*NEWS*WEST AFRICAN BLACK RHINO…EXTINCT!

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Date: Tuesday July 11, 2006 10:26:00 am
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    Extinction 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. 

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