Latest White Rhinoceros Stories

April Flowers for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online An international group of leading environmental scientists are advocating a legal trade in rhino horn as a last ditch effort to save the animals from extinction. The scientists argue that the current global ban on rhino products has failed to protect the animals as death rates among the world's remaining black and white rhinos are soaring. This increased death rate is due to illegal poaching to supply the insatiable demand for these...

The once thriving captive-born southern white rhinoceros population is being threatened by their diet, according to new research. San Diego Zoo Global researchers predict that phytoestrogens in the rhinoceros’ food may be causing reproductive failure in the females. In a press release detailing the research, Christopher Tubbs, researcher with the San Diego Zoo Institute for Conservation Research explained the importance of the study. “Understanding why the captive white rhinoceros...

The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) said on Thursday that the Western Black Rhino of Africa has been declared officially extinct. The group said the Northern White Rhino of central Africa is also now "possibly extinct" in the wild and the Javan Rhino is "probably extinct" in Vietnam. "A lack of political support and willpower for conservation efforts in many rhino habitats, international organized crime groups targeting rhinos and increasing illegal demand for...

South Africa, home to the world's largest rhinoceros population, lost nearly 200 of the magnificent beasts in the first half of 2011, according to the World Wildlife Fund International (WWF). At the current pace of poaching, the number of rhinos slaughtered this year may exceed the record 333 killed last year, the group said in a statement. Rhinos in Kruger National Park remain to be the hardest hit. The world famous safari destination has lost 126 rhinos to poaching this year and 146 in...

With as Few as 40 Left on Earth, WWF Launches Campaign to Save One of the World's Rarest Mammals Washington, D.C. (Vocus/PRWEB) February 27, 2011 Dramatic new video footage of two critically endangered Javan rhinos and their calves was released today by World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and Indonesia's National Park Authority. The footage, from a motion-activated video camera in Indonesia's Ujung Kulon National Park, is a huge boost to efforts to save this almost extinct species that is...

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...

Rhino poaching is expected to hit its highest levels in 15 years due to increased demand for the animals' horns in Asia, according to conservationists."Rhinos are in a desperate situation," according to Heather Sohl of the World Wildlife Fund."This is the worst rhino poaching we have seen in many years and it is critical for governments to stand up and take action to stop this deadly threat to rhinos worldwide. It is time to crack down on organized criminal elements responsible for...

Poachers' Greed Undermining Economic Recovery YULEE, Fla., April 16 /PRNewswire/ -- Leading rhino conservation experts, the International Rhino Foundation (IRF) and Save the Rhino, today called the rhino poaching situation in Zimbabwe "an immediate crisis with long-term consequences" and called for concerted action by the Zimbabwe government and international agencies to tackle endangered species poaching and illegal trade in wildlife products. The groups said continued inaction...

Landmark artificial insemination holds great promise to ensure future of these megaherbivoresThere may be less than 20,000 rhinoceros in the world, with one species perhaps already extinct and another with possibly only four animals remaining in the wild. As the populations of these animals age and become infirm, successful breeding becomes increasingly difficult. In an article scheduled for publication in Theriogenology, An International Journal of Animal Reproduction, researchers from the...