White Rhinoceros

• Context (TH): Scientists in Berlin announced the first successful embryo transfer in a white rhinoceros.
• The scientists turned to in-vitro fertilisation, harvesting the eggs of female northern white rhinos and using sperm from dead male rhinos of the subspecies to produce embryos that will be transferred to southern white rhino surrogate mothers.
• White Rhinos are also known as the square-lipped rhinoceros due to their square upper lip.
• Their name comes from the Afrikaans word “weit”, which means wide and refers to the animal’s muzzle. There is no difference in the skin colour of white and black rhinos.
• There are two subspecies of white rhino:
  1. Southern white rhinos: Ceratotherium simum simum
  2. Northern white rhinos: Ceratotherium simum cottoni (only two animals remaining)
• White rhinos are the second largest land mammal after the elephant.
• They are the only grazer among the five rhino species, feeding almost exclusively on short grasses.
• They have two horns on the end of their nose. The front horn is usually much larger than the inner horn.
• Range: Although the Southern white rhino is one of the more prevalent species, the Northern white rhino is Critically Endangered with only two individuals left, living at Ol Pejeta Conservancy in Kenya.
  • The Southern white rhino can be found mostly in South Africa, with smaller translocated populations found in Kenya, Namibia and Zimbabwe.

  

• Habitat: Long and short grass Savannahs.
• IUCN Status: Northern White Rhino: Critically Endangered | Southern White Rhino: Near Threatened

Status of Rhino Species