Scientists from the Cincinnati Zoo are hoping to mate the zoo’s lone female Sumatran rhino with her male sibling as a way to promote the survival of the critically endangered species. The breeding effort between the rhino siblings, described as something that is done out of sheer desperation, is a response to the recently concluded crisis summit held in Singapore.
In the summit, animal conservation supporters declared that only 100 species of the two-horned hairy rhinos are remaining in their original Southeast Asian habitat. The number of these animals had sharply dropped by up to 90 percent beginning in the mid-1980s. Factors such as destruction of the animal’s habitat due to development and poaching to get the animal’s prized horns are said to have contributed to its population decline.
Overall, rhinos from around the globe have dwindled in number. The Sumatran species which are direct descendants of the woolly rhinos from Ice Age is said to be one of those species which is most critically endangered.
Meanwhile, the Cincinnati Zoo has pioneered the rhino species’ captive breeding project. So far, the zoo had successfully produced the first three rhinos that are born in captivity during modern times. Conservationists have brought back Harapan, a six-year-old rhino from the Los Angeles Zoo, to be reunited with his biological sister, eight-year-old Suci, in an attempt to mate the two.
Terri Roth, head of the zoo’s Center for Research of Endangered Wildlife, expressed that they have to produce as many rhinos as they can at the soonest possible time and more calves are actually needed for the population. The rhino population is now in sharp decline which calls for an urgency to get the female rhino, Suci, pregnant.
Captive breeding programs have often been criticized for doing more harm than good. Animals that are born in captivity have poor survival skills when they are thrown back in the wild.
Moreover, the method of animal inbreeding increases the chance of getting bad genetic combinations among the offspring.
Gestation period among Sumatran rhinos lasts 15 to 16 months. If the zoo’s breeding effort proves to be successful, it will be celebrating the birth of a fourth Sumatran rhino. When everything else fails, efforts to preserve the species will still be continued.
