Rhino horny

Sumatran rhinos – which descended from Ice Age woolly rhinos, by the way – are perhaps the most endangered mammals on earth. There are only 10 living in zoos worldwide and fewer than 200 in the wild. The Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden lost the most prolific captive male Sumatran rhinoceros in history when their resident for the past 22 years, Ipuh (PICTURED ABOVE), died at the estimated age 33 in February. But prolific by rhino standards is quite modest because they are such solitary animals. Ipuh sired 3 calves, Andalas (2001), Suci (2004), and Harapan (2007). Now in a desperate attempt to save the species, the zoologists in Cincinnati will attempt to mate 6-year-old Harapan (transferred from the Los Angeles Zoo) with his 8-year-old sister Suci, despite the ramifications of inbreeding. "When your species is almost gone, you just need animals and that matters more than genes right now - these are two of the youngest, healthiest animals in the population," explains Terri Roth, director of the zoo's Center for Research of Endangered Wildlife. It is ironic that captive breeding programs are having such difficulty mating rhinoceroses when one of the key reasons they are so near extinction is that their horns are so highly prized as aphrodisiacs.

 

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