While these numbers remain concerning, they represent a marked decline from the peak of the crisis when 1,349 African rhinos were poached in 2015 amid a huge rise in killings from the early 2000s. There were 561 rhinos killed in Africa during 2022, a rise from 501 in 2021 and 503 in 2020. In March last year, a female was born in captivity in Indonesia after several miscarriages. Officially, about 80 Sumatran rhinos remain, but experts believe there may be as few as 34, often in small fragments of forest where it is almost impossible for them to find each other and breed. The only remaining individuals live as part of a small population isolated in a single protected area, Ujung Kulon National Park, Java, Indonesia. The Javan and Sumatran rhino, meanwhile, remain critically endangered, in steady decline, and appear likely to go extinct. The Javan rhino (Rhinoceros sondaicus) is one of the most threatened mammals on Earth. “It is imperative to further consolidate and build on this positive development and not drop our guard.” “With this good news, we can take a sigh of relief for the first time in a decade,” said Dr Michael Knight, the chair of the IUCN rhino group. This increase has happened despite a rise in black rhinos killed by poachers, and has been aided by conservationists establishing new populations that have grown in size. Females will mate as soon as they become sexually viable, to maximize the. Most male rhinos however, reach sexual maturity in eight years. Males usually mature more slowly, and can take as long as ten or twelve years before reproducing. In 2021, the world’s rhino population was estimated to be 26,272.īlack rhinos, native to east and southern Africa, have been heavily depleted by poaching for their horns but last year increased by nearly 5%, rising from 6,195 at the end of 2021 to 6,487 at the end of 2022. Rhinoceros females can attain sexual maturity as early as three years of age, but usually closer to six years. Sources | (IRF, 2011 van Strien, et al.Figures released by the IUCN African Rhino Specialist Group, the conservation body, indicate that the global rhino population increased to about 27,000 at the end of last year, with southern white rhino numbers increasing for the first time since 2012, from 15,942 at the end of 2021 to 16,803.Image | © Willem van der Merwe (WillemSvdMerwe), All Rights Reserved.This urgently-needed second population could ease the pressure on Ujung Kulon, offer breeding space for the Javan rhino, and provide the best possible hope for the species’ survival. In order to give the species a greater chance of long-term survival, authorities are now working with the World Wildlife Fund for Nature (WWF) and other organizations in order to study the feasibility of translocating and reintroducing rhinos from Ujung Kulon National Park to establish a second population in another suitable and secure habitat. The International Rhino Foundation (IRF) has funded a Rhino Protection Unit (RPU) in the Ujung Julon National Park in Java, Indonesia in order to guard and protect the last remaining viable population of Javan rhinos from poaching. The Javan rhinoceros’ population has been inching up over the past five years. The Javan rhinoceros population in Ujung Julon National Park has been increasing over the past 5 years and the feasibility of establishing a second population in another suitable, secure habitat is being considered.
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