Saving Rhinos from South Africa

The San Diego Zoo Safari Park received some big arrivals Thursday evening: six southern white rhinos arrived via a chartered DC11 flight from South Africa. The female rhinos, between four and seven years of age, were relocated to the Safari Park from private reserves in South Africa as part of a collaborative conservation effort to save the critically endangered northern white rhino and all rhino species from extinction.
A member of the Safari Park animal care staff flew to South Africa earlier this week to accompany the rhinos, along with a veterinarian from South Africa, on the 22-hour flight from Johannesburg to San Diego. The rhinos were transported in individual crates specially designed for the transport. Upon arrival in San Diego, the crates were loaded onto two flat bed trucks and driven to the Safari Park’s new Rhino Rescue Center, built specifically for the new arrivals. Once at the Park, a team of veterinarians and keepers unloaded the animals into fenced yards, where they will remain under a mandatory quarantine for at least 30 days.
“We are beyond thrilled to welcome these southern white rhinos to the San Diego Zoo Safari Park and our new Rhino Rescue Center”, said Steve Metzler, interim associate curator of mammals, who accompanied the animals from South Africa to San Diego. “The animals did extremely well during the flight, eating normally and sleeping a good portion of the long trip. Our priority now is to ensure the rhinos are comfortable and acclimating to their new surroundings.”
San Diego Zoo Global has been working for decades, along with other accredited zoos, to keep a sustainable population of rhinos safe under human care while working to protect them in sanctuaries in the wild. To further this commitment, the Rhino Rescue Center was recently built to house the new southern white rhinos, establishing the Safari Park as a sanctuary to protect these rhinos-at a time when an average of three rhinos are killed each day in the wild by poachers.
Poaching of all rhino species has reached critically high numbers in recent years. A rhino is poached every 8 hours in South Africa. Rhinos are poached for their horns; their horn is made of keratin, the same thing as our fingernails. At this rate of poaching, rhinos could become extinct in 15 years.
The northern white rhino is the most critically endangered rhino with only four individuals remaining in the world. The San Diego Zoo Safari Park is home to Nola, a female 41-year-old northern white rhino. Three other northern white rhinos (one male and two females) are in the Ol Pejeta Conservancy in Kenya.
The six female southern white rhinos will be a part of San Diego Zoo Global’s science-based rhino conservation efforts to save the northern white rhino. Researchers at the San Diego Zoo Institute for Conservation Research, along with collaborators, are developing reproductive techniques to develop northern white rhino embryos (from cells stored in the Frozen Zoo) to be implanted in the southern white rhinos who will serve as surrogate mothers. There are many challenges ahead, but researchers are optimistic a northern white rhino calf could be born from these processes within ten to fifteen years. These technologies may also be applied to other rhino species, including the critically endangered Sumatran and Javan rhino.
San Diego Zoo Global has one of the most successful rhino breeding programs in the world. To date, a total of 94 southern white rhinos, 68 greater one-horned rhinos and 14 black rhinos have been born at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park.
For more information on San Diego Zoo Global’s rhino conservation efforts visit sandiegozoo.org/rhinorescue.