#Northern Sumatran rhinoceros

[endlingmusings]

A drawing of a Northern Sumatran rhinoceros, done by Friedrich Wilhelm Kuhnert, a German painter and author (1927). The Northern Sumatran rhinoceros, once the most widespread of the Sumatran rhinoceros subspecies, is today more than likely extinct. [ x ]

[thepastisalreadywritten]

By Dina Fine Maron

January 24, 2024

Scientists have cleared a significant hurdle in the years-long effort to save Africa’s northern white rhinoceros from extinction with the first-ever rhino pregnancy using in vitro fertilization.

The lab-assisted pregnancy, which researchers will announce today, involved implanting a southern white rhino embryo in a surrogate mother named Curra.

The advance provides the essential “proof of concept” that this strategy could help other rhinos, says Jan Stejskal of the BioRescue project, the international group of scientists leading this research.

Curra died just a couple months into her 16-month pregnancy from an unrelated bacterial infection, Stejskal says.

However, the successful embryo transfer and early stages of pregnancy pave the way for next applying the technique to the critically endangered northern white rhino.

The process was documented exclusively by National Geographic for an upcoming Explorer special currently slated to air in 2025 on Nat Geo and Disney+.

BioRescue expects to soon implant a northern white rhino embryo into a southern white rhino surrogate mother.

The two subspecies are similar enough, according to the researchers, that the embryo will be likely to develop.

Eventually, this approach may also help other critically endangered rhinos, including the Asian Javan rhinoceros and the Sumatran rhinoceros, which each now number under 100 individuals, Stejskal says.

But the northern white rhino’s current situation is the most pressing by far.

There are no males left, and the only two remaining animals are both elderly females that live under armed guard on a reserve in a 700-acre enclosure in Kenya called Ol Pejeta Conservancy.

The boxy-jawed animals once roamed across central Africa, but in recent decades, their numbers have plummeted due to the overwhelming international demand for their horn, a substance used for unproved medicinal applications and carvings.

Made from the same substance as fingernails, rhino horn is in demand from all species, yet the northern white rhino has been particularly hard-hit.

"These rhinos look prehistoric, and they had survived for millions of years, but they couldn’t survive us,” says Ami Vitale, a National Geographic Explorer and photographer who has been documenting scientists’ efforts to help the animals since 2009.

“If there is some hope of recovery within the northern white rhino gene pool — even though it’s a substantially smaller sample of what there was — we haven’t lost them,” says conservation ecologist David Balfour, who chairs the International Union for the Conservation of Nature’s African rhino specialist group.

Blueprints for rhino babies

To stave off the animal’s disappearance, BioRescue has used preserved sperm from northern white rhinos and eggs removed from the younger of the two remaining females.

So far, they’ve created about 30 preserved embryos, says Thomas Hildebrandt, the head scientist of BioRescue and an expert in wildlife reproduction based at the Leibniz-Institute of Zoo and Wildlife Research in Berlin.

Eventually, the team plans to reintroduce northern white rhinos into the wild within their range countries.

“That’d be fantastic, but really, really far from now—decades from now,” says Stejskal.

Worldwide, there are five species of rhinoceros, and many are in trouble.

Across all of Africa, there are now only about 23,000 of the animals, and almost 17,000 of them are southern whites.

Then there are more than 6,000 black rhinos, which are slightly smaller animals whose three subspecies are critically endangered.

In Asia, beyond the critically endangered Javan and Sumatran rhinos, there’s also the greater one-horned rhino, whose numbers are increasing and currently are estimated to be around 2,000.

The BioRescue effort has experienced many setbacks, and even though the team now has frozen embryos, the clock is ticking.

The researchers intend to use southern white rhinos as surrogate moms for the northern white rhino embryos.

However, scientists want any northern white rhino calves to meet and learn from others of their kind, which means they need to be born before the two remaining females die.

“These animals learn behaviors — they don’t have them genetically hard-wired,” says Balfour, who’s not involved with the BioRescue work.

But birthing new animals in time will be a challenge.

“We’re really skating on the edge of what’s possible,” he says, “but it’s worth trying.”

Najin, the older female, will be 35 this year, and Fatu will be 24.

The animals, which were born in a zoo in the Czech Republic, are expected to live to about 40, says Stejskal, who also serves as director of international projects at the Safari Park Dvůr Králové, the zoo where the animals lived until they were brought to Kenya in 2009.

Impregnating a rhino

The next phase of BioRescue’s plan involves implanting one of their limited number of northern white rhino embryos into a southern white rhino surrogate mother — which the group plans to do within the next six months, Stejskal says.

They’ve identified the next surrogate mother and set up precautions to protect her from bacterial infections, including a new enclosure and protocols about disinfecting workers’ boots.

But now, they must wait until the female rhino is in estrus — the period when the animal is ready to mate — to implant the egg.

To identify that prime fertile time, they can’t readily perform regular ultrasounds at the conservancy as they might do in a zoo.

Instead, they have enlisted a rhino bull that has been sterilized to act as a “teaser” for the female, Hildebrandt says, adding that they must wait a few months to make sure that their recently sterilized male is truly free of residual sperm.

Once the animals are brought together, their couplings will alert conservancy staff that the timing is right for reproductive success.

The sex act is also important because it sets off an essential chain of events in the female’s body that boosts the chances of success when they surgically implant the embryo about a week later.

"There’s little chance the conservancy staff will miss the act. White rhinos typically mate for 90 minutes," Hildebrandt says.

What’s more, while mounted on the females, the males often use their temporary height to reach tasty plant snacks that are generally out of reach.

Boosting genetic diversity

With so few northern white rhinos left, their genetic viability may seem uncertain.

But the BioRescue team points to southern white rhinos, whose numbers likely dropped to less than 100, and perhaps even as few as 20, due to hunting in the late 1800s.

Government protections and intense conservation strategies allowed them to bounce back, and now there are almost 17,000.

