White rhinos in Europe

K

Kifaru Bwana

Well-Known Member
15+ year member
The future outlook for the southern white rhino in Europe is improving somewhat. End May/early June, 2 births have occurred at zoos previously not having bred the species. These are: a female calf at Dublin Zoo and an unsexed calf at South Lakes to female newcomer Ntombi.

At least 2 more pregmancies for sure at South Lakes (Tala due summer 2008) and the Budapest female (second successful AI). AI has also been performed at Colchester, Madrid Zoo, a second Spanish park and Bratislava. In the latter cases no news yet of the outcome.

Due to the fact that the species had been dying out as many older range animals have never bred and are now in their mid 30's+, the population was rapidly ageing. Consequently, between 15-25 zoos have imported new young wild born white rhinos from South Africa to rehouse in European zoos.

The down side is that valuable and much needed space for the more threatened or endangered taxa like eastern black rhino or greater one-horned rhino are occupied by a species that is now considered rather "safe" in southern Africa!
 
I think the number of White rhinos in Africa is up near 14,500 these days so thats pretty good for them, as we know White rhino breed better in a herd so maybe if possible zoos that can only keep "a pair" of rhinos (because of space issues) maybe better going for a pair of black rhino.
 
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MARK said:
I think the number of White rhinos in Africa is up near 14,500 these days so thats pretty good for them, as we know White rhino breed better in a herd so maybe if possible zoos that can only keep "a pair" of rhinos (because of space issues) maybe better going for a pair of black rhino.
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It is an interesting fact that White rhino do well in a big group. Watching a few documentries I have noticed that sometimes Indian rhino's can be found quite close together.

I wonder if this is why whipsnade and SWP have good breeding records of Indian rhinos? Do they keep there rhino together, excluding the bull?
 
taun said:
It is an interesting fact that White rhino do well in a big group. Watching a few documentries I have noticed that sometimes Indian rhino's can be found quite close together.

I wonder if this is why whipsnade and SWP have good breeding records of Indian rhinos? Do they keep there rhino together, excluding the bull?
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Whipsnade really never had that many Indian rhinos untill resent years and with the two new female imports both now with calfs. For many years they only had a pair of them, the only Indian rhinos in the UK.

The Indian rhinos at the SD WAP started with the one pair from the SD zoo on which they built up the herd over a number of years, quite a few of the females roam the asia exibit with the bull, but they also now have other holding yards if and when they are needed
 
kiang said:
It also looks as though Erfurt have bred a white rhino whether this is recent, i don't know.
YouTube - Nashornbaby
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Previous births 2008:
Erfurt: F born 6/1/2008
Whipsnade: M born ca. 29/4/2008

+ stillbirth at Bandholm, Denmark :eek:


The South Lakes calf is called Nyala and happily also a female (b. 1/6/2008)!

So tally onwards 2008:
Dalton on Furness: F born 1/6/2008
Dublin: F born ?/5-6/2008
 
There is the issue of a lack of second generation breeding with White Rhino and it may still be too early to see whether that has been resolved. The population in captivity will certainly experience a boom in the next few years as all the recently imported animals start to breed, but the real challenge is when their own offspring reach sexual maturity.
 
johnstoni said:
There is the issue of a lack of second generation breeding with White Rhino and it may still be too early to see whether that has been resolved. The population in captivity will certainly experience a boom in the next few years as all the recently imported animals start to breed, but the real challenge is when their own offspring reach sexual maturity.
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I gather that this is an unknown source of problem? Seems strange that first generation breeds but the second wont! :confused:
 
taun said:
I gather that this is an unknown source of problem? Seems strange that first generation breeds but the second wont! :confused:
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It is an odd situation. But then White Rhino originally took a lot longer to breed successfully in captivity than either Blacks or Indians. So there are obviously some secrets still contained in its breeding biology that haven't been revealed to us yet.
 
It will become clear in 10-20 years whether the current hypotheses for the reasons behind this are correct or not. Hopefully there won't be such an urgency to solve it, though, assuming 'wild' numbers continue to recover.
 
I believe all of Whipsnade's female white rhino except one original(imported) female were born at Whipsnade so are 2nd generation. This group are still breeding okay with a new unrelated bull..
 
Yes, it is strange and I wonder what factor occurred at Whipsnade that other collections weren't able to replicate.
 
johnstoni said:
Yes, it is strange and I wonder what factor occurred at Whipsnade that other collections weren't able to replicate.
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Is this the case also with San Diego Wild Park? As they also imported a large number of founder members!
 
johnstoni said:
Yes, it is strange and I wonder what factor occurred at Whipsnade that other collections weren't able to replicate.
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I wonder if its to do with the fact these females were all born where they live now, so have had the same management(and female companions) throughout their life-no stress or disturbance from being moved to other locations and they still live in a herd situation, although its less than half the size it used to be.

Many other parks have even smaller numbers and the zoo-bred offspring have possibly been moved about a lot more. Are there stress/incompatability factors at work in the zoobred offspring?
 
Pertinax said:
I wonder if its to do with the fact these females were all born where they live now, so have had the same management(and female companions) throughout their life-no stress or disturbance from being moved to other locations and they still live in a herd situation, although its less than half the size it used to be.

Many other parks have even smaller numbers and the zoo-bred offspring have possibly been moved about a lot more. Are there stress/incompatability factors at work in the zoobred offspring?
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Maybe, but then wouldn't the moving of wild born animals be potential more stressful? Were as zoo bred animals are a little more use to louder noises. Therefore more likely not to get as stressed being moved about?
 
The key may be a stable core group of cows and offspring where the females are kept and the males move in and out of the collection...
 
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