GA4

Tuesday, April 04, 2006

WHITE RHINOS - Southern White Rhino Round-Up

Click2Houston.com has sad news of the death of Marci, a Southern White Rhino who had been at Houston Zoo for 35 years.
Somebody else is also feeling her loss: Bu, the other rhino at the zoo.

On Friday morning, Bu slowly walked around his yard as if looking for something.

Rhinos are nearsighted and depend mainly on their hearing and sense of smell. Marci's scent was still in the pen, and will linger there for days. Marci was 38 when she died Thursday morning.

In happier news, ABC Western Plains NSW (Australia) reports on the birth of a Southern White Rhino at Western Plains Zoo.
While the southern version of the rhino has come back from the brink of extinction, the northern White Rhino is still critically endangered. Numbers were as low as 50 last century but the southern white has come back and now numbers over 11,000. The same can't be said further north where limited rangelands and poaching for their horns are taking a significant toll.

The new addition in Dubbo is the tenth Southern White Rhino to be born here equalling the number of Black Rhino births at Western Plains Zoo.