“They have sufficient diversity to cope with a wide range of conditions,” says Balfour.

Researchers don’t know exactly how many southern white rhinos existed a century ago, he says, but it’s clear that the animals came back from an incredibly low population count and that they now appear healthy.

Beyond their small collection of embryos, the BioRescue team hopes to expand the northern white rhino’s gene pool by drawing from an unconventional source — skin cells extracted from preserved tissue samples that are currently stored at zoos.

They aim to use stem cell techniques to reengineer those cells and develop them into sex cells, building off similar work in lab mice.

According to their plan, those lab-engineered sex cells would then be combined with natural sperm and eggs to make embryos, and from there, the embryos would be implanted into southern white rhino surrogate mothers.

Such stem cell reprogramming work has previously led to healthy offspring in lab mice, Hildebrandt says, but rhinos aren’t as well-studied and understood as mice, making this work significantly challenging.

A global effort

The northern white rhino revitalization venture has cost millions of dollars, supported by a range of public and private donors, including the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research.

Other partners on the effort include the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research, the Czech Republic’s Safari Park, Kenya Wildlife Service, Ol Pejeta Conservancy, and also Katsuhiko Hayashi, a professor of genome biology at Osaka University in Japan who conducted the mouse stem cell research.

Building upon Hayashi’s stem cell techniques could ultimately bring the northern white rhino gene pool up to 12 animals — including eggs from eight females and the semen of four bulls, according to Stejskal.

An alternative approach to making more babies, like crossbreeding northern and southern white rhinos, would mean the resulting calves wouldn’t be genetically pure northern white rhinos, Hildebrandt notes.

The two subspecies look quite similar, but the northern version has subtle physical differences, including hairier ears and feet that are better suited to its swampy habitat.

The two animals also have different genes that may provide disease resiliency or other benefits, Hildebrandt says.

There are unknown potential differences in behavior and ecological impact when populating the area with southern white rhinos or cross-bred animals.

"The northern white rhino is on the brink of extinction really only due to human greed,” Stejskal says.

“We are in a situation where saving them is at our fingertips, so I think we have a responsibility to try.”

🩶🦏🩶

[rabbitcruiser]

Save The Rhino Day

Save the Rhino Day, celebrated globally on May 1, is a day centered around raising awareness of the rhino’s plight in the world, and highlighting ways to help this incredible animal. This day is especially important given the current devastating statistics — on average, one rhino is poached somewhere in the world every 22 hours. On this day, various animal rights organizations, non-profit companies, zoos, animal activists, and other concerned groups provide opportunities to encourage more rhino conservation efforts from people around the world.

History of Save The Rhino Day

To trace the origins of the Rhinoceros, we’d have to go back some millennia — almost 56 million years ago, to be precise. That’s when the first ancestors of the modern Rhinos roamed the planet. They were more horse-like in structure and had no horns. Old rhino bones found from this period in North America show a gradual evolution from this old horse-like structure into one more aligned with today’s rhino. Over these years, there were three distinct species that scientists think might be the ancestors of today’s rhinos. One of these was called the ‘running rhino,’ which was adapted for speed.

Another was more aquatic and resembled today’s hippopotamus. The last, most direct ancestors to the modern rhinoceros appeared approximately 25 million years ago and had multiple sub-species in their families. Of these, the wooly rhinoceros was one of the largest subspecies, weighing in at almost four times the size of the average African elephant, and boasting one-meter-long horns. This species inhabited a large area, from Siberia to the British Isles. These plant-eaters lived alongside the wooly mammoths, and have been found fossilized in ice and in cave paintings made during that period.

These rhinos only lived in Asia initially but began traveling to other places around 25 million years ago. Over time, these rhino ancestors roamed the continents, primarily living in Eurasia (Europe and Asia combined) and North America. However, the American rhinos went extinct sometime between 5.4 and 2.4 million years ago.

Rhinos have also featured in many Asian and African legends — they are the fire-stamping heroes in many stories from Burma, India, and Malaysia. According to these stories, rhinos appeared every time a fire was lit in the forest and would stamp out the flames. So popular is this tale that it even featured in a popular 1980 South-African movie named “The Gods Must Be Crazy.”

Unfortunately, these once-abundant creatures have lost out to human activity. Hunting, and now, poaching and habitat loss, have drastically reduced the number of rhinos across the world. Rhino horns are also integral to traditional medicine in many parts of Asia, with people believing it has mystical powers. Since 2007, there has been a sharp increase in poaching activity and illegal trade of rhino horns, to the extent that many subspecies of rhinos have been declared extinct and the entire rhino population is listed as ‘endangered’.

Save The Rhino Day timeline

1973

A Symbol of Queer Identity

Two Boston artists, Daniel Thaxton and Bernie Toale create a lavender rhinoceros as a symbol to increase awareness of gays and lesbians and put it in a series of subway posters.

2011

No More Black Rhinos

The Western Black Rhino — which used to live in Cameroon, Chad, the Central African Republic, Sudan, and South Sudan — is declared extinct because of excessive poaching.

2012

A Ray of Hope

For the very first time, a Sumatran rhino — the smallest of the rhino family — is born in captivity in the Sumatran Rhino Sanctuary in Indonesia; this miracle repeats in 2016, and then in 2022.

2018

A Sad Farewell

The world bids goodbye to the last known male northern white rhino; only two females survive to this day.

Save The Rhino Day FAQs

What day is World Rhino Day?

On September 22 each year, the global community celebrates the rhinoceros and explains what people can do to help them.

How many rhino species are there?

At present, there are five species of rhinos in the world — the white rhino and the black rhino (both found in Africa), and the Indian, Javan, and Sumatran (all found in Asia).

Are rhinos endangered?

The black, Javan, and Sumatran rhinos are still listed as ‘critically endangered,’ while the entire species is classified as ‘endangered.’

