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Rhinos
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There used to be dozens of rhino species, now there are just five. All are at risk, some are critically endangered. In some areas, rhinos have been saved from the brink of extinction. Elsewhere their future is still in question. Rhinos are killed for their horns, a highly prized ingredient in traditional medicines.
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| Black Rhino |
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|  | Black rhinos are critically endangered. The population dropped by more than 90% between 1970 and the mid 1990s when it reached a low of around 2,400. Most of the herds that roamed the savannahs were wiped out by poaching for the trade in rhino horn and by loss of habitat caused by human land clearance.
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| | Since the 1990s huge efforts have been made to stop the killing and as a consequence numbers increased to around 3,600 in 2004. Most black rhinos now live in reserves in South Africa, Namibia, Zimbabwe and Kenya.
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| | Black rhinos browse on small woody plants such as the acacia (their hooked upper lip is perfectly suited to this type of food). Although they can range across varied habitats, from desert areas to forests, they are relatively fussy eaters and there are a number of evergreen plants they won’t eat. They need daily access to fresh water.
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| | There are four subspecies. The rarest, formerly found in central west Africa is now restricted to northern Cameroon and possibly a few animals in Chad. Besides protection programmes, a great deal of effort has been made to increase numbers. For example, surplus animals from one area have been moved to set up new populations elsewhere. There are various regional initiatives.
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| White rhino |
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| | Although no longer critically endangered, the white rhino is still classed as ‘near threatened’. In other words, its survival will probably depend on active conservation measures. There are two subspecies.
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| | The southern white rhino is one of the great conservation success stories. Numbers have recovered dramatically in the last century, in some part due to captive breeding programmes. A population of just 50 in the early 1900s increased to around 11,000 in 2004. Southern white rhinos are found in South Africa, Zimbabwe and Kenya.
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| | The northern white rhino is not faring as well. It is only found in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The WWF has made some progress there and a population in the Garamba National Park has increased from 12 to around 19 animals in 2004. Its work has been severely hampered by heavily armed poachers operating in the area.
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| Indian rhino |
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| | The Indian rhino was once found right across the northern region of the Indian subcontinent (from Pakistan to Myanmar) and possibly into southern China. There are now just a few small groups in north-eastern India and Nepal.
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| | Although still endangered, Indian rhino numbers have seen an increase from under 100 in the early 1900s to around 2,400 in 2002. The rhinos found a refuge in the reserves that were set up primarily to protect tigers. They still rely heavily on active protection from poaching.
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| | Not surprisingly, Indian rhinos can’t tell the difference between naturally growing plants and planted crops and there is a history of conflict between them and farmers. At one point the Indian government offered a bounty for killing them in an effort to stop them destroying tea plantations. Other human developments have also eroded suitable habitat.
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| | About a quarter of the remaining population is found in the Royal Chitwan National Park in Nepal. The park attracts many tourists who go there to see the rhinos and other rare species. This is another area where local people could benefit directly from tourist income. They would then have an incentive to support wildlife conservation in the park and protect the animals rather than poach them. The park is protected but several rhinos have been lost to poaching in the past. A contributory factor was a reduction in the number of security staff employed in the park. (The guards were re-deployed to fight a Maoist uprising that ended in January 2007.)
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| Javan rhino |
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| | The Javan rhino is critically endangered. Populations in Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, the Malay Peninsula and Sumatra have all disappeared. Now they are only found in two locations and the total population is less than 60.
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| | The natural home of the Javan rhinoceros is rainforest, one of the fastest disappearing habitats on the planet.
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| | The Ujung Kulon Peninsula, to the far west of Java, Indonesia, supports around 28 to 56 animals and no more than eight live in the Cat Loc Nature Reserve in the Dong Nai, Vietnam. Such small populations are particularly vulnerable to disease and poaching.
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| | The WWF has been working with the Ujung Kulon National Park since the 1960s. Four baby rhinos were born there in 2000/2001 and it is hoped that numbers could eventually increase to around 80, the estimated maximum the area could support. At that point, it may even be possible to relocate some animals and establish a new population in a different region.
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| Sumatran rhino |
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| | With the total population being fewer than 300 the Sumatran rhino is probably even more critically endangered than the Javan rhino because populations are still in decline and seem unlikely to stop falling.
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| | They are found in tiny and fragmented pockets where poaching is a problem. The only significant groups remaining are in Sumatra, Sabah and on the Malaysian peninsula, a fraction of their former distribution that ran from the Himalayan foothills to Sumatra and Borneo.
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| | Several subspecies, for example the one in Myanmar, may be clinging on to survival, but scientists doubt that such small groups can ever recover to form viable populations.
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| | There has been little success with captive breeding, although one calf was born at Cincinnati Zoo in September 2001. Efforts are continuing to establish managed breeding centres in Indonesia and Malaysia.
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| | The Sumatran rhino is related to the now extinct woolly rhino (for more info read the wildfacts file). |
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