![]() A subsequent study by some of the same authors, with a higher sample of individuals and additional restriction enzymes, estimated the mtDNA divergence between the two white rhinos at 1.4%, and the inter-generic divergence at 4.5%. , using restriction enzyme analysis of mtDNA on a single individual of each white rhino subspecies, found 4% difference, compared to about 7% between white and black rhinos. found a fixed difference in serum esterase between the two white rhino taxa – ES3 being present in all southern white rhinos (n = 23), but in none of the northern (n = 7). studied some of the same individuals of northern white rhinos and found much greater protein polymorphism, which they attributed to the use of more sophisticated and sensitive methods. Estimates of heterozygosity were low for all rhino taxa examined in their study and less than 0.1% of loci were polymorphic in any of the three taxa. found electrophoretic variation on 25 allozyme loci between northern and southern white rhinos to be unexpectedly low: Nei's distance was 0.005, compared with a distance of 0.32 between Ceratotherium and Diceros. The chromosomes of northern and southern white rhinos apparently do not differ consistently the typical diploid number is 82, but a northern male had 2n = 81 (heterozygous for a Robertsonian translocation) as did his two female offspring. Genetics has become an important criterion in establishing taxonomic identity. The reality of these distinctions needs to be examined. The external phenotypic differences between Northern and Southern forms of White Rhino tentatively raised by Groves have been extended and supplemented by Hillman-Smith and colleagues. ![]() Further material and analysis has been published by Guérin –. Detailed information and measurements have been published on a remarkable Early Pleistocene skull KNM-ER 328C this had earlier been reported briefly by Hooijer. ![]() The metrical data of Groves, and some collected subsequently, can be re-analysed using sophisticated statistical packages that have become more readily available. In the thirty years since the last taxonomic revision of the White Rhinoceros, genus Ceratotherium, new material and analytical tools have become available, necessitating a reassessment of the taxon. The taxonomic status of the Northern form is central to determining its conservation importance and will be a critical driver of efforts to save it. Urgent and concerted effort is required to stave off its extinction. Teetering on the brink of extinction, its in-situ and ex-situ survival hang by a thread. In contrast, the once tolerably numerous Northern form has been reduced to a tiny remnant (less than 20) in the Garamba National Park, Democratic Republic of Congo, and a similar number in two zoos. After recovering from a handful of survivors at the turn of the 20 th century, the Southern form escaped relatively unscathed from the large-scale African rhino poaching epidemic of the 1980s. More southern white rhinoceroses are expected to be sent to Garamba National Park in the future.As much a cause for celebration the conservation success of the Southern white rhino is, equally shocking and dire is the fate of the Northern white rhino. "This reintroduction is the start of a process whereby southern white rhino as the closest genetic alternative can fulfill the role of the northern white rhino in the landscape," he said. But conflict, poaching and chronic insecurity in volatile Congo has decimated its wildlife over the years.Īfrican Parks CEO Peter Fearnhead was also quoted in the statement as saying that efforts to save the northern white rhinos in the park had been "too little, too late". The operation was led by the ICCN, conservation NGO African Parks, and Canadian mining firm Barrick Gold, which sponsored the rhino move.Įstablished in 1938, Garamba national park is one of Africa's oldest. "The return of white rhinos to the Democratic Republic of the Congo is a testament to our country's commitment to biodiversity conservation," Yves Milan Ngangay, the director general of the Congolese Institute for the Conservation of Nature (ICCN), said in a statement. The last northern white rhino in the park, which lies in the Democratic Republic of Congo's northeast, was poached in 2006.Īccording to a joint statement from the park and conservation groups, 16 southern white rhinos have been transported from a private reserve in South Africa to Garamba. ![]()
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