How to Observe Save The Rhino Day

Learn about the rhinoceros: Uncover more interesting information about this magnificent animal. Watch documentaries featuring the rhino, read books and other literature about them, and discover more studies and research that show just how the rhino lives.

Visit a rhino: Why not go see a rhinoceros in real life? Check out rhinos at a local zoo or plan a trip to visit rhinos in the wild.

Help save the rhino: Research the efforts various groups make towards saving the rhino, and check out what you can do to help. These could include online volunteering services, donations of funds, and more.

5 Fun Facts About The Rhinoceros

The rhino communication method: Rhinos make funny sounds — like snorting, sneeze-like sounds, and even honking — and use their bodily waste to 'speak' to other rhinos.

They don't have 20-20 vision: Rhino eyesight is notoriously poor, so much so that if an animal only 100 feet away — in an open space, too — stood motionless, the rhino wouldn't be able to spot them.

How the white rhino got its name: This rhino isn't actually white — English explorers mistook the Afrikaans 'wyd,' which refers to the huge girth of this animal, as 'white' and the name stuck.

Their horns are like our nails: Rhino horns are made up almost entirely of keratin, which is also the protein found in human hair and nails.

And still, people steal their horns: Even as rhino horns are proven to have no health benefits, signs in museums — like the National Museum of Scotland — notify visitors that the horn on display is a replica, as the real one has been stolen.

Why Save The Rhino Day is Important

It helps increase awareness: Rhinos are becoming increasingly rare in the wild, and only continuous efforts to raise awareness, like celebrating Save The Rhino Day, can help this endangered species. Do your bit today to support rhinos.

Creating safe havens for rhinos: The spike in awareness such days provide also subsequently raises the amount of help being offered to save the rhinos. These increased efforts could help secure various safe and protected spaces for the rhino to survive and thrive.

Building a rhino-loving community: Conservation efforts have had a significant impact in the past — various subspecies of rhinos have seen their numbers gradually increase over the years as a result of these activities. After these celebrations, we are left with a passionate and motivated global community that wants to see the rhinoceros flourish in the decades to come.

Source

[rinusuarez]

Hiiii

Your artwork is amazing! Legit can't tell they're no photographs!

Have you ever drawn animals that are definitely extinct but only have limited photographs, if any?

Like the dodo! But I see taxidermied photos of it so I guess that's fine.

And the thylacine!

It'd be so cool to create something that's almost a photograph of an animal that never had photographs taken of it 🤩

Hello! Thank you! I have done some. In some, the photo references I have are really bad and in a few others, they are just mere written descriptions. I had to figure out a way to do them and make them look believable (The Northern Sumatran Rhino, The Indian Javan Rhinoceros, the Vietnamese Javan Rhinoceros, Quagga, and the Caspian Tiger) Some others arent' extinct but they don't have good photographs or they are not complete, they just show a part of the animal like the Indonesian Javan Rhinoceros, the Vietnam Mouse Deer, the Water Chevrotain, etc) I won't do the Dodo because I'm just working on mammals. The idea is to do them all so I don't think I'll have the time to do birds. I would love to do them too though. Thanks again for your interest. I really hope one day my posters can get into zoos, museums, and universities. Thanks as well for the link you sent me. Have a nice day!

[anomyn]

[ID: edited picture of animals that exist today and their extinct counterpart side by side in nature for size comparison, all of their extinct counterparts are usually way larger than the modern animals. the animals are in order: the modern sumatran orangutan (pongo abelli) and the extinct gigantopithecus (gigantopithecus black), the modern african bush elephant (loxodonta africana) and the extinct asian straight-tusked elephant (palaeoloxodon namadicus), the modern great white shark (carcharodon carcharias) and the extint megalodon (otodus megalodon), the modern northern hairy-nosed wombat (lasiorhinus krefftii) and the extinct diprotodon (diprotodon optaum), the modern linnaeus two-toed sloth (choloepus didactylus) and the extinct ground sloth (megatherium americanum), the modern clouded leopard (neofelis nebulosa) and the extinct sabertoothed cat (smilodon populator), the modern spectacled bear (tremarctus ornatus) and the extinct pleistocene south american short-faced bear (arctotherium angustidens), the modern sumatran rhinoceros (dicerorhinus sumatrensis) and the extinct woolly rhinoceros (coelodonta antiquitatis), the modern giant armadillo (priodontes maximus) and the extinct glyptodon (glyptodon), the modern indri or babakoto (indri indri) and the extinct giant lemur (archaeoindris fontoynontii), the modern white rhinoceros (ceratotherium simum) and the extinct paraceratherium (paraceratherium transouralicum), the modern great spotted kiwi (apteryx haastii) and the extinct south island giant moa (dinornis robustus). end ID]

Illustrations Show Size Difference Between Prehistoric Animals and Modern Descendants

[greport2018]

Cheetahs are back, but what all animal species are extinct in India?

Cheetahs are back, but what all animal species are extinct in India?

Animal species extinct in India: Today, 17th September 2022,  eight Namibian Cheetahs are being translocated to Kuno National park. Hence, Cheetahs are coming back to India land almost 70 years after their extinction. This is the first step in the much ambitious “Project Cheetah”. According to news agency PTI, there is a possibility that next month India will have another batch of 12 South…

[sixth-extinction]

“The End” - Charcoal Series by Peter Matthews, November 2017

“I was compelled to produce this charcoal wildlife series that highlights the plight of some of the most endangered species in the world - wildlife on the point of extinction, with man ultimately being responsible as the cause.”

Via Peter Matthews Art

[saritawolff]

(So burnt out; I absolutely had to take a break to draw today. Thankfully this semester is ending soon /)(\)

Anyway, here’s Coelodonta antiquitatus, commonly known as the Woolly Rhinoceros! Living in Northern Eurasia during the late Pleistocene (ice age), these rhinos were adapted for harsh, cold environments, sporting thick skin, double-coated fur, short ears, and a large fatty hump. They were about the same size as the white rhinoceros, though their closest living relative is the Sumatran rhinoceros.

