CONSERVATIONS NIGERIA

Tag: rhinoceros

  • Critically endangered rhinoceros gives birth at Kansas City Zoo  

    Critically endangered rhinoceros gives birth at Kansas City Zoo  

    Kansas City Zoo welcomed the birth of a critically endangered species of rhino on December 31, 2022.

    Zuri, a critically endangered species of the eastern black rhino gave birth to its young in the early hours of the day as announced by zoo officials. 

    According to the report by the rhinos’ animal care specialist, the calf is healthy, walking, nursing, and playing. 

    This is a welcome development as eastern black rhinos also known as the East African black rhino, a subspecies of the black rhinoceros, have been the target of poaching because of their horn thereby leading to their constantly dwindling population. 

    Read also: Kenyan vets harvest 10 northern white rhino eggs in desperate conservation move

    The World Wildlife Foundation added that the political instability in Africa, its habitat, is fueling those poaching actions. The horns are used for herbal remedies the foundation noted. 

    Quoting the zoo officials, only about 740 eastern black rhinos are left in the wild. Poaching and a lack of safe habitat have been cited by Save the Rhino, a rhino conservation charity, as the major threats facing the animals. 

    The rhinoceros calf is expected to stay with its mother for at least two to four years. But in the meantime, human activities are limited around their enclosure to give mother and calf some bonding time. 

    Read also: Sumatran rhino now extinct in Malaysia

    Black rhinos are known to live for as long as 30 – 35 years in the wild and about 35 – 45 or more years in captivity according to Save the Rhino. 

     

  • Sumatran rhino now extinct in Malaysia

    Sumatran rhino now extinct in Malaysia

    There are officially no more Sumatran rhinos in Malaysia, with the death of the last known representative of the species.

    Iman, the last Sumatran rhino in the country was 25 years old when she died on Saturday on the island of Borneo. According to officials she had cancer.

    READ ALSO: Kenyan vets harvest 10 northern white rhino eggs in desperate conservation move

    Malaysia’s last male Sumatran rhino died in May this year.

    The Sumatran rhino once roamed across Asia, but has now almost disappeared from the wild, with fewer than 100 animals believed to exist. The species is now critically endangered.

    Iman died at 17:35 local time (09:35 GMT) on Saturday, Malaysia’s officials said.

    “Its death was a natural one, and the immediate cause has been categorised as shock,” Sabah State Tourism, Culture and Environment Minister Christine Liew is quoted as saying.

    “Iman was given the very best care and attention since her capture in March 2014 right up to the moment she passed,” she added.

    Sumatran rhinos have been hard hit by poaching and habitat loss, but the biggest threat facing the species today is the fragmented nature of their populations.

    Efforts to breed the species in Malaysia have so far failed.

  • Kenyan vets harvest 10 northern white rhino eggs in desperate conservation move

    Kenyan vets harvest 10 northern white rhino eggs in desperate conservation move

    In what may be described as one of the most daring moves to save the Kenya northern white rhino species from extinction, veterinarians and wildlife experts successfully extracted eggs from the last two surviving female.

    The eggs will be fertilised with stored sperm and incubated in a surrogate southern white rhino female.

    The procedure was carried out Thursday on the last known living northern white rhinos — Najin and Fatu — who are infertile. Ten eggs, five from each, was harvested.

    The feat was a joint effort of the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research, Avantea, Dvur Králové Zoo, Ol Pejeta Conservancy and the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS).

    “We are very happy that after this first procedure on Najin and Fatu that they have recovered very smoothly and they are doing really well and fine today just 24 hours after this first procedure,” said Dr. Robert Hermes, of the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research.

    The world’s last male northern white rhino, Sudan, which was in the center of frantic conservation efforts died in March 2018. Sudan’s death shifted conservation focus to his stored semen and that of four other dead rhinos along with Najin and Fatu who are now constantly under the protection of armed guards.

    The ultimate goal is to create a herd of five to 15 animals that would be returned to their natural habitat in Africa. That could take decades.

    Sudan got its name from its country of birth as the last of its kind to be born in the wild. It was taken to the Czech zoo and then transferred to Kenya in 2009, along with the only other remaining northern white rhinos, the two females and a male who died in 2014.

    They were placed under 24-hour armed guard and fed a special diet. However, despite the fact that they were seen mating, there were no successful pregnancies.

    After the elephant, rhinoceros is the second largest land mammal. The white rhinoceros consists of two sub-species – the southern white rhino and the critically endangered northern white rhino.

    Loss of habitat and poaching (for horns) are the leading sources of danger to species.