A species can be defined by many different measures, including similarity of DNA, morphology, or ecological niche. A species is one of the basic units of biological classification – a group of organisms capable of interbreeding and producing fertile offspring. ![]() The difference between a species and a subspecies tends to cause a lot of confusion when extinctions are reported by the media. It also seems to have refocused attention towards recent rhino extinctions.įortunately, we have not lost any rhino species in recent times, but at least two rhino subspecies have been lost in the past decade. The International Rhino Foundation’s (IRF) commentary on this auction can be found on our home page, The debate touches upon the broad spectrum of hunting activities, which range from the culling of selected animals to the unregulated, illegal slaughter we know as poaching, which threatens the very existence of a number of critically endangered species. If you'd like to donate to the Black Rhino Range Expansion Project, this page has a wide variety of options.The emerging debate around the recent announcement of the Dallas Safari Club’s plans to auction a trophy hunt for a critically endangered black rhino in Namibia has touched off a firestorm of comments from concerned individuals and organizations around the world. The current poaching onslaught is obviously threatening conservation gains made over the last decade or so." Black rhino are still listed as critically endangered although their numbers have almost doubled since the early 1990s. White rhino are no longer on the critically endangered list and are rather rated as "vulnerable". With a critically endangered species, it's essential to manage for rapid population growth as well as to focus on security.Īfrica has two kinds of rhino - black rhino and white rhino. We have translocated just under 120 black rhino to create these new founder populations on large areas of land with the capacity to sustain significant populations. The Black Rhino Range Expansion Project has created seven new populations of black rhino over the last eight years, with the aim of increasing numbers as quickly as possible. The 19 black rhino being translocated are all of the sub-species Diceros bicornis minor. Of these just over 1900 are found in South Africa. However, there are about 4800 black rhino altogether in the wild at latest count. "There were four sub-species of black rhino in Africa - now possibly only three, as one sub-species is thought to have recently gone extinct. UPDATE: Pam Sherriffs of the Black Rhino Range Expansion Project (the rhino airlifting people) writes to explain the confusion over the extinction of the black rhino: There are actually four black rhino sub-species. (It should be noted that the Red List's assessment contradicts the far less dire one quoted by the World Wildlife Fund, which had estimated that 4,240 black rhinos were still alive.) The Red List also estimated that 25% of the world's mammals are "at risk of extinction." The reason: Their "golden horn," which is used in Chinese herbalist medicine and as dagger handles in the Middle East, commands a huge price on the black market and has long made the animal a favorite target of poachers. Not endangered - gone.Īs well as declaring the western black rhino (Diceros bicornis longipes) extinct, it records the northern white rhino (Ceratotherium simum cottoni), a subspecies in central Africa, as being on the brink of extinction. The Red List, an annual state-of-the-endangered-species report compiled by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, has declared the black rhino extinct. ![]() It's a bleak landscape for the mighty black rhinoceros. The Sad, Beautiful, Surreal Sight of an Endangered Rhino Being Airlifted to Safety Inconceivably, a new report suggests there's no other rhinos for it to reproduce with. We all gasped in amazement at photos of a black rhinoceros being airlifted upside down to an area of South Africa where it stood a better chance at reproducing.
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