![]() The term was coined by Bob Lacey (1993) and used to name his famous Vortex Population Viability Analysis software, distributed freely by the IUCN. The loss of a keystone species can initiate a so called “vortex effect”. However, the eradication of a megavertebrate and important landscape architect such as the NWR will cause at least a significant disturbance or even destruction to elements of the complex ecosystem. ![]() The long-term consequences of the loss of a keystone species for the fragile ecosystem of Central Africa are not fully predictable. On March 19th, 2018 the death of the last male NWR, Sudan, brought wide public attention to the doomed fate of this subspecies and served as a clarion call for alternative measures of conservation. Contrarily, in 2008 the IUCN officially declared the northern counterpart of the SWR, the northern white rhinoceros (NWR, Ceratotherium simum cottoni) as extinct in the wild. The family Rhinocerotidae is particularly affected, with three of the five extant species listed as critically endangered (Sumatran, Javan, and black rhinoceros), one listed as vulnerable (greater one-horned rhinoceros), and one, the southern white rhinoceros (SWR, Ceratotherium simum simum), listed as near threatened. Currently, 22% of the mammals are at risk of extinction. In light of the Earth’s sixth great extinction event driven by man traditional conservation strategies such as habitat protection and ex-situ breeding combined with reintroduction programs will not be sufficient to stop or even to slow down this process significantly. VideT - A video-based transfer tool for pupils.Assessment of the reproductive status of wildlife.Wildlife pathology and disease diagnostics.Pathological anatomical reference collection.Summer School on Non-invasive Monitoring of Hormones.International Summer School on Stable Isotopes in Animal Ecology.Meeting on Evidence-based Conservation of Bats.Wildlife Research and Conservation, Sept 2023.2nd International Bat Research Online Symposium, Jan 2023.International Bat Research Online Symposium.Junior Professorship Parasite Host Interactions.Scientists are hoping to save the species by help of a similar artificial breeding project. The Sumatran rhino, which once thrived In jungles in Malaysia and Indonesia, is down to its last few members in the wild as well. Nor is the northern white rhino the only critically endangered rhino. “Powdered horn is used in traditional Asian medicine as a supposed cure for a range of illnesses – from hangovers to fevers and even cancer.” ![]() Today, poaching for the illegal trade in their horns is the major threat,” explains the World Wide Fund for Nature. ![]() “Uncontrolled hunting in the colonial era was historically the major factor in the decline of white rhinos. In recent decades, like all other species of rhino worldwide from Africa to Sumatra, northern white rhinos have also been poached for their horns as practitioners of traditional Chinese medicine attribute miraculous curative properties to those protuberances of keratin, the same substance that is in people’s hair and nails. By the 1960s, only around 2,000 of them remained. Northern white rhinos, the world’s second largest land animals after elephants, were once ubiquitous in East and Central Africa, but big game hunting by trophy hunters and habitat loss took a toll on the species. “We are under time constraint because we want really a transfer of the social knowledge from the last existing northern white rhinos to a calf,” Hildebrandt explains. Yet time is of the essence because the two living rhinos are both ageing and they will still need to serve a large role in saving their species even if they can’t bear young themselves. “Christmas gave us a present: two embryos. “2020 was really a hard test for all of us, but giving up is not the mentality of any true scientist,” stresses Thomas Hildebrandt from the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research in Germany who is the leader of the team tasked with the project. The embryos are stored at a laboratory in Cremona, Italy, and the plan now is to implant them into surrogate mothers in March. The scientists have just succeeded in creating two more embryos, which means they now have five at their disposal. Yet the prospects of their species have long looked bleak as the two surviving females can no longer mate naturally for want of a male.Įncouragingly, however, the efforts of scientists to produce embryos from the females’ eggs and the frozen sperm of a male rhino that died in 2018 are bearing fruit. No animal is closer to extinction than the northern white rhino in Africa with only two known surviving members of the species, a mother and a daughter.īoth are in captivity in Kenya and under constant guard from poachers. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |