All five species are threatened or on the verge of extinction by intense poaching and habitat loss.
All five species are threatened or on the verge of extinction by intense poaching and habitat loss.
A white rhino calf was released amongst the other female members of the rhino ‘crash’, a collective name for a group of Rhinos, in Colchester Zoo, England.
The video which was released on January 12 shows the white rhino calf, Tayo, who immediately took a liking to the rest of the crash, and was playing with his half-sister, Lottie. Astrid, the mother of the two calves was seen lingering near them to keep an eye.
Tayo was born on October 14, 2020, in Colchester Zoo after it had closed to the public in the late evening.
“The Animal Care Team had been viewing Astrid’s behavior out of hours on a camera system for 2 weeks prior to birth,” said the Colchester Zoo in a statement. “During the evening on Wednesday 14th October, the Animal Care Team noticed Astrid’s behavior change which indicated that she was in labor therefore staff came into the zoo at 9.00 pm to monitor Astrid close by.”
The zoo has seen a great success as a part of the breeding program for White rhinos, as Tayo became the sixth calf to be born at the park.
According to the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), the majority (98.8%) of the southern white rhinos occur in just four countries: South Africa, Namibia, Zimbabwe, and Kenya, and Southern white rhinos were thought to be extinct in the late 19th century but in 1895 a small population of less than 100 individuals was discovered in Kwazulu-Natal, South Africa.
“As of March 2018, there are only two rhinos of the northern white rhino left, both of which are female,” said WWF in a statement. “They live in the Ol Pejeta Conservancy in Kenya and are protected round-the-clock by armed guards. Their near extinction is due to decades of rampant poaching for rhino horn.”
Researchers have created an embryo of the northern white rhino by using In vitro Fertilization (IVF) process.
According to Save The Rhino, an organization aiming to conserve rhinos, using Advanced Reproductive Technologies (ART) to “bring back” the Northern white rhino is a complex, highly difficult endeavor, and creating early-stage embryos is one step on a long journey.
All five species are threatened or on the verge of extinction by intense poaching and habitat loss. The IUCN status of White Rhino is ‘Near Threatened’, the subspecies are; ‘Northern White Rhino’ is tagged in ‘Critically Endangered’, and ‘Southern White Rhino’ is ‘Near Threatened’.
The black rhinoceros in Africa is also critically endangered in the IUCN Red list, and at least three subspecies are already extinct. The Indian rhinoceros, which has one-single horn, lies in the ‘vulnerable’ category, whereas the Sumantran and Javan Rhino are ‘critically endangered.’
(Edited by Saptak Datta and Gaurab Dasgupta)
