simple nails: 1867 save the Rhino, tribute to Angalifu

Friday, May 1, 2015

1867 save the Rhino, tribute to Angalifu

from Wikipedia :

Angalifu (pronounced "ang-uh-LEEF-oo";[3] 1970–2014) was a captive northern white rhinoceros held at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park. He was one of six living northern white rhinoceroses in the world, one of two living males in the world, and the only male on the American continents.[2]

Angalifu was born in the wild c. 1970 before being caught and sent to the Khartoum Zoo in Khartoum, Sudan. In 1990, he was transferred on loan to the San Diego Zoo Safari Park, where he lived until his death from old age on December 14, 2014.[1][4]

Wild population

The northern white rhino (Ceratotherium simum cottoni) formerly ranged over parts of northwestern Uganda, southern South Sudan, the eastern part of Central African Republic, and northeastern Democratic Republic of the Congo. Their range possibly extended as far west as Lake Chad, into Chad and Cameroon.[citation needed]

In 2006, there were only four northern white rhinos left in the wild, according to the World Wide Fund for Nature.[8] However, in June 2008 it was reported that the subspecies could be extinct in the wild since none of these four known remaining individuals had been seen since 2006.[9]

Poachers reduced their population from 500 to 15 in the 1970s and 1980s. From the early 1990s through mid-2003, the population recovered to more than 32 animals. Surveys in 2000 indicated the population had started recovering, with 30 animals confirmed in 2000, and possibly six others. Since mid-2003, poaching had intensified and reduced the wild population to only 5 to 10 animals . Four rhinos living in Garamba National Park were the last known wild northern white rhinos; they have not been seen in recent years and it is feared they have been killed. If confirmed, this would make the northern white rhino extinct in the wild apart from the last-chance efforts by the Ol Pejeta Conservancy to reintroduce it in a wild state. Indeed, as of 2011, the total number of northern white rhinos on the planet is reported to be five males and two females (3 in captivity and 4 in conservancy).

On 28 November 2009, two Russian helicopter pilots had

seen Northern White Rhinos in southern Sudan. It is probable that the three rhinoceroses that were spotted belong to this subspecies, as other rhinoceroses have not been living in the area for a long time.