Cincinnati Zoo Attempts Breeding Between Rhino Siblings To Save the Endangered Species

Scientists at the Cincinnati Zoo are attempting to mate a lone female Sumatran rhino with her male siblings in order to protect the critically endangered rhino species.

This desperate preservation attempt follows a recent crisis summit held in Singapore where the conservationists stated that as few as 100 Sumatran rhinos exist in their native Southeast Asia

Scientists at the Zoo are trying to mate the eight-year-old Suci with her little Brother Harapan who is six years old.  

 "We don't like to do it, and long term, we really don't like to do it," Roth said to WCPO, adding that the siblings' parents were genetically diverse, which is a positive for the plan. "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."

In the beginning of the mid 1980's the population of these two horned, hairy rhinos sharply dropped by 90 percent mainly due to the destruction of the habitat as well increase in poaching as the animal is prized for its horns.

The Cincinnati Zoo had initiated the rhino species captive breeding project. Till date the zoo has produced three rhinos from captive breeding.

To save the Sumatran rhinos, known to be direct descendants of the woolly rhinos from Ice Age, the zoo authorities got back Harapan to the Cincinnati Zoo. He was born there in 2007 but was shifted to White Oak Conservation Center, Florida, and later to Los Angeles Zoo. Harapan is one of the three Sumatran rhinos born under the successful captive breeding program.

"We absolutely need more calves for the population as a whole; we have to produce as many as we can as quickly as we can," said Terri Roth, who heads the zoo's Center for Research of Endangered Wildlife. "The population is in sharp decline and there's a lot of urgency around getting her pregnant."

But the critics of captive breeding programs strongly believe that such projects cause more harm than good to the species as animals born in captivity lack good survival skills and struggle in the wild. Apart from this, the techniques used in animal inbreeding increase the chances of defective genes among the offspring.

If this attempt by Cincinnati Zoo clicks, then the zoo will celebrate a fourth Sumatran rhino birth 16 months later.