Acording to cave art, their coloration and horn size/shape varied between individuals. Some had a dark band around their midsection, while others had a saddle-shaped patch. Frozen specimens show that their fur coat was reddish-brown. The coloration on this one was based on the darkest variety displayed in the Chauvet Cave paintings.

[fatehbaz]

Anyone else enjoy the fun debates around 2012, when historians and paleontologists were arguing about whether or not Pleistocene megafauna like Paleoloxodon ("Ice Age” straight-tusked elephants) might’ve survived in Bronze Age environments of ancient China as recently as the Zhou era, about 3000 years ago?

Woolly mammoths still lived in isolated locations until at least 3600 years ago. So, could Paleoloxodon survive into the Bronze Age of China? Short answer: Probably not. In continental “Europe,” many Paleoloxodon disappeared 35,000 years ago, before the end of the Pleistocene; even woolly mammoths long out-lived them. But Paleoloxodon cypriotes, an endemic species, survived on the island of Cyprus until at least 11,000 years ago. This was a big deal and there were many tangents of the disk horse, but basically, the still-living Asian elephant is well-known to have definitely inhabited most of temperate China in recent millennia, still living as far north as modern-day Beijing, the Yellow River, and the southern edge of the Gobi during the Warring States period. As imperial states strengthened their power and employed irrigation, devegetation, and other geoengineering schemes to remake the landscape of China and the avoid the damage of dramatic annual floods, creatures like Asian elephant, tiger, and rhinoceros were pushed out of the Yellow and Yangtze river systems, pushed further and further south, hence historian Mark Elvin’s famous phrase describing Chinese environmental history as “the retreat of the elephants.”

But Shang Dynasty and Zhou-era artwork shows one-horned rhinoceros (proclaimed by some to possibly invoke folk memory of Pleistocene Elasmotherium, but this is very unlikely and is easier to debunk). More seriously, this early art also shows elephants with two-fingered trunks. The Asian elephant, though definitely present in the region at the time, doesn’t have two-fingered trunks. Therefore, historians have proposed:

(1) The art simply depicts a stylized Asian elephant (Elephas maximus), and liberties were taken with anatomical accuracy. (2) The art depicts a species of Paleoloxodon (now-extinct straight-tusked elephants) which may have survived during the Neolithic in northern China. At the time, woolly mammoths still survived on Wrangell Island. Or (3) the art depicts African elephant (Loxodonta africana), which does have two-fingered trunks. This may seem far-fetched (how did Zhou-era China become familiar with African elephants?), but art and ivory from Ur, Mesopotamia, and other Near Eastern sites suggests that there may have been exchange of African elephant ivory, artwork. or knowledge of African elephants, an exchange between Egypt/North Africa and Media/Persia/Central Asia.

Here’s where Asian elephants lived historically (within the past 5500-ish years).

Here’s the historical distribution of Asian elephants in China, and the “retreat of the elephants” over time:

This was the paper that sparked the debate:

And wanna point out: Even though most people disagree (Paleoloxodon was probably extinct long before the Zhou era), there absolutely were “wild elephants” living 3000 years ago in North China, and they were the modern Asian elephant. But. It’s at least possible that there was more than one elephant creature in Bronze Age northern China; the Asian elephant could’ve lived alongside Paloeloxodon. But a lot of “elephant scientists” disagree.

Did residents of Central Asia and Media/Persia, in the Neolithic and Bronze Age, have knowledge of African elephants?

It seems very likely that Asian elephants, the same species present throughout China and the Indian subcontinent, had, in the ancient era, lived along the coast of the Arabian Sea and southern Persia, as far as the northern edge of Mesopotamia and possibly into Assyria. So, if there were already Asian elephants present in ancient Mesopotamia and Assyria, why would these people be trafficking in African elephant art and ivory? Would knowledge of African elephants really be relayed from Egypt and shared with China?

Went looking for old notes that I sent to myself, via email, and for some reason this one showed up in search results for “Neolithic elephants.”

???

But at the bottom of the email, I guess I had taken these notes.

Excerpts:

And here’s the magical key excerpt:

“Perhaps, [there was] a population of African elephants which had naturally and historically inhabited the Arabian mountains -- this is not so farfetched, given that African lion, ostriches, and leopards inhabited the same coastal mountain range along the Red Sea.”

Yep, this could be true. Thus, there would’ve been Asian elephants in Mesopotamia, and African elephants on the other side of the deserts, in Arabia.

Once again, here is the early Fertile Crescent as a meeting-place between “African” and “Asian” biodiversity: Asian elephants living in Mesopotamia, with local populations of African elephant nearby in North Africa.

Would African elephant knowledge have been shared between Egypt and Mesopotamia/Assyria, before being passed along to the Indus and China?

Who knows?

Anyway, here’s a similar “retreat of the rhinos” in China (the local extinction of rhinoceros in China, over time; this species is still alive, and today is known as the Sumatran rhino). Shitty labels by me:

[orcinus-ocean]

There’s something people need to understand about “endangered animals”

I really want to talk about this, because I see very common misconceptions about “endangered” animals.

People at large seem to think that everything in Africa, or everything in the tropics, is “endangered”. That every animal spoken of as “rare” is “endangered”. That any animal thas has suffered a decline at any point in the past is “endangered” today. That any animal that really is endangered is literally at the doorstep to extinction.

First, let’s talk about the basics.

The IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) classifies organisms on its red list of endangered species, according to seven different categories.

They are... Least concern (LC) Near-threatened (NT) Vulnerable (VU) Endangered (EN) Critically endangered (CR) Extinct in the wild (EW) Extinct (EX)

As you see below, they are color-coded, and only the three in the middle are considered “threatened” (of course, being extinct in the wild is worse than that).

