Southern White Rhino

Ceratotherium simum simum

General Description

Scientific Name: Ceratotherium simum simum

Subspecies: No Subspecies

Status: Near Threatened (decreasing)

Population Estimate: 10,800

Population in Assessed Areas: Confidential

Diet: Herbivore - grazier

Male Size: 2,000-3,600 Kgs

Female Size: 1,600-1,700 Kgs

Trophy Size: N/a

Generation Length: 12 years

Reproductive Season: Year Round

Time of Activity: Diurnal

Description: The southern white rhinoceros is one of largest and heaviest land animals in the world. It has an immense body and large head, a short neck and broad chest. Females weigh around 1,600–1,700 kg (3,530–3,750 lb) and males around 2,000–2,300 kg (4,410–5,070 lb), with specimens of up to 3,600 kilograms (7,940 lb) considered reliable, and larger sizes up to 4,500 kg (9,920 lb) claimed but not verified. The head-and-body length is 3.35–4 m (11.0–13.1 ft) and a shoulder height of 160–186 cm (5.25–6.10 ft).

It has two horns on its snout. The front horn is larger than the other horn and averages 60 cm (24 in) in length and can reach 166 cm (65 in) in females. Females usually have longer but thinner horns than the males, who have larger but shorter ones. The southern white rhinoceros also has a prominent muscular hump that supports its large head. The colour of this animal can range from yellowish brown to slate grey. Most of its body hair is found on the ear fringes and tail bristles, with the rest distributed sparsely over the rest of the body. The southern white rhino has a distinctive flat, broad mouth that is used for grazing, and because of this, they have the widest set of nostrils of any land-based animal. Southern white rhinos are strictly herbivores (graminivores) that feed on short grasses.

Ecology: White rhinos are found in grassland and savannah habitat. Herbivore grazers habitat that eat grass, preferring the shortest grains, the white rhinoceros is one of the largest pure grazers. It drinks twice a day if water is available, but if conditions are dry it can live four or five days without water. It spends about half of the day eating, one-third resting, and the rest of the day doing various other things. White rhinos, like all species of rhinoceros, love wallowing in mud holes to cool down. The white rhinoceros is thought to have changed the structure and ecology of the savanna's grasslands. Comparatively, based on studies of the African elephant, scientists believe the white rhino is a driving factor in its ecosystem. The destruction of the megaherbivore could have serious cascading effects on the ecosystem and harm other animals

Behavior: White rhinos live in crashes or herds of up to 14 animals (usually mostly female). Sub-adult bulls will congregate, often in association with an adult cow. Most adult bulls are solitary. Dominant bulls mark their territory with excrement and urine. The dung is laid in well defined piles. It may have 20 to 30 of these piles to alert passing white rhinos that it is his territory. Another way of marking their territory is wiping their horns on bushes or the ground and scraping with their feet before urine spraying. They do this around ten times an hour while patrolling territory. The same ritual as urine marking except without spraying is also commonly used. The territorial male will scrape-mark every 30 m (100 ft) or so around its territory boundary. Subordinate males do not mark territory. The most serious fights break out over mating rights with a female. Female territory overlaps extensively, and they do not defend it.

White rhinos produce sounds that include a panting contact call, grunts and snorts during courtship, squeals of distress, and deep bellows or growls when threatened. Threat displays (in males mostly) include wiping its horn on the ground and a head-low posture with ears back, combined with snarl threats and shrieking if attacked. The vocalizations of the two species differ between each other, and the panting contact calls between individual white rhinos in each species can vary as well. The differences in these calls aid the white rhinos in identifying each other and communicating over long distances. The white rhinoceros is quick and agile and can run 50 km/h (31 mph).

rhinoceros-Ongava-Africa-Namibia-Game-Reserve-Mother.webp

Reproduction: Females reach sexual maturity at 6–7 years of age while males reach sexual maturity between 10 and 12 years of age. Courtship is often a difficult affair. The bull stays beyond the point where the cow acts aggressively and will give out a call when approaching her. The bull chases and or blocks the way of the cow while squealing or wailing loudly if the cow tries to leave his territory. When ready to mate, the cow curls her tail and gets into a stiff stance during the half-hour copulation.

Breeding pairs stay together between 5–20 days before they part their separate ways. The gestation period of a white rhino is 16 months. A single calf is born and usually weighs 40–65 kg (88–143 lb). Calves are unsteady for their first two to three days of life. When threatened, the baby will run in front of the mother, which is very protective of her calf and will fight for it vigorously. Weaning starts at two months, but the calf may continue suckling for over 12 months. The birth interval for the white rhino is between two and three years. Before giving birth, the mother will chase off her current calf. White rhinos can live to be up to 40–50 years old.

