Illegal killings reached a peak of more than 1,200 in 2014 and a drought the next year has left the Kruger National Park, where the bulk of South Africa’s rhinos live, with only 3,549 white rhinos, according to the 2020 annual report of South African National Parks. Otherwise it will go extinct if it’s under so much stress. “To save the species you need to breed it. “The project needs a new custodian to take over, someone who’s got the vision and the same passion,” said Tammy Hume, a spokeswoman for Platinum Rhino, where about 100 rhinos are born every year. The trade is banned as its use in East Asia for alleged cancer cures and virility boosters has led to an illicit market that has caused rampant poaching. White rhinos mainly live in South Africa, but they have also been. John Hume, the owner of the ranch, failed in his attempts to legalize the trade in rhino horns - which can be sawn off live rhinos and grow back - rendering the project too costly to keep running, the company said. The southern white rhinoceros is one of largest and heaviest land animals in the world.It has an immense body and large head, a short neck and broad chest. The African rhino is divided into two species, the black rhino and the white rhino. "This is the only way to preserve the long-term genetic heritage of the species," concludes Dr Kretzschmar.The sale of the 2,000 endangered rhinos, equipment and the land at the Platinum Rhino Project, which is about 155 kilometers (96 miles) southwest of Johannesburg, comes as South Africa fights to protect rhinos in its nature reserves against illegal hunters who have decimated the wild population. A crash of Southern white (or square-lipped) Rhinoceros or simply 'white rhino' make their way to the water and one stops for a quick mud-bath. The researchers therefore recommend permanent monitoring of offspring and their genetic relatedness to rhinos nearby and a regular exchange of unrelated animals between protected areas. They cannot disperse far enough to avoid inbreeding," comments Dr Alexandre Courtiol, senior author of the study. This species eats grass, and does not typically eat leaves or other plant products. All rhinoceros are herbivores, which means they eat plants. Southern white rhinos live in South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Zambia, Kenya, and Uganda. "Today, all remaining rhinos live in modestly sized conservation areas and private game reserves surrounded by fences or human settlements. Nowadays, the only known northern white rhinos live in zoos. In the past, this mating behaviour was presumably not problematic because rhinos were able to leave the home ranges of their mothers and were thus not living near family members. Finally, the reproductive success of males is very unequal, so that a few males dominate the gene pool in the next generation. Moreover, rhinos do not avoid reproducing with family members, as known for many other species. Many females stick to the same partner over several consecutive breeding periods, so all their offspring inherit genes from the same father. The combination of field data with the genetic analysis of paternity of 172 individuals identified three aspects of the mating behaviour of white rhinos that encourage the loss of genetic diversity. "This is why it took us 13 years of field research to uncover the secrets of their mating behaviour," she continues. "They live on their own and only get together shortly before mating," says Dr Kretzschmar. They did not expect females to keep mating with the same male for several reproductive cycles because long-term bonds with mating partners were previously unknown for rhinos. Today the biggest difference between the two is that the southern white rhino population is thriving, at least by rhino standards. The scientists were surprised by their findings. Southern white rhinos lived in the open savannah. It is an adoptable animal in Zoo Tycoon (Xbox). "We need to keep the white rhinos as genetically diverse as possible, if we want to give them a chance to adapt to anthropogenic challenges such as poaching, climate change or diseases," explains Dr Petra Kretzschmar, the leading author of the study and a scientist at the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research (Leibniz-IZW). The Southern White Rhinoceros (Ceratotherium simum simum) is a large African ungulate. The findings of this new scientific study suggest that the unusual mating behaviour of the white rhinos encourages the loss of genetic diversity. As a consequence, all white rhinos are depauperate in terms of their genetic diversity. All currently living white rhinos originate from this small founder population. During the colonial period, intense hunting decimated white rhinos to a few individuals. Understanding sexual behaviour and mate choice is important for optimising conservation efforts of white rhinos.
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