Only 8 Northern White Rhinos Still Survive As Controversy Brews Among Rhino Experts

Northern White Rhino: IRF and SRI recommend more conservative strategies

Not so fast, cautions US-based International Rhino Foundation and Save the Rhino International in the UK – both of whom declined to support the NWR Conservation Project.

In an open letter addressing the proposed move of Northern white rhinos from captivity to Africa, Dr. Susie Ellis, IRF Executive Director and Cathy Dean, SRI Director point out that the plan diverts valuable resources away from the current poaching crisis facing wild African rhinos – and may be shortsighted.

IRF and SRI have declined to support the project in part because we cannot justify diverting funds away from other critically endangered rhino species and populations that actually still have a chance to be saved. 

Further, the August 2009 document outlines only the first year costs for the project, leaving the question as to how annual recurring costs for the project involving these long-lived animals will be funded. 

While it may sound like IRF and SRI are “giving up” on Northern white rhinos, this is not the case at all. In fact, IRF, SRI, the NWR Conservation Project, and most rhino experts are in agreement that the highest priority is preserving NWR genes.

Benefits vs. risk

IRF and SRI question the idea that moving the rhinos to a “natural” environment will stimulate breeding behavior. They argue that three of the four ZOO Dvůr Králové rhinos considered for the move are probably too old to breed – and may not survive the journey to Africa.

The rationale behind the proposed move of the remaining NWRs to Africa is that a ‘natural’ environment might somehow trigger reproduction …

Further, if it were true that translocation could somehow stimulate reproductive success in older animals, then this effect could be accomplished by any move (i.e., even within their current geographic area).  Regardless of destination, there is a real risk of older animals dying during an extended transport. 

Why not relocate just two male Northern white rhinos?

A more conservative and less risky recommendation made by IRF and SRI states that moving just the two male NWR to a either a wild or captive environment with female southern white rhinos is a preferable option. This would create an opportunity to produce hybrid calves.

We advocate this approach, especially to a facility that has available significant numbers of SWR females as mates or as recipients for AI.  If significant SWR females are available in Africa (in a captive or wild situation), we would be supportive of that move. 

They add that if hybrid calves cannot be produced naturally, then the focus needs to be on collecting NWR semen for AI.

However, if it is believed that AI will be necessary, then these males (and others that are still producing sperm) should be moved to a facility where reproductive specialists can focus on semen collection and cryopreservation.  Banked sperm from the male at the SDZWAP should also be considered for this endeavor.  Given the solid status and population numbers of SWR, then we recommend identifying females of the latter species as ‘experimental’ for producing the hybrid calves. 

Northern white rhinoceros population table. Rhinos to be moved are highlighted in blue (source: International Rhino Foundation).

10 years of Northern white rhino conservation thwarted by poaching

The International Rhino Foundation’s previous efforts to save the lives of a handful of wild Northern white rhino in 2005 ended in tragedy.

From 1995 to 2005, the International Rhino Foundation was intensely involved with NWR conservation in Garamba National Park – where the last wild Northern white rhinos were exterminated by insurmountable organized poaching.

Devastated by poaching, only about 30 animals remained in DRC’s Garamba National Park by 1995.  Garamba suffered from repeated incursions from the janjaweed militia and now the Lord’s Resistance Army.  Manageable, containable subsistence poaching in the Park for bushmeat was replaced by full-scale poaching for rhino horn and elephant ivory.  In 2005, a planned emergency translocation of five NWR from Garamba National Park to a sanctuary in Kenya became ensnared by political and local and national divisions and subsequently was cancelled.

After intensive engagement in Garamba National Park for more than a decade, the deteriorating operational and rhino status in the area, combined with exhausted financial resources, compelled the IRF to close its program there in 2005. 

In stark contrast, IRF’s involvement in Southern white rhino conservation is considered a shining example of conservation success: The Southern white rhino population is approximately 17,500, despite fewer than 200 just a century ago.

Northern white rhinos today, black rhinos tomorrow?

As poachers continue to decimate wild rhino populations, the dire situation currently facing the Northern white rhino is a very real possibility for other critically endangered rhino species.

According to Ben Davies, author of Black Market: Inside the Endangered Species Trade in Asia, Steve Galster (WildAid) and his assistant Rebecca Chen made an alarming discovery in Guangzhou, China, while on an undercover investigation of rhino horn trafficking.

‘The smugglers believed that if the rhino became extinct, the price of rhino horn could easily have doubled’, says Galster, who posed as a wealthy South African buyer of rhino horn.

‘This was a calculated attempt to corner the market using horns from one of the most valuable and endangered species on earth.’

In 1970, there were 65,000 black rhinos. By 1993, there were only about 2,300 still surviving. Today – only because of conservation efforts – there are now 4,240 black rhinos.

But commercial poaching is rampant and the rhino death toll is skyrocketing, fueled by superstitions and demand in China and Vietnam, where new prosperity has made it possible for massive numbers of citizens to acquire illegal rhino horn.

Zimbabwe has now lost a quarter of its rhino population to organized poaching syndicates.

The outcome is obvious: If we do not heed these (huge!) warning signs, then the critically endangered black rhino, Javan rhino, and Sumatran rhino will one day suffer the fate of the Northern white rhino.

Images: Wikimedia Commons

NWR population table: International Rhino Foundation