Sometimes there is also another listing, “conservation dependent”, between LC and NT, all three under the umbrella “lower risk”.

This classification is international.

A completely different list is the US Endangered Species Act. It is completely different, and meant to protect native animals in the United States, which is why the recent addition of animals like the African lion is “questionable”.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Species are assessed and re-assessed by researchers in the field making an evalutation on the species’ range, density, population fluctuation (if they decrease or increase), current threats, and more.

For example, the face of all endangered animals and conservation efforts in the world, the giant panda, is no longer even endangered. In 2016, it was moved up to “vulnerable”, as the species had recovered so well.

The same year, the Tibetan antelope or Chiru, made a leap from endangered to near-threatened, after they were judged to have doubled in population in only thirty years.

But what is “endangered”? How are they placed in these categories?

Surely, endangered means there are only a few thousand of a species left. Or that the species is very reduced compared to what it was originally.

Actually, both of these are false.

Assessment is complicated, but to simplify it, a critically endangered species is one that has declined by at least 80-90% in the last three generations (whatever a generation span is judged to be in that particular species) or the last ten years.

An endangered species is one that has declined by 70% over the last three generations, or the last ten years.

A vulnerable species is one that has declined by 50%, in the same period as above.

Not all animals (this concerns all species, including plants and fungi, but I’ll only talk about animals here) have the same range. For example, the Vaquita porpoise is believed to never have numbered more than some 5000 (five thousand) animals, at its peak. That is because their habitat is limited to the innermost part of the Gulf of California.

The Saiga antelope was considered critically endangered with a population of several hundred thousand (before May 2015, when they were decimated by half in a single month due to an epidemic, but they were considered critically endangered before that). An antelope spread across the plains of central Asia is supposed to number in the millions.

The Axolotl salamander originates in only two lakes in Mexico. They are already extinct in one of these lakes, as the lake was completely destroyed. In the other (near Mexico City, which pollutes the lake), there were 6000 salamanders per square kilometer in 1998, and only ten years later, there were only 100 salamanders per square kilometer. In 2013, only two salamanders were found - in total.

Fortunately for the Axolotl, they are popular as pets, which is the only reason the species has a chance of survival.

Those are but three examples. I can give you another one.

The American bison is supposed to have numbered up to 60 000 000 (sixty million) animals, before it was hunted to near extinction in the 19th century. It was saved when only some three hundred animals remained, and today, they number just under 550 000. (You will see numbers of “30 000″, but this is only on public land, while 500 000 live on private land, and a further 15 000 are simply “wild”.)

That is just 0.9% of its original population!

So surely, the American bison must be listed as critically endangered, at the doorstep of extinction?

No. Near-threatened. That is because they are not under any immediate threat, the population is stable, and the cause for its decline was so long ago.

About rhinos

Rhinos are among the most famous animals that “everyone” knows will be “gone in ten years”, or whatever the number is now.

And true, most rhino species are in very dire straits. Not only are they hunted mercilessly, they have a slow regeneration time, and are often very sensitive and difficult to breed in zoos, with more success under protection in their natural habitat.

There are five rhinoceros species today. Not one has gone extinct in human history.

1) White rhinoceros, Ceratotherium simum 2) Black rhinoceros, Diceros bicornis ^ These two are the African rhinos. 3) Indian or Greater one-horned rhinoceros, Rhinoceros unicornis 4) Javan or Lesser one-horned rhinoceros, Rhinoceros sondaica ^ These two are also closely related, unique with their single horn and armor-like hide. 5) Sumatran rhinoceros, Dicerorhinus sumatrensis It is unique, the closest relative of the woolly rhino, and is characteristically hairy.

All but the white and the Indian are listed as critically endangered.

The Indian is vulnerable, while the white is near-threatened.

“But hey!” you say.

“Everyone saw the headline - the last white rhino in the world died! Or the last male white rhino...”

No, it was the last male of the northern subspecies. There are only two subspecies of the white rhino - southern and northern. They are practically identical.

The southern white rhino lives in countries like South Africa and Namibia, and are doing very well. They numbered only around fifty animals over a hundred years ago. Now, there are around twenty thousand of them! That’s an increase of four hundred times over in a hundred years.

There should be hundreds of thousands if not millions of them across Africa, so they are still severely depleted, but they are a conservation success story, and not in any immediate danger.

To compare, there are 4000 black rhinos, and they are dropping so dangerously, they are considered critically endangered. Of its eight subspecies, three are extinct (two of them in the late 19th-early 20th century).

The fin whale and the blue whale, closely related and the two largest animals on Earth, are both listed as endangered. The blue whale numbers around 17 000 animals, while the fin whale numbers 100 000. Again, assessment is complicated.

And like I said, many seem to be under the impression that all animals in Africa, or in the tropics, are endangered. Said in a very broad brush stroke, perhaps meant to encompass all species that have suffered any decline at any point in the past, often when talking about hunting these animals.

“It is wrong to hunt endangered animals!” you will hear all the time when discussing this.

While in fact, of the animals taken by sports hunters in Africa, virtually none are classified as endangered. Of this list of over forty species, only one is “endangered” (the mountain reedbuck), six are “vulnerable” (lion, leopard, elephant, hippo, giraffe and mountain zebra), a handful “near-threatened”, and the rest are all “least concern”.

But the topic of hunting, and my views on it, is one I will bring up in more depth at another time.

I hope this cleared up some misconceptions on what “endangered” actually means.

