Latest Rhinoceroses Stories
Twenty-one rhinos in South Africa have been killed so far this year despite measures adopted to halt the surge of poaching after a record number of rhinos were killed in 2010, the head of the South African National Parks said Monday. "The loss of 333 rhinos to poaching in 2010 was a devastating loss for us but we are determined that in 2011 that should not happen," parks chief David Mabunda said in a statement. Although rhinos are still being killed, Mabunda told AFP that the government's...
2010 was the worst year for rhinos as 333 were lost to poaching in South Africa, almost three times more than the previous year's losses, the country's parks agency said on Wednesday. Reynold Thakhuli, spokesman for the National Parks Agency, told AFP that "this has definitely been the worst year for rhino poaching -- this is the highest number ever recorded." However, anti-poaching programs were showing some promise, the agency said. Five suspected poachers were shot and killed at the...
ASSAM, India, Dec. 30, 2010 /PRNewswire/ -- For only the second time in India's history, two female Indian rhinos, an adult female and a juvenile, have successfully been translocated from Pobitora Wildlife Sanctuary to Manas National Park in Assam. The two females join two males that were moved to Manas in 2008. Veterinarians darted the animals with tranquilizers, then transported them 250 km in crates specially-designed to hold the 1.5 to 2 ton pachyderms. Pobitora boasts the highest...
A growing black-market demand for rhino horns is driving a profitable new wave of high-tech poaching that threatens the fight to save the rhinoceros from extinction. The heart of the crisis lies in South Africa, where nearly one rhinoceros per day was lost to poaching this year alone. Conservationists fear the issue could run over into other regions, pushed by a surge in the demand for the horn in Asia, most notably in Vietnam, where it is used as a traditional medicine and can sell for tens...
South Africa on Tuesday launched a new wildlife crime unit that will take rhino poaching head on in an attempt to stop the dramatic surge of senseless killings for the animal's horn that is sold for use in traditional medicines. Rhino poaching has climbed in South Africa this year, with 227 rhinos slaughtered so far, almost double the 122 killed in all of last year. A two-day rhino summit meeting was assembled on Tuesday by Environment Minister Buyelwa Sonjica to get wildlife experts and...
32 critically endangered East African black rhinos are set to be flown from South Africa back to their habitat in Tanzania's Serengeti Park, and so far 5 have made it as of Friday. The rhinos had been bred from a group that was rescued from the Serengeti in the 1960s and relocated to South Africa to prevent extinction of the species by poachers. Widespread poaching in the Serengeti in the 60s and 70s saw the population of the black rhinos in Tanzania dwindle from over 1,000 to just 70....
A World Wildlife Fund (WWF) camera trap has reportedly caught a picture of a rare Borneo rhino, according to an April 21 article by the AFP news agency.The report notes that the rhino is believed to be a pregnant female under 20 years of age."The size (of the rhino) is quite extraordinary," WWF official Raymond Alfred told the Associated Press (AP) on Wednesday, adding that the organization believes the female is with child because of "on the shape and the size of the body and...
CINCINNATI and LOS ANGELES and SUMATRA, Indonesia, Feb. 17 /PRNewswire/ -- Conservationists across the world are celebrating a pregnancy in one of the world's most endangered species, the Sumatran Rhino. The pregnancy of female Ratu, born in Indonesia, and male Andalas, the first of only three Sumatran rhinos born in captivity in more than 112 years, is giving hope to international rhino biologists. The breeding occurred at Indonesia's Sumatran Rhino Sanctuary (SRS) in Way Kambas National...
Four endangered Northern White rhinos are to be transferred to a Kenyan reserve in a desperate attempt to save the species.Dana Holeckova, director of the Dvur-Kralove zoo in central Czech Republic said, "We must offer them this last chance, in their natural environment in Africa."There's only eight remaining Northern White rhinos in existence all living in captivity, six at Dvur-Kralove and two more at San Diego Zoo in the United States.The last reported birth was in 2000 at...
Rhino poaching worldwide is on the rise, according to a new report by TRAFFIC and the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN).The trade is being driven by Asian demand for horns and is made worse by increasingly sophisticated poachers, who now are using veterinary drugs, poison, cross bows and high caliber weapons to kill rhinos, the report states.Since 2006 the majority (95 percent) of the poaching in Africa has occurred in Zimbabwe and South Africa, according to new...
Latest Rhinoceroses Reference Libraries
The Sumatran serow (Capricornis sumatraensis) is a goat-antelope that is also known as the southern serow. It can be found on the island of Sumatra in Indonesia and in Thai-Malay Peninsula. It prefers a habitat within native primary or secondary forests near mountains. It is thought that this species holds seasonal ranges. It feeds during the morning and evenings, resting under overhanging rocks during the rest of the day. The Sumatran serow appears on the IUCN Red List with a conservation...
The Sumatran Rhinoceros (Dicerorhinus sumatrensis), is the smallest of the rhino species. It also has the most fur of any other rhinos, which allows it to thrive at very high altitudes in Borneo and Sumatra. The Sumatran Rhinoceros once inhabited a continuous distribution as far north as Myanmar and eastern India; however poaching has made it extinct in Thailand and Vietnam, while it has not been seen in Cambodia, Laos or Myanmar for many years. Due to habitat loss and poaching, its numbers...
The Indian Rhinoceros (Rhinoceros unicornis), also known as the Great One-horned Rhinoceros, is a large mammal found in Nepal and in Assam, India. The rhino once inhabited areas from Pakistan to Burma and may have even roamed in China. But because of human influence their range has shrunk and now they only exist in small populations in northeastern India and Nepal. These rhinos live in tall grasslands and wetland forests, but due to habitat loss they have been forced into more cultivated...
The Rhinoceros Auklet (Cerorhinca monocerata) is a seabird considered by some to be a close relative of the puffin. It is the only member of the genus Cerorhinca. It ranges widely across the North Pacific feeding on small fish and nesting in mixed seabird colonies. Its name is derived from a horn-like extension of the beak. This horn is only present in breeding adults, and like the elaborate sheath on the bill of puffins is shed every year. The Rhinoceros Auklet (also known as the Rhino...
The black rhinoceros (Diceros bicornis) is a mammal of the Perissodactyla order which lives in the eastern areas of Africa including Kenya, Tanzania, Cameroon, South Africa, Namibia and Zimbabwe. The black rhinoceros is on the endangered species list due to excessive poaching for their horns, which are mostly used in dagger handles as a symbol of wealth in many countries. Contrary to popular opinion, only small amounts of the horns are consumed as an aphrodisiac. An adult black rhinoceros...