Predation: Due to their size, adult white rhinos have no natural predators (other than humans), and even young rhinos are rarely attacked or preyed on due to the mother's presence and their tough skin. One exceptional, successful attack was perpetrated by a lion pride on a sick bull white rhinoceros, which weighed 1,540 kg (3,400 lb), and occurred in Mala Mala Game Reserve, South Africa.

Conservation Analysis

Map of Southern White Rhino Distribution

Current & Historic range: Two subspecies of White Rhino are currently recognised, the Northern and the Southern, each having a strikingly discontinuous range in recent times. However there is fossil evidence the species used to have a continuous distribution and there is genetic evidence of probable post divergence secondary contact during the last interglacial (14,000 to 26,000 years ago) facilitated by savanna grassland expansion at that time (Moodley et al. 2018). It's also likely that White rhinos of some subspecies roamed across areas of Tanzania, Kenya, Ethiopia and parts of North Africa during the Holocene, though this has not been conclusively proven.

Sizeable populations occur in the greater Kruger National Park (which incorporates additional private and state reserves) and Hluhluwe-iMfolozi Park (the original source of all surviving Southern White Rhino alive today), but also occur in numerous state protected areas and private reserves (some of which are also well protected) throughout the country. Live sales, limited sport hunting and ecotourism have historically provided incentives which has resulted in a significant expansion of range and numbers on private land - especially in the major Range State South Africa. There are now more White Rhino on private land in South Africa than there are rhino in the whole of the rest of Africa. However increased poaching since 2007, resultant significantly increased security costs and reduced and limited economic incentives for their conservation have resulted in significantly reduced demand for white rhino. Live sale prices of surplus White Rhino have declined significantly (Emslie et al. 2019) and an increasing number of owners seeking to get rid of their rhino. If it expands to larger populations this trend may threaten the continued expansion of range, and has the potential to also significantly reduce conservation budgets (due to declining live sales). Lower removal rates from established populations will negatively affect metapopulation growth rates in future as well as reduce budgets for conservation.

There are smaller reintroduced subpopulations within the historical range of the species in Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe and Eswatini (formerly Swaziland). The small number that survived in Mozambique were poached out, but some animals have crossed the border into Mozambique from Kruger Park in South Africa. While they used to have a very limited lifespan if not chased back across the border into South Africa small numbers now survive in some areas due to improved protection. Populations of Southern White Rhino have also been introduced outside of the known former range of the subspecies to Kenya, Uganda and to Zambia (Emslie and Brooks 1999, Emslie et al. 2007).

Current & Historic Populations: Though it's unknown exactly how many White Rhinos once existed across their historical range, the number likely ranged at around half a million. As of 31 December 2017, there were an estimated 18,064 White Rhino in the wild. The majority (99.3% ) of White Rhino occur in just five countries (South Africa, Namibia, Kenya, Botswana and Zimbabwe,

Once widespread in the bushveld areas of southern Africa south of the Zambezi River, the Southern White Rhino was on the brink of extinction by the end of the 19th century having been reduced to just one small population of approximately 20–50 animals in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. However, by the end of 2012, after years of protection and many translocations, the subspecies had grown to an estimated 21,316 wild animals. Following poaching increases estimated numbers had declined about 15% to 18,064 by the end of 2017 with bootstrapped 90% confidence levels of 17,212 to 18,915. South Africa remains the stronghold for this subspecies (~86.5%) conserving an estimated 18,933 individuals by the end of 2012.

Smaller reintroduced subpopulations occur within former Range States in Botswana, Namibia, Eswatini, and Zimbabwe; subpopulations of free-ranging Southern White Rhino have also been established outside their historical range in Kenya, Zambia and more recently Uganda although Uganda is a former Ceratotherium simum cottoni Range State and an ~3,500 year old White Rhino subfossil indicates at one stage Kenya was also once a White Rhino Range State. Numbers of White Rhino under private ownership continue to increase.

Southern White Rhino Population Data

Country	Population Estimate	Population Status	Last Assessed
Zimbabwe
Zambia
Uganda
Tanzania
South Sudan
Rwanda
Nigeria
Mozambique
Malawi
Kenya
Gabon
Equatorial Guinea
Democratic Republic of Congo
Central African Republic
Cameroon
Angola
South Africa

*Further data on Common Hippo populations and harvest numbers outside of South Africa and Namibia are largely incomplete, and hence it has not been evaluated by us. It is our goal to expand into other African Nations soon, so please do be patient with us.

