Toner News Mobile › Forums › Latest Industry News › *NEWS*WEST AFRICAN BLACK RHINO…EXTINCT!
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AnonymousInactiveExtinction fear for black rhino
The
West African black rhino appears to have become extinct, according to
the World Conservation Union (IUCN).A mission to their last known
habitat in northern Cameroon failed to find any rhinos or signs of
their existence.The sub-species has declined in recent decades due
primarily to poaching, which has also brought the northern white rhino
close to extinction.In East and Southern Africa, numbers of related
sub-species are rising with the use of effective protection
measures.But after two decades of warnings, the western black rhino has
apparently met its final end, according to the findings of an extensive
expedition by three specialists earlier this year.
They didn’t find anything to indicate a continued presence in the area
Richard Emslie, IUCN
“They
mounted 48 field missions, patrolling for 2,500km, working block by
block,” said Richard Emslie, scientific officer with the African rhino
group in IUCN’s Species Survival Commission.”They looked for spoor,
they looked for the rhino’s characteristic way of feeding which has an
effect like a pruning shear, but they didn’t find anything to indicate
a continued presence in the area,” he told the BBC News website.”They
did, however, come across lots of evidence of poaching, and that’s the
disconcerting thing.”
Bleak prospects
Even before this latest survey, prospects for the sub-species appeared bleak.
AFRICA’S RHINOS
Southern white ( Ceratotherium simum simum ) – 14,500 and rising
Northern white ( Ceratotherium simum cottoni ) – only four may remain
South-central black ( Diceros bicornis minor ) – 1,900 and rising
South-western black ( Diceros bicornis bicornis ) – 1,200 and rising
Eastern black ( Diceros bicornis michaeli ) – 650 and rising
Western black ( Diceros bicornis longipes ) – feared extinct
In 2002, numbers were as low as 10. The animals were distributed over a wide range, making breeding more difficult.
“With
small numbers, bad luck can play a much bigger role – if you just have
male calves, for instance,” commented Dr Emslie.During the last 150
years, numbers of all types of rhino plummeted in all regions of
Africa.The southern white rhino reached its nadir in 1895, with a
single population down to about 30 individuals in one South African
game park.Since then, captive breeding and successful protection
measures have brought numbers up to nearly 15,000, and groups have been
re-established in other countries.The black rhino’s decline came later.
The continent-wide population numbered about 100,000 in 1900, but fell
to a low point of 2,400 by 1995.Again, protection measures and breeding
programmes are bringing stocks back up, but only, so far, to about
3,600.The main successes have been in Southern Africa, with some East
African countries also re-introducing and maintaining populations.It is
a different story in West Africa, where poaching, often fuelled by the
guns and poverty of civil conflict, has been harder to control.The
northern white rhino is down to as low as four individuals in its only
remaining habitat in the Democratic Republic of Congo; and now the West
African black rhino has apparently vanished entirely.Although
genetically distinct, the different sub-species may be similar enough
in their food and habitat requirements that animals could be
re-introduced to West Africa from other parts of the continent.But that
would require stable political and economic conditions, the resources
to take on poachers, and the commitment to involve local people in the
animals’ conservation.Even if this were possible at some unspecified
time in Cameroon, it appears that one of Africa’s great wildlife icons
has now lost a valuable branch of its family. -
AuthorJuly 11, 2006 at 10:26 AM
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