I believe there was only one Northern white, the male 'Ben'. He had two different Southern partners, 'Bebe' and after she died, 'Mashobeni' I think he was the only male ever in this enclosure so if this is a male, its him.
I believe there was only one Northern white, the male 'Ben'. He had two different Southern partners, 'Bebe' and after she died, 'Mashobeni' I think he was the only male ever in this enclosure so if this is a male, its him.
I think that this is the male northern white rhinoceros ‘Ben’ who arrived at London Zoo in 1955 and was sent to Dvur Kralove in 1986.
Although, as Pertinax states, his second mate ‘Mashobeni’ was a southern white rhinoceros, I believe that his original female ‘Bebe’ was of the northern sub-species.
Sorry to bump this, but the amount of hair on the edge of the ears suggests Northern - and something about the general appearance of the rhino, even in the thumbnail I thought 'is this going to be the northern.' - I can't put my finger on it, but they do just look that bit different [obviously not fool proof though, as I've only seen a few individuals in pictures, and all captive so could be to do with the conditions they live in, as most are Dvur animals].
I remember Ben(Northern) and Mashobeni(Southern) quite well at London Zoo but could see no apparent differences between them. Mind you, I didn't really look very hard as in those days his (sub)species difference wasn't really a big deal. I did believe only the Northerns had hair-fringed ears but have subsequently learnt that isn't correct either.
I always had this down as the difference to an extent, I have seen southerns with hair-fringed ears, but never to the extent of northerns so thought that the amount was maybe a difference.
The sad thing is that when Ben and Bebe came to London in 1955 the Northern was probably the commoner White subspecies. If London (or more realistically) Whipsnade and maybe half a dozen other places in Europe and North America had set up breeding groups in the next decade it's hard not to imagine that the animal would now be quite safe, regardless of the problems that would drive it to extinction in Africa.
