” Indianapolis Zoo President and CEO Dr. Robert Shumaker said when announcing Zenzele’s pregnancy. “The historic birth of this calf will be a symbol of hope for the conservation of rhinoceroses around the world.”



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  • Rhinos at risk as temperatures set to become deadly

    Rhinos at risk as temperatures set to become deadly

    As temperatures rise amid climate change, the world’s remaining rhinos may not be able to withstand the sweltering weather.

    Both black and white rhinos across southern Africa are expected to be severely impacted by the climate change-driven increasing temperatures facing national parks, where a large proportion of the remaining populations of the species are found, according to a new paper in the journal Biodiversity.

    Rhinos are especially vulnerable to intense heat, as they don’t sweat, instead cooling off by sheltering in the shade or bathing in water. The paper marks the first analysis of how climate change may affect these endangered species.

    A file photo of a white rhino and her calf. Climate change may make it too hot for rhinos in southern Africa.
    ISTOCK / GETTY IMAGES PLUS

    “Generally speaking, most, if not all, species will, in one way or another, be negatively affected by the changing climate,” lead author Hlelowenkhosi S. Mamba, a research student at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, said in a statement. “It is therefore important for conservationists to conduct macroecological assessments over large areas to catch trends and model futures for some of the world’s most vulnerable species to prepare to mitigate climate change’s effects, hence minimizing global biodiversity losses.”

    Both species of African rhino have seen rapid population decreases, mainly due to poaching. White rhinos once comprised two species, the northern white rhino and southern white rhino, but the northern white rhino is now considered extinct in the wild. The southern white rhino is listed as “near threatened” on the IUCN Red List, with only around 10,000 individuals left in the wild. Black rhinos are listed as “critically endangered”, with about 3,100 remaining.

    The researchers investigated how increasing temperatures in large national parks across South Africa, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Kenya, Botswana, Tanzania and Eswatini could impact the future of the rhino species living there. They modeled two scenarios in the parks, one based on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) high greenhouse gas emissions scenario, and the other being a more mild emissions future, and predicted the amount of rain and temperature that each park would see in 2055 and 2085.

    They found that in each park it was expected to rise by 2.2 degrees Celsius by 2055 and 2.5 degrees by 2085 in the moderate emissions future, while in the IPCC emissions scenario, each park increased by 2.8 degrees Celsius by 2055 and 4.6 degrees by 2085. All but one park was expected to become increasingly dry in these scenarios.

    They then calculated the probability that each park would remain suitable for the rhinos, and found that the increase in temperatures would be more than the rhinos can handle, exacerbated by the decreased precipitation.

    “The temperature conditions in all study parks will become increasingly unsuitable for both species, but it is predicted that white rhinos will be affected earlier than black rhinos,” the authors wrote in the paper. “All the parks are showing drastic changes in the occurrence probability of rhinos.”

    In the high-emissions scenarios, the likelihood of both species still existing will shrink to zero by 2085.

    rhinos at waterhole
    Two rhinos at a waterhole in a South African national park. Higher temperatures and decreased rainfall may make these regions inhospitable to rhinos.
    ISTOCK / GETTY IMAGES PLUS

    “All study parks will have zero probability of occurrence for the species throughout their ranges should conditions reach those represented by the [IPCC high emissions 2085] scenario late in the century,” they wrote.

    These findings, while bleak, may help to prepare conservation efforts for the challenges of the future.

    “This paper highlights the importance of using climate predictions for both park and rhino management,” co-author Timothy Randhir, a professor of environmental conservation at UMass Amherst, said in the statement. “We propose that park managers think now about increasing water supplies, tree cover, watching for stress and planning to allow rhino migration as the world warms.”

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