Animals

Many populations of African rhinos are increasing in numbers because of the conservation efforts that people have been working on. However, there is still one species that does not seem to be improving and at this time may already be extinct – the Northern white rhino. Back in 2006 only four of these animals could be found by the world’s best rhino specialists. During their most recent search they were not able to find any.

There are now more than 21,000 rhinos across Africa, according to figures complied by the African Rhino Specialist Group of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, IUCN, based in Gland. The group of rhino experts are part of the IUCN Species Survival Commission, a network of conservation experts brought together to work against the species extinction crisis.

Numbers of the white rhino, Ceratotherium simum, have increased from 14,540 animals counted in 2005 to 17,480 animals found in 2007, the specialists say. Living in protected areas and private game reserves, the white rhino is listed as Near Threatened on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, but one of its two subspecies, the Northern white rhino, Ceratotherium simum cottoni, is listed as Critically Endangered and is on the brink of extinction.

Once found in several countries in East and Central Africa south of the Sahara desert, the wild population of Northern white rhino numbered about 500 animals in the 1970s. Now, the Northern white rhino is restricted in the wild to Garamba National Park in the Democratic Republic of Congo and the only remaining population was reduced by poaching from 30 in April 2003 to only four confirmed animals by August 2006.
“Worryingly, recent fieldwork has so far failed to find any presence of these four remaining rhinos,” says Dr. Martin Brooks, chair of the African Rhino Specialist Group.

“Unless animals are found during the intensive surveys that are planned under the direction of the African Parks Foundation, the subspecies may be doomed to extinction,” he said. By contrast, the other subspecies, the Southern white rhino, Ceratotherium simum simum, continues to increase in numbers and range.

Southern white rhinos are listed as Near Threatened on the IUCN Red List, which means that they are not presently classed as Endangered or Vulnerable to extinction, but may qualify for a threatened category in the near future.

The southern white rhino is considered one of conservation’s greatest success stories. Thought to be extinct in the late 19th century, in 1895 a small population of less than 100 animals was discovered in Kwazulu-Natal, South Africa. After more than a century of protection and management, the southern white rhinos are now the only non-endangered rhinos.