SafariBookings is committed to supporting wildlife conservation efforts and the fight against poaching. Black rhinos may look cumbersome, but they can run at up to 56kph, turn on the spot, and wield their horn with such dexterity that they can strike a tennis ball thrown towards them.Some 50% of males meet their end fighting. The black rhino has the highest known combat death rate for any mammal.Today, some 4,300 remain and the species is classed as Critically Endangered. This occurred mostly in China and the Middle East. Uncontrolled hunting was to blame – at first for trophies, and then to supply the lucrative market for its horn. Africa’s black rhino population plummeted from hundreds of thousands in 1900 to fewer than 2,500 by 2000.Three are now extinct and only three – the eastern, south-central and south-western – still have viable populations. Scientists have identified eight distinct regional subspecies of black rhino.The white rhino, by contrast, has a square mouth, which it uses for grazing. We also know this species as the ‘hook-lipped rhino’ from the prehensile upper lip with which it grips the woody plant stems on which it feeds.Both species acquire their colour from the mud in which they wallow, so vary from brown to grey.ĥ Fascinating Facts About the Black Rhino It is no more ‘black’, however, than its relative is white. We distinguish it from the larger white rhino by its shape, diet and temperament. Click here for ways to get involved in supporting Save the Rhino.įor more information on the Western black rhino and the IUCN Red List, click hereĬlick here to read a good related news story from Earth Touch, identifying why this extinction news has resurfaced two years later.The black rhino is the rarer and smaller of Africa’s two rhino species. It is vital that we don’t allow the three other black rhino subspecies and the Southern white rhino to go extinct. With fewer rhinos surviving, their ability to reproduce will be reduced, driving populations into a downwards vortex towards extinction. If poaching continues to increase at the current rate, then overall black and white rhino numbers are predicted to go into decline in 2015-16, as natural deaths and poaching mortalities overtake the number of births per year. The black rhino species is Critically Endangered and looks to become more so, as rhinos are being slaughtered across Africa and Asia on the orders of consumers in Asia, particularly Vietnam, where the horn is coveted as a supposed cancer or hangover cure or as a symbol of one’s wealth. bicornis), found in Namibia and South Africa. minor), found in Tanzania, Malawi, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Swaziland and South Africa and the SouthWestern ( D.b. michaeli) found in Kenya, Tanzania and South Africa the SouthCentral ( D.b. Now there are only three subspecies surviving: The Eastern black ( D.b. The Western black rhino was one of the – then four – subspecies of black rhino. Poaching killed off the last few stragglers. The last reporting sightings of the Western black rhino were even further back, in 2003, by which time its range had shrunk to small areas in Cameroon. The recommendation to do so was made back in 2006, but the Red List always waits for five years before changing the status of a subspecies or species, just in case any new evidence comes to light. In fact, the Western black rhino ( Diceros bicornis longipes) was declared extinct back in 2011, when the IUCN Red List changed its status from Critically Endangered to Extinct. We don’t know why this is being so widely reported now the journalism is very out of date. CNN and other outlets have recently run articles that the Western black rhino has been declared extinct.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |