August 12, 2019

Late last month, on Sunday, July 28, a southern white rhinoceros calf was born at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park in southern California. The baby rhino, named Edward, marks the first instance of a successful artificial insemination (pregnancy induced by other than natural means) birth of a southern white rhino in North America. Artificial insemination of southern white rhinos, which were once endangered, has rarely been successful. Just two other southern white rhinos have been born this way prior to Edward’s joyful appearance. But baby Edward may soon have company. A second artificially inseminated southern white rhino is due to give birth at the safari park later this year.

One-day old Edward shelters beneath his mother, Victoria, at the Nikita Kahn Rhino Rescue Center at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park on July 29, 2019. Credit: © San Diego Zoo

Edward’s mother, Victoria, was artificially inseminated on March 22, 2018, following hormone-induced ovulation. White rhino gestation (the period of pregnancy) is normally around 485 days—but Victoria carried her calf for 493 days. That’s more than 16 months! The San Diego Zoo Safari Park, a center for the preservation and display of endangered species, has naturally bred southern white rhinos before. But the artificial insemination and Edward’s successful birth represented an important step in increasing white rhino as well as other rhinoceros populations that are critically endangered—particularly the northern white rhino, a subspecies of the southern white rhino.

Only two northern white rhinos remain on Earth, and both are female and beyond breeding age. The last male died in March 2018. Scientists have access to frozen reproductive material of the northern white rhino, however, and they hope to use artificial insemination or in vitro fertilization (IVF) to allow a southern white rhino to act as a surrogate mother. In IVF, an embryo is created in a laboratory and then transferred to a surrogate mother. Scientists hope to achieve a northern white rhino birth within the next 10 years. Without some form of assisted reproduction, the animals will soon be extinct.

Southern white rhinos, too, once stood on the brink of extinction. In the early 1900′s, overhunting and habitat loss had reduced Africa’s southern white rhino population to fewer than 50 animals. Protections and conservation measures allowed the population to rebound, however, and today thousands of animals live both in the wild and in parks and zoos around the world.

The white rhino is the largest of all rhinoceroses. It stands about 5 to 6 feet (1.5 to 1.8 meters) tall. In some cases, it may be over 6 feet (1.8 meters) tall and 15 feet (4.6 meters) long. It weighs up to 4 tons (3.6 metric tons). The animals face grave threats from habitat loss and poachers, who illegally kill rhinoceroses and sell their horns and skin. In some Asian traditions, the powdered horn of the rhinoceros is believed to have healing qualities. Rhinoceros skin, blood, and urine are also sometimes used in traditional medicine.

October 13, 2015

Most everybody knows that elephants are hunted illegally for their ivory. But fewer people know about a type of bird whose ivory is three times as valuable. The bird is the helmeted hornbill of Malaysia and Indonesia, and its survival is being threatened by poaching.

The hornbill, shown in this illustration, is a medium-sized to large tropical bird with a huge, bright red and yellow bill. Its body is covered with black feathers on top and white feathers on its underside. The bird uses its clumsy-looking bill with great skill while eating. WORLD BOOK illustration By Arthur Singer

Elephant ivory comes from the animal’s tusk. The hornbill’s “ivory,” on the other hand, comes from a ridge called a casque on the bird’s upper bill. In most hornbill species, the casque is hollow. But the helmeted hornbill has a solid casque. Males use the heavy casque to batter one another in fights over mates, and both males and females use its weight to help bash into rotten trees, digging out insects to eat.

The casque is made up of a protein called keratin, also found in human fingernails and in animal horns, hooves, and claws. The bird continuously conditions the casque with the same oil used to preen its feathers. The result is a smooth, creamy texture and golden-yellow color that has been prized by carvers in China and Japan for centuries.

Among the local Dayak people, the huge black and white bird—with a wingspread of about 6 feet (2 meters)—is considered a sacred messenger of the gods. It also serves an important role in its rain forest habitat, helping to disperse nuts and seeds in its droppings. Laws protect the helmeted hornbill, but its numbers are threatened by habitat loss in addition to illegal hunting. One researcher estimates that about 6000 helmeted hornbills are killed illegally each year.

December 1, 2014

Interpol, an international organization of police authorities, has launched its first operation asking for public assistance in locating and bringing to justice fugitives wanted specifically for crimes against the environment. The new Operation Infra (International Fugitive Round Up and Arrest) Terra includes a “Most Wanted” list of 9 of the 139 fugitives being sought for such crimes as wildlife trafficking, illegal logging, and trading in illegal ivory.

Environmental crime, according to Interpol, involves both wildlife crime–the illegal exploitation of the world’s wild flora and fauna–and pollution crime, the illegal trading and disposal of hazardous wastes or resources. Estimates of the annual value of environmental crime range from $70 billion to $213 billion. The illegal wildlife trade alone is worth some $19 billion a year, according to the International Fund for Animal Welfare. In recent years, terrorist organizations have turned to poaching and other forms of wildlife crime to fund their activities.

Poaching poses a major problem in a number of national parks that provide homes for threatened wildlife. This photograph shows elephant tusks that were seized from ivory poachers in Africa. (© Masterfile)

Among those on Interpol’s first environmental “Most Wanted” list are Italian Adriano Giacobone, wanted for, among other crimes, the illegal transport and discharge of toxic waste; Zambian Ben Simasiku, wanted for the unlawful possession of elephant tusks; and Indonesian Sudiman Sunoto, wanted for illegal logging. “We believe that the capture of these criminals on the run will contribute to the dismantlement of transnational crime groups who have turned environmental exploitation into a professional business with lucrative revenues,” said Interpol official Stefano Carvelli.

Additional World Book articles:

• Animal (The future of animals)
• Deforestation
• Elephant (Protecting elephants)
• Endangered species
• Rain forest (The future of rain forests)
• Wildlife conservation

Aug. 10, 2012

Lemurs, long-tailed, furry mammals related to monkeys, are probably the most endangered group of vertebrates (animals with backbones) on Earth, conservationists with the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) have reported. The IUCN, also known as The World Conservation Union, is a federation of government and private conservation organizations that works with countries and organizations around the world to save rare plant and animal species from extinction. Lemurs live in the wild only in the island countries of Madagascar and Comoros, which lie off the southeast coast of Africa. At a workshop in Madagascar, IUCN conservationists classified 23 of the 103 known species of lemur as critically endangered, the highest threat level. In 2008, the IUCN had reported that 8 species were critically endangered. Altogether, 91 percent of lemur species are currently in danger. As a result, these primates are more threatened than any other species of mammal as well as any species of reptile, amphibian, bird, or bony fish, according to the IUCN.

A poor country, Madagascar in recent years has been wracked by political upheaval that has severely limited government efforts to protect the tropical forests where the lemurs live. Conservationists cited both widespread illegal timber logging and an increase in hunting for bushmeat as reasons for the lemur’s accelerating decline. About 90 percent of Madagascar’s original forests, which once covered most of the island, have been cut down. The island’s lemurs and other tree-dwelling animals now survive in scattered sections of the surviving forests, mostly near the coast.

Additional World Book articles:

• Conservation
  
• Deforestation
  
• Poaching
  
• In the Treetops: Life in the Rain Forest Canopy (a Special Report)