The world rhino annual report was published by the International Rhino Foundation ahead of World Rhino Day on September 22.
- According to the report, the rhinoceros population across the world has increased slightly but so have the killings, mostly in South Africa, as poaching fed by huge demand for rhino horns remains a top threat.
- The number of white rhinos increased from 15,942 in 2022 to 17,464 in 2023, but the black and greater one-horned rhino stayed the same.
- Another subspecies, the northern white rhino, is technically extinct with only two females being kept in a secure private conservancy in Kenya.
- A trial is ongoing to develop embryos in the lab from an egg and sperm previously collected from white rhinos and transferring it into a surrogate female black rhino.
- The body of the last male northern white rhino, named Sudan, that died in 2018 has been preserved and displayed at the Museums of Kenya in Nairobi.
- With all five subspecies combined, there are just under 28,000 rhinos left in the world, from 500,000 at the beginning of the 20th century.
- Five rhino species are: Sumatran rhino, Javan rhino, Black rhino, White rhino and Greater one-horned rhino.
- Known as mega herbivores that mow the parks and create inroads for other herbivores, rhinos are also good for establishing forests by ingesting seeds and spreading them across the parks in their dung.
Rhino in India
- According to Assam Government, the state has seen a fivefold increase in its one-horned rhinoceros population over the past sixty years, growing from about 600 in the 1960s to over 3,000.
- This data was shared by the Assam government in celebration of World Rhino Day on 22nd September.
- The species is classified as ‘vulnerable’ on the IUCN Red List. Currently, 80 per cent of India’s rhino population is concentrated in Kaziranga National Park and Tiger Reserve, while Orang National Park hosts 4 per cent, Pobitora Wildlife Sanctuary 3 per cent, and Manas National Park 1 per cent.
- Apart from Assam, Jaldapara National Park accounts for 9 per cent of the country’s total rhinos, with Gorumara National Park in West Bengal housing 2 per cent, and Dudhwa National Park in Uttar Pradesh having 1 per cent.
