Importing South-central black rhinoceroses

Nikola Chavkosk said:
Thank you Chlidonias for the info ;)
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actually I was completely wrong about the Perth animal. She was a minor after all.

I knew there had been one michaeli in the Australian population, and I had been under the impression it was the Perth rhino. But it was actually one of the imported USA animals (see my post earlier). That's why I was surprised it was present in 2001.
 
Nikola Chavkosk said:
Is that mean that South-central black rhinos is not managed any more? Are the AZA phasing out the subspecies? If yes that's a lost, because the population is in good demographic for future managing.

I think there are many zoos who wish to hold black rhinoceroses, including me and my eventual future zoo :p
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The minor black rhino population in the US is still managed, just not by the AZA. Like others have said, 2001 was quite a long time ago and demographics are not at all the same. The crutch to managing this subspecies was the two black rhino subspecies were competing for holding space in zoos and a lack of female calves born to the population.
 
gerenuk said:
The minor black rhino population in the US is still managed, just not by the AZA. Like others have said, 2001 was quite a long time ago and demographics are not at all the same. The crutch to managing this subspecies was the two black rhino subspecies were competing for holding space in zoos and a lack of female calves born to the population.
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So, who is now the species coordinator for the ex AZA minor rhinos?
I know several zoos in Mexico went into the subspecies due to AZA "intransigience" .. I suppose the CS2C organisation picked up the pieces here ... (linked also with the US ranches).
 
But main purpose of the thread was about south-central black rhinoceros and it's fate in zoos; it would be great lost if they go unmanaged in US zoos; Australia manages them and needs them; And what is the probability for some future new imports from their native countries and establishing managing population also in Europe, with new holders who wish to hold black rhinos, and the Easterns are not readily available and difficult to obtain from other zoos.

The eventual futurue population of south-central back rhinos in Europe (like for example represented with 5.5 indviduals in let say, 4 holding zoos) would be managed together with the Australian one, and with that in the US, and also with zoos from South Africa.
 
As I mentioned earlier, Fort Worth holds most, if not all, of the South-Central Black Rhinos in the US so I'd imagine they're the coordinators of the program.

Personally, if the US isn't going to focus on the subspecies anymore, I think it may be a smart alternative to send the animals to Australia. Surely their population could use the boost and the bloodlines.

~Thylo:cool:
 
Fort Worth indeed coordinates the program. Disney's Animal Kingdom has several individuals, though.
 
Nikola Chavkosk said:
But main purpose of the thread was about south-central black rhinoceros and it's fate in zoos; it would be great lost if they go unmanaged in US zoos; Australia manages them and needs them; And what is the probability for some future new imports from their native countries and establishing managing population also in Europe, with new holders who wish to hold black rhinos, and the Easterns are not readily available and difficult to obtain from other zoos.

.
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Why would it be the same. I would say that it is much more important to manage one subspecies (that 99% of you probably would not be able to tell apart from the other) properly, then trying to have as many as possible. From an ecological perspective both are just black rhino and I think that a southern black rhino into East Africa would do about just as well as an eastern black rhino. Let's say that if all black rhino in Africa go extinct, small chance to that I think given the fact how well protected they are in some refuge areas. Then re-introducing eastern black rhino all over Africa would not make much of a difference, except the loss of some genetic diversity. For example here in Kenya multiple parks have southern white rhino and they fulfil their ecological function well and would probably thrive if there were not so many poachers....
 
Does anybody know if there has been any genetic study on black rhino populations and whether there is any real difference between Eastern and Southern African populations (and for that matter the now deceased Western subspp)?
 
tetrapod said:
Does anybody know if there has been any genetic study on black rhino populations and whether there is any real difference between Eastern and Southern African populations (and for that matter the now deceased Western subspp)?
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Good question. As the subspecies name implies (D. b. minor) the South-central black rhinoceroses should be the smallest of the black rhinos or at least smaller than D.b michaeli.
 
Nikola Chavkosk said:
Good question. As the subspecies name implies (D. b. minor) the South-central black rhinoceroses should be the smallest of the black rhinos or at least smaller than D.b michaeli.
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According to this article there is some degree of genetic differentiation between the extant subspecies:

http://www.rhinoresourcecenter.com/pdf_files/127/1272377164.pdf

And the different subspecies were off course investigated by Groves and apparently there are some differences in the skull, though sample sizes were relatively small.
 
lintworm said:
According to this article there is some degree of genetic differentiation between the extant subspecies:

http://www.rhinoresourcecenter.com/pdf_files/127/1272377164.pdf

And the different subspecies were off course investigated by Groves and apparently there are some differences in the skull, though sample sizes were relatively small.
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Thank you lintworm for the link. Surprisingly too, that D. b. michaeli animals are geneticaly more diverse than more-widely distributied D. b. minor.
 
Nikola Chavkosk said:
Thank you lintworm for the link. Surprisingly too, that D. b. michaeli animals are geneticaly more diverse than more-widely distributied D. b. minor.
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it isn't surprising if you read the paper. The minor and bicornis populations went through severe bottlenecks and then the populations came back from that. The michaeli population did not have this happen, instead the current population is the result of, as the paper phrases it, "a continually declining trajectory".
 
Chlidonias said:
it isn't surprising if you read the paper. The minor and bicornis populations went through severe bottlenecks and then the populations came back from that. The michaeli population did not have this happen, instead the current population is the result of, as the paper phrases it, "a continually declining trajectory".
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Thanks, to be honest I have read just the abstract, sometimes I don't have enough time.
 
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