[pixoplanet]

It's September 22nd, 🦏 World Rhino Day – an opportunity for conservation organizations, non-government organizations (NGOs), zoos, and all of us to celebrate the magnificent rhinoceros. Rhinos once roamed throughout Europe, Asia, and Africa and were known to early Europeans who depicted them in cave paintings. At the beginning of the 20th century, 500,000 rhinos roamed the planet. By 1970, however, their numbers had dropped to 70,000, and today, there are only about 28,000 left. The five surviving species of rhino are the Black and White Rhinos in Africa, and the Javan, Sumatran, and Indian (or Greater One-horned) Rhinos in Asia. Due to persistent poaching and habitat loss, very few rhinos of any of these species currently survive outside of national parks and reserves. According to the latest figures from the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the Black, Javan, Sumatran, and Northern Black Rhino (subspecies of the Black Rhino) are all Critically Endangered, the Southern White Rhino is in Near Threatened status, and the Indian Rhino is Vulnerable.

The root cause of rhino poaching is the use of their horns in traditional medicines and as dagger handles. Please, let's all do what we can to help curb the demand for rhino horn and protect our remaining animals so future generations can enjoy and admire these noble creatures as much as we do. ☮️ Peace… Jamiese of Pixoplanet

[xidnaf]

the signs as animals

arist: south african cheetah

aries: american black bear

argo: kordofan giraffe

arga: griffon vulture

arittanius: wildebeest

arittarius: yak

arpio: bowhead whale

arpia: african elephant

arlo: horse

aro: barn owl

ara: tiger

arza: white rhinoceros

aricorn: spider monkey

ariborn: ring-tailed lemur

arnius: tabby cat

arius: megabat

asci: rock dove

asces: pied crow

armino: lion

armini: eurasian wolf

arcer: gerbil

arcen: newt

arus: bush-tailed porcupine

arun: philippine forest rat

taurrist: asiatic cheetah

taurries: asian black bear

taurgo: nubian giraffe

taurga: cinereous vulture

taurittanius: roan

taurittarius: southern marsupial mole

taurpio: right whale

taurpia: asian elephant

taurlo: sea eagle

tauro: grass owl

taurra: sheep

taurza: sumatran rhinoceros

tauricorn: vervet monkey

tauriborn: aye-aye

taurnius: jungle cat

taurrius: flying fox

taursci: trocaz pigeon

taursces: american crow

taurmino: kit fox

taurmini: tundra wolf

taurcer: guinea pig

taurcen: seal

taurus: crested porcupine

taurun: nile rat

gemrist: north american cougar

gemries: atlas bear

gemgo: west african giraffe

gemga: white-rumped vulture

gemittanius: waterbuck

gemittarius: northern marsupial mole

gempio: blue whale

gempia: blue-ringed octopus

gemlo: snake-eagle

gemo: sooty owl

gemra: argali

gemza: black rhinoceros

gemicorn: proboscis monkey

gemiborn: sifaka

gemnius: european wildcat

gemrius: egyptian fruit bat

gemsci: laurel pigeon

gemsces: cape crow

gemmino: red fox

gemini: arabian wolf

gemcer: dove

gemcen: house mouse

gemus: long-tailed porcupine

gemun: moluccan prehensile-tailed rat

canrist: florida panther

canries: blue bear

cango: reticulated giraffe

canga: black vulture

canittanius: eland

canittarius: golden mole

canpio: bryde’s whale

canpia: dumbo octopus

canlo: black-chested buzzard-eagle

cano: itombwe owl

canra: mouflon

canza: indian rhinoceros

canicorn: pygmy marmoset

caniborn: mouse lemur

canius: black-footed cat

canrius: california leaf-nosed bat

cansci: hill pigeon

cansces: hooded crow

canmino: cape fox

canmini: steppe wolf

cancer: humming bird

cancen: mayor’s moue

canus: bristle-spined rat

canun: bulldog rat

lerist: african leopard

leries: eurasian brown bear

lego: angolan giraffe

lega: turkey vulture

leittanius: gerenuk

leittarius: eurasian beaver

lepio: fin whale

lepia: mimic octopus

lelo: black solitary eagle

leo: bay owl

lera: urial

leza: nile hippopotamus

leicorn: rhesus macaque

leiborn: cockatiel

lenius: sand cat

lerius: hondurian white bat

lesci: snow pigeon

lesces: somali crow

lemino: arctic fox

lemini: mongolian wolf

lecer: flying squirrel

lecen: sikkim mouse

leus: prehensile-tailed porcupine

leun: kerala rat

virrist: javan leopard

virries: eurasian brown bear

virgo: south african giraffe

virga: california condor

virittanius: steenbok

virittarius: north american beaver

virpio: see whale

virpia: blanket octopus

virlo: crested eagle

viro: scops owl

virra: bighorn sheep

virza: east african hippopotamus

viricorn: gibbon

viriborn: parrotlet

virnius: chinese mountain cat

virrius: big brown cat

virsci: specled pigeon

virsces: flores crow

virmino: fennec fox

virmini: dingo

vircer: unstriped ground squirrel

vircen: volcano mouse

virus: electric eel

virun: himilayan field rat

librist: northern goshawk

libries: grizzly bear

libgo: masai giraffe

libga: greater flamingo

libittanius: nyala

libittarius: star-nosed mole

lipio: chilean dolphin

lipia: coconut octopus

liblo: harpy eagle

libo: screech owl

libra: thinhorn sheep

libza: cape hippopotamus

libicorn: bornean orangutan

libiborn: caique

libnius: amazon weasel

librius: dwarf epaulettes fruit bat

libsci: wood pigeon

libsces: bismark crow

limino: grey fox

limini: dog

libcer: indian palm squirrel

libcen: indian field mouse

libus: hog-nosed skunk

libun: sunburned rat

scorrist: gray-bellied hawk

scorries: east siberian brown bear

scorgo: thornicroft’s giraffe

scorga: lesser flamingo

scorittanius: klipspringer

scorittarius: hairy-tailed mole

scorpio: arabian dolphin

scorpia: giant squid

scorlo: papuan eagle

scoro: snowy owl

scorra: snow sheep

scorza: west african hippopotamus

scoricorn: sumatran orangutan

scoriborn: lorikeet

scornius: mountain weasel

scorrius: split-nosed bat

scorsci: comoros olive pigeon

scorsces: white-necked crow

scormino: swift fox

scormini: tibetan wolf