Threats to Species Survival: The main threat to the population is illegal hunting (poaching) to supply the illegal international rhino horn trade. It is estimated that currently around 95% of rhino horn sourced in Africa for end user illegal markets in SE Asia are from this source. Rhino horn has traditionally had two main uses, in Chinese medicine, and ornamental use. Recently rhino horn has become a highly prized material for making carved expensive high-status items such bowls and bangles. In the past it was also used to produce ornately carved handles for ceremonial daggers (jambiyas) worn in Yemen and some Middle East countries. Historically rhino horn was also used in traditional Chinese medicine (as a fever reducer). However, most recently it appears to be shavings from carvings that are illegally sold to the medicinal market at lower prices than worked items. Until recently, at the continental species level, poaching of White Rhinos has not had a serious impact on overall numbers of White Rhinos in Africa, with poaching losses in parts of the range being surpassed by encouraging growth rates in others. However following declines in the largest subpopulation (Greater Kruger) continental numbers declined by an estimated 15% from 2012 to 2015. While poaching levels increased dramatically from 2007 to 2014, numbers of White Rhinos reported poached have declined in each of the four years every year since, and half year reported poaching in 2019 in the major Range State, South Africa indicates this trend is possibly continuing. See attached Supplementary Material for graphs of reported poaching numbers by year.

The significantly increased poaching since 2007 has greatly increased protection costs and risks to investment and staff. This has resulted in declining live sale prices and reduced incentives. Some private owners in South Africa have got rid of their rhino. If this worrying trend continues this threatens to possibly reverse the expansion of range and has the potential to also significantly reduce conservation budgets (due to declining live sales at lower prices). However, so far there appears to be a consolidation of White Rhino into larger subpopulations.

Recommended Conservation Actions:

Further resource and manage protected areas where Southern White Rhino exist.
Increase the access to funding and the effectiveness of anti-poaching techniques across Southern Africa, to make rhino protection as affordable as possible.
Encourage the implementation of economic incentives that allow landowners to profit off the presence of healthy Common Hippo populations, whether that be through hunting or ecotourism.
Improve survey methods to get accurate population data, such as implementing long-term monitoring programs.

Economic & Cultural Analysis

Ecotourism Value: Extremely High

Hunting Value: Extremely High

Meat Value: Moderate-high

Average Trophy Value: $20,000 - 150,000 USD

Vita Dart Price: $8,000 - $22,000

Meat Yield per Animal: 800-1,800 kg

Economic Value/Impacts: Southern White Rhino present considerable value to both the ecotourism and hunting industries across their range, as well as to rural and hunter-gatherer peoples that have likely hunted and lived alongside this species for thousands of years. Their large body size meant that each animal produces a considerable amount of meat, that can feed and entire village for weeks.

White Rhinos are one of the most iconic wildlife species on the African continent, matched only by lions and elephants. Because of this, the mere presence of hippos on a property can be a significant drawcard for ecotourism reserves, and are often one of the most sought after species on game drives. This value is realized across numerous game reserves in South Africa, that take on the expenses of protecting them from the onslaught of poachers, because tourists are highly motivated to visit reserves with abundant populations of rhinos.

As rhinos numbers have begun to increase in South Africa, limited trophy hunting has also been identified as a sustainable source of revenue for reserves, some of which have excess animals that can't just be relocated onto other reserves across the country. Prices of these rhino hunts can be astronomically high, ranging from just over $20,000 for a female cull tag, to over $150,000 for a mature bull with a massive horn. Another alternative hunting revenue stream based of White Rhinos are Vita Dart hunts, where the animal isn't actually killed, but instead just partially sedated for veterinary checkups. The price for such hunts is usually between $8,000 USD to $22,000 USD, depending on the animal and the lodge.

Cultural Value: Historically, the major factor in the decline of white rhinos was uncontrolled hunting in the colonial era, but now poaching for their horn is the primary threat. The white rhino is particularly vulnerable to hunting because it is a large and relatively unaggressive animal with very poor eyesight and generally living in herds. They were prized for their impressive trophy size through, which compared to other living rhino species, is significantly larger.

Despite the lack of scientific evidence, the rhino horn is highly prized in traditional Asian medicine, where it is ground into a fine powder or manufactured into tablets to be used as a treatment for a variety of illnesses such as nosebleeds, strokes, convulsions, and fevers. Due to this demand, several highly organized and very profitable international poaching syndicates came into being and would carry out their poaching missions with advanced technologies ranging from night vision scopes, silenced weapons, darting equipment, and even helicopters. The ongoing conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo and incursions by poachers, primarily coming from Sudan, have further disrupted efforts to protect the few remaining northern rhino

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