White rhino

One of the last white rhinos died in Zoo Dvur Kralove in Czech Republic Nesárí was very old lady and she was 39 years old. I was there last week and she was walking in her run. I´m sad about it. She was caught in wild and she was one of the last 8 living nort white rhinos
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Very sad, I have seen the pair of white rhino when they were in San Diego, at one time I think they had 4 but I don't remember that was 25 years ago.

Thanks for posting the link to the article.

That is so sad Martin

Sad story Martin, very sad

This is a very sad story representing a very, very sad story.
Poor old girl, and poor White rhinoes !

Such a fantastic, impressive, wonderful, huge animal....

Thats too bad.
Its always hard when such animals die, especially for the keepers.

The Northern White Rhino will be extinct in a few years. There are too few left to sustain a viable population.
The Southern White Rhino will survive hopefully, when the poaching stops.
On 2 april a young male of the Southern White Rhino was born in the zoo I work. So funny to see that 'little' grey thing running around;)

MD1985 wrote:

Thats too bad.
Its always hard when such animals die, especially for the keepers.

The Northern White Rhino will be extinct in a few years. There are too few left to sustain a viable population.
The Southern White Rhino will survive hopefully, when the poaching stops.
On 2 april a young male of the Southern White Rhino was born in the zoo I work. So funny to see that 'little' grey thing running around;)

That the subspecies is not viable is not necessarily true, here on the north coast of North America the Northern elephant seal was almost extinct in the late 1800's. No one had seen one in more then 20 years but in the 1890's or early 1900's (I don't have the references here with me and I can't remember the dates of the story) a scientific expedition to Alaska found a small group, consisting of only 4 males and 12 females. To prove they found them they shot and killed 4, a male and 3 females for the bodies as proof. At that time the population was only 12 animals total, but today there are over 170,000.

MD, you are probably correct but there is a chance that the subspecies can be saved although with such a small population other things can be problematic, for instance the resistance to genetic diseases or even a single virus or bacterial infection could wipe out the population because they all have the same gene pool and don't have resistance to one thing or another. A very sad story that the population of any species of animal gets that low because of human greed.

Philter4 wrote:

MD1985 wrote:

Thats too bad.
Its always hard when such animals die, especially for the keepers.

The Northern White Rhino will be extinct in a few years. There are too few left to sustain a viable population.
The Southern White Rhino will survive hopefully, when the poaching stops.
On 2 april a young male of the Southern White Rhino was born in the zoo I work. So funny to see that 'little' grey thing running around;)

That the subspecies is not viable is not necessarily true, here on the north coast of North America the Northern elephant seal was almost extinct in the late 1800's. No one had seen one in more then 20 years but in the 1890's or early 1900's (I don't have the references here with me and I can't remember the dates of the story) a scientific expedition to Alaska found a small group, consisting of only 4 males and 12 females. To prove they found them they shot and killed 4, a male and 3 females for the bodies as proof. At that time the population was only 12 animals total, but today there are over 170,000.

MD, you are probably correct but there is a chance that the subspecies can be saved although with such a small population other things can be problematic, for instance the resistance to genetic diseases or even a single virus or bacterial infection could wipe out the population because they all have the same gene pool and don't have resistance to one thing or another. A very sad story that the population of any species of animal gets that low because of human greed.

@philter4
That is what I meant;) But you gave more explanition to it.
Because of the bottle-neck in the population there is a bigger change of extinction because of virusses or effects of global warming etc, just like you said. There are other animals like the Elephant seal that went through a bottle-neck and survived as a species. But the genetic variation is limited. For example the Pere-Davids Deer from China.
In case of the N. white rhino it is almost impossible to protect in the wild, because of the unstable (political) regions in Africa where they live. And there are too few of them in zoos to start good, productive breeding programmes like EEP and ESBs in European Zoos. But they are trying to breed a good population in European Zoos, but its more difficult than with most animals. The breeding with the N white Rhino in zoos and in the wild is also difficult because the ones in zoos (or relocated from zoos to semi-wild reserves) are family of eachother.

Extinction of animals and plants is natural. But the speed of these extinctions now a days isn't. Species are disappearing faster and faster. Mostly because of (in)direct influences of the human species.

How sad.

Kikimalou wrote:

Sad story Martin, very sad

Yes, it is, but Christophe at least has that lovely Starlux WWF fellow...... :)

Aren't we forgetting about the fabled Vietnamese White Rhino? Okay, different species, but we know they exist because they have been photographed.

Was there ever any resolution of the question of whether the Northern and Southern African White Rhinos were subspecies or different species entirely?

schleich61 wrote:

Aren't we forgetting about the fabled Vietnamese White Rhino? Okay, different species, but we know they exist because they have been photographed.

Was there ever any resolution of the question of whether the Northern and Southern African White Rhinos were subspecies or different species entirely?

Scientist dont know for sure yet..Some say they are different species, others say subspecies.