scorcer: eastern grey squirrel

scorcen: ryukyu mouse

scorus: hooded skunk

scorun: aceh rat

sagirist: red-chested goshawk

sagiries: syrian brown bear

sagigo: pig

sagiga: chilean flamingo

sagiittanius: kudu

sagiittarius: eastern mole

sagipio: long-beaked dolphin

sagipia: colossal squid

sagilo: balck eagle

sagio: great horned owl

sagira: red kangaroo

sagiza: angola hippopotamus

sagiicorn: tapanuli orangutan

sagiiborn: parakeet

saginius: steppe polecat

sagirius: brown long-eared bat

sagisci: white-naped pigeon

sagisces: jungle crow

sagimino: plains bison

sagimini: japanese wolf

sagicer: colorado chipmunk

sagicen: cook’s mouse

sagius: striped skunk

sagiun: snake

capririst: besra

capriries: giant panda

caprigo: chicken

capriga: jame’s flamingo

capriittanius: lechwe

capriittarius: gansu mole

capripio: killer whale

capripia: humboldt squid

caprilo: spotted eagle

caprio: eagle owl

caprira: eastern grey kangaroo

capriza: north american ostrich

capriicorn: eastern gorilla

capriiborn: pianos parrot

caprinius: long-tailed weasel

capririus: mediterranean horseshoe bat

caprisci: stork

caprisces: fish crow

caprimino: wood bison

caprimini: indian wolf

capricer: grey-collard chipmun

capricen: cypriot mouse

caprius: spotted skunk

capriun: spider

aquarist: long-tailed hawk

aquaries: sloth bear

aquago: red junglefowl

aquaga: andean flamingo

aquittanius: springbok

aquittarius: long-tailed mole

aquapio: pilot whale

aquapia: japanese flying squid

aqualo: tawny eagle

aquo: fish owl

aquara: western grey kangaroo

aquaza: masai ostrich

aquicorn: western gorilla

aquiborn: cockatoo

aquanius: yellow-bellied weasel

aquarius: raccoon

aquasci: goose

aquasces: house crow

aquamino: european bison

aquamini: arctic wolf

aquacer: gray-footed chipmunk

aquacen: steppe mouse

aqus: fattail scorpion

aqun: alligator

pirist: chanting goshawk

piries: polar bear

pigo: cow

piga: american flamingo

piittanius: sable antelope

piittarius: japanese shrew mole

pipio: houglass dolphin

pipia: vampire squid

pilo: camel

pio: spotted wood owl

pira: antilopine kangaroo

piza: arabian ostrich

piicorn: chimpanzee

piiborn: conure

pinius: european mink

pirius: koalas

pisci: duck

pisces: palm crow

pimino: water buffalo

pimini: baffin island wolf

picer: uinta chipmunk

picen: meerkat

pius: pandinus

piun: crocodile

[rabbitcruiser]

Save The Rhino Day

Save the Rhino Day, celebrated globally on May 1, is a day centered around raising awareness of the rhino’s plight in the world, and highlighting ways to help this incredible animal. This day is especially important given the current devastating statistics — on average, one rhino is poached somewhere in the world every 22 hours. On this day, various animal rights organizations, non-profit companies, zoos, animal activists, and other concerned groups provide opportunities to encourage more rhino conservation efforts from people around the world.

History of Save The Rhino Day

To trace the origins of the Rhinoceros, we’d have to go back some millennia — almost 56 million years ago, to be precise. That’s when the first ancestors of the modern Rhinos roamed the planet. They were more horse-like in structure and had no horns. Old rhino bones found from this period in North America show a gradual evolution from this old horse-like structure into one more aligned with today’s rhino. Over these years, there were three distinct species that scientists think might be the ancestors of today’s rhinos. One of these was called the ‘running rhino,’ which was adapted for speed.

Another was more aquatic and resembled today’s hippopotamus. The last, most direct ancestors to the modern rhinoceros appeared approximately 25 million years ago and had multiple sub-species in their families. Of these, the wooly rhinoceros was one of the largest subspecies, weighing in at almost four times the size of the average African elephant, and boasting one-meter-long horns. This species inhabited a large area, from Siberia to the British Isles. These plant-eaters lived alongside the wooly mammoths, and have been found fossilized in ice and in cave paintings made during that period.

These rhinos only lived in Asia initially but began traveling to other places around 25 million years ago. Over time, these rhino ancestors roamed the continents, primarily living in Eurasia (Europe and Asia combined) and North America. However, the American rhinos went extinct sometime between 5.4 and 2.4 million years ago.

Rhinos have also featured in many Asian and African legends — they are the fire-stamping heroes in many stories from Burma, India, and Malaysia. According to these stories, rhinos appeared every time a fire was lit in the forest and would stamp out the flames. So popular is this tale that it even featured in a popular 1980 South-African movie named “The Gods Must Be Crazy.”

Unfortunately, these once-abundant creatures have lost out to human activity. Hunting, and now, poaching and habitat loss, have drastically reduced the number of rhinos across the world. Rhino horns are also integral to traditional medicine in many parts of Asia, with people believing it has mystical powers. Since 2007, there has been a sharp increase in poaching activity and illegal trade of rhino horns, to the extent that many subspecies of rhinos have been declared extinct and the entire rhino population is listed as ‘endangered’.

Save The Rhino Day timeline

1973 A Symbol of Queer Identity

Two Boston artists, Daniel Thaxton and Bernie Toale create a lavender rhinoceros as a symbol to increase awareness of gays and lesbians and put it in a series of subway posters.

2011 No More Black Rhinos

The Western Black Rhino — which used to live in Cameroon, Chad, the Central African Republic, Sudan, and South Sudan — is declared extinct because of excessive poaching.

2012 A Ray of Hope

For the very first time, a Sumatran rhino — the smallest of the rhino family — is born in captivity in the Sumatran Rhino Sanctuary in Indonesia; this miracle repeats in 2016, and then in 2022.

2018 A Sad Farewell

The world bids goodbye to the last known male northern white rhino; only two females survive to this day.

Save The Rhino Day FAQs

What day is World Rhino Day?

On September 22 each year, the global community celebrates the rhinoceros and explains what people can do to help them.

How many rhino species are there?

At present, there are five species of rhinos in the world — the white rhino and the black rhino (both found in Africa), and the Indian, Javan, and Sumatran (all found in Asia).

Are rhinos endangered?

The black, Javan, and Sumatran rhinos are still listed as ‘critically endangered,’ while the entire species is classified as ‘endangered.’

How to Observe Save The Rhino Day

Learn about the rhinoceros

Visit a rhino

Help save the rhino

Uncover more interesting information about this magnificent animal. Watch documentaries featuring the rhino, read books and other literature about them, and discover more studies and research that show just how the rhino lives.

Why not go see a rhinoceros in real life? Check out rhinos at a local zoo or plan a trip to visit rhinos in the wild.

Research the efforts various groups make towards saving the rhino, and check out what you can do to help. These could include online volunteering services, donations of funds, and more.

5 Fun Facts About The Rhinoceros

The rhino communication method

They don't have 20-20 vision

How the white rhino got its name

Their horns are like our nails

And still, people steal their horns

Rhinos make funny sounds — like snorting, sneeze-like sounds, and even honking — and use their bodily waste to 'speak' to other rhinos.

Rhino eyesight is notoriously poor, so much so that if an animal only 100 feet away — in an open space, too — stood motionless, the rhino wouldn't be able to spot them.

This rhino isn't actually white — English explorers mistook the Afrikaans 'wyd,' which refers to the huge girth of this animal, as 'white' and the name stuck.

Rhino horns are made up almost entirely of keratin, which is also the protein found in human hair and nails.

Even as rhino horns are proven to have no health benefits, signs in museums — like the National Museum of Scotland — notify visitors that the horn on display is a replica, as the real one has been stolen.

Why Save The Rhino Day is Important

It helps increase awareness

Creating safe havens for rhinos

Building a rhino-loving community

Rhinos are becoming increasingly rare in the wild, and only continuous efforts to raise awareness, like celebrating Save The Rhino Day,  can help this endangered species. Do your bit today to support rhinos.

The spike in awareness such days provide also subsequently raises the amount of help being offered to save the rhinos. These increased efforts could help secure various safe and protected spaces for the rhino to survive and thrive.

Conservation efforts have had a significant impact in the past — various subspecies of rhinos have seen their numbers gradually increase over the years as a result of these activities. After these celebrations, we are left with a passionate and motivated global community that wants to see the rhinoceros flourish in the decades to come.

Source

[rinusuarez]

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Northern Sumatran Rhinoceros.

When I approach to illustrate an animal I usually feel that I'm not in the right direction. Just after about an hour, I begin to see its shape. I always start with the head because is the hardest to resolve and is the one that takes me the longest to do.

The Northern Rhinoceros was the most widespread of all Sumatran rhinos. It was once found in the Indochinese peninsula, eastern India, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Mongolia, and China. It has been declared extinct multiple times and there is little hope that there is a small population surviving in Burna and the Malaysian peninsula but the chances are very low.

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References: Sumatran_rhinoceros Photo Credit: Rasmus Worsøe Havmøller _______________________________________________

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A rhinoceros commonly abbreviated to rhino is a member of any of the five extant species of odd-toed ungulates in the family Rhinocerotidae. Two of the extant species are native to Africa, and three to South and Southeast Asia.

Did you know🦏The five extant species ⁉️

🦏 The white rhinoceros is actually grey. There are two subspecies of white rhinoceros: the southern white rhinoceros (Ceratotherium simum simum) and the northern white rhinoceros (Ceratotherium simum cottoni).

🦏The black rhinoceros has a beak shaped lip and is similar in color to the white rhinoceros. There are four subspecies of black rhino: South-central (Diceros bicornis minor), the most numerous, which once ranged from central Tanzania south through Zambia, Zimbabwe and Mozambique to northern and eastern South Africa; South-western (Diceros bicornis occidentalis) which are better adapted to the arid and semi-arid savannas of Namibia, southern Angola, western Botswana and western South Africa; East African (Diceros bicornis michaeli), primarily in Tanzania; and West African (Diceros bicornis longipes) which was declared extinct in November 2011.

🦏The Indian rhinoceros, or greater one-horned rhinoceros, (Rhinoceros unicornis) has a single horn 20 to 60 cm long. It is nearly as large as the African white rhino. Indian rhinos once inhabited many areas ranging from Pakistan to Myanmar and maybe even parts of China.

🦏The Javan rhinoceros (Rhinoceros sondaicus) is one of the most endangered large mammals in the world. According to 2015 estimates, only about 60 remain, in Java, Indonesia, all in the wild. It is also the least known rhino species.

🦏The Sumatran rhinoceros (Dicerorhinus sumatrensis) is the smallest extant rhinoceros species, as well as the one with the most hair. It can be found at very high altitudes in Borneo and Sumatra. Due to habitat loss and poaching, their numbers have declined and it has become the second most threatened rhinoceros. There are three subspecies of Sumatran rhinoceros: the Sumatran rhinoceros proper (Dicerorhinus sumatrensis sumatrensis), the Bornean rhinoceros (Dicerorhinus sumatrensis harrissoni) and the possibly extinct Northern Sumatran rhinoceros (Dicerorhinus sumatrensis lasiotis).

To learn more please contact us and book your vacation of a lifetime. √ See more 👉 www.kim.tours 🌍 via @kimzebraadventuressafaris #kimzebraadventuressafaris