Northern White Rhino Dies In Czech Republic

KPBS midday edition, I am Maureen Cavanaugh. The tiny population of northern white rhinos that still survive in the world just got smaller. An elderly female rhino died this week at his suit in the Czech Republic. That leaves only for northern white rhinos note in existence, one who lives at the San Diego zoo Safari Park. The San Diego zoo's interest in preserving the species goes deeper than maintaining its own northern white rhino. San Diego zoo global is working to save the genome of this rhinoceros species at their so-called frozen zoo. It's effort to conserve some of the most endangered species on the planet even if it's only in cellular form. Joining me is Randy Rieches, curator of mammals, San Diego Zoo. David Archibald, emeritus professor of biology, San Diego State University Is also here. Welcome. What do we know about the white rhino, what did the animal diet? The thing we're hearing now from our counterparts at that zoo is that she had a cyst in her uterine tract that had ruptured and she had bled out. Those the cause of death for that animal. She has been called an elderly female. How old was she? We don't know hundred percent for sure, because she was a wild caught animal. We know she was over 40 years old and the longevity for that species is about 44 years, 10 months. Somehow slipped to 46 or 47. Because the rhinos are so rare, is the body preserved in any way? We note they have performed an necropsy on animal. Civil artifacts from the and a full -- animal, reproductive tract etc. has been sent to Italy to one of the people that Dr. Oliver writer here at the Institute for conservation and research has worked with before and continues to work with on this project. We know there have been several things that have been kept for later reproductive situations that may present themselves. Randy, we have one of the four remaining northern white rhinos where are they? There are currently one male and two females in Kenya. All three of those animals, two of them are about the same age as Nola. One of the females was born in 2000. Unfortunately, she has reproductive pathology that will prevent her from also reproducing. There are things we are considering with her and we will be going there shortly to have discussions with them to see if we can harvest selected things that will help us in our endeavors to save the species. So there may be some chance of reproducing a northern white rhino among the rhinos that still exist? We could possibly harvest oversight -- ova that we could look at, utilize them and using the seven white rhinos which are a separate sub species from this one. Is still gets is that possibility. David, do we know why this rhino species is threatened with extinction? I'm afraid all rhinos are threatened by human poaching. They have been hunted? Yes. Probably all of the five species are in danger of becoming extinct in the wild within a lifetime ago Even the southern white rhino. Randy might have over testing better numbers than I. Last I heard was maybe 20,000. At the rate the poaching is going on in South Africa, I don't know what the hope is that that one will survive in the wild. How is the San Diego zoo's Rosen zoo, how is that involved in the effort to save the rhinos? We have 12 cell lines currently in the frozen zoo from northern white rhinos. We have also many samples from southern white, greater one horn and black rhinos in our frozen zoo. We really look at what we're doing today with northern whites to try and save them, according to research that will possibly help us with some. Job intensive margins are the next two species on the brink. We're losing 3 to 4 rhinos a day in Africa. Likely, we don't have as large a bleed right now in Asia. But the populations are smaller. We're talking somewhere in the vicinity of 50 for one species. It's something we're looking at the research are doing right now on the northern white to learn and utilize at a later date with others because they are coming very plea to the brink. How many different animal species are preserved in the frozen zoo? We have over 10,000 samples. I'm not sure exactly what the species count is? We currently keep -- a time we do a mobilization, we do so lines. -- Cell lines. We also do semen and other specimens. You never know because of a species that is secure throughout its range today, in a year, could be going very quickly, case in point, we just had a catastrophic die off in Russia. We lost 132,000 animals in one event. You have a species in danger and you lose on a 3000 of them, that's over half the population you never know what you're going to need tomorrow. We continue to work towards working to the problems we see today. Things happen quickly. Unfortunately some works through the process a little more slowly. Reproductive technology, we learn a lot from humans. Some of the things we're learning, forcefully. This is the time of mass extension across the globe -- mass extinction. Yes. This is caused almost certainly by human beings. There have been live in the past before human beings existed. We have a cause for extinctions going on now for a variety of reasons. Between 30 and 50% of all species could be moving toward extinction by midcentury. Does that line up with the kind of information you have? Yes. There is a range of guesses but all of them are pretty dire. Even though 30%, that's terrific. What are the major reasons we heard you tell us about poaching, and we just heard about a mass extinction of over 100,000 animals. Will be the reasons for this? Some can be natural causes. There are cases such as the Tasmanian devil has had a virus that affected it. The San Diego zoo is trying to breathe some of those to allow them to be reintroduced. There are issues with sea level increase, acidification of the oceans, the pollution, loss of habitat, etc. the pollution, loss of habitat, etc. All except the first two are definitely human caused. The news at this week, that an American Hunter killed a favorite lion in Zimbabwe. It's only the tip of the iceberg. The international for animal welfare says an American Hunter recently paid $350,000 to kill a critically endangered black rhino in Namibia. With all the laws protecting endangered species, how does that go on? I visited last year and went to number parks in her loss of stories. The issue is, the corruption and a lot of these countries that allows high officials to accept kickbacks and bribes to allow some of the hunting to go on. Some of the places are well protected, others are not. You have to realize some of these huge areas, even if you armed patrols, it's very difficult to protect the animals. Besides the northern white rhino, with other endangered animals are actually at the San Diego zoo and the Safari Park? At the San Diego zoo Safari Park, we have currently 135 species or subspecies and right and about 1500 specimens. The San Diego zoo has -- those are just mammals specimens. The San Diego zoo has about 900 specimens and right at about 300 species or subspecies. Over half of which are considered threatened or endangered. Unfortunately, there 70 species that are listed on a yearly basis so an animal that has been secured through its range today, tomorrow could be listed simply because of exactly the things David was talking about. We have overpopulated and overextended our natural resources. Animals are paying the brunt. Unfortunately for elephants and rhinos, those are two species. There's a lot of money connected with so they are also unfortunately utilize in funding many wars. David, you say many species will soon follow -- no longer exist in the wild. Will they be able to exist and thrive in Sue's? Yes, that would be a sad outcome. I thought everything the suit does, I would rather see the animals in the wild and having them in small confined areas. The reality is there's a lot of larger mammals, that will only survive in those situations. This seems to be a problem that zoos have been maintaining populations. Especially among certain idiots who really don't reproduce naturally or even have reproductive problems when they are kept in Sue's. -- In Sue's. There certain species of mammals that can't reproduce. And other places mentioned leaders in Madagascar, has been very unsuccessful trying to breed years in captivity. Their highly endangered, all species of Famers. Zoos are necessarily the answer. It is still a losing battle even with all their efforts. I certainly agree with David and it comes down to numbers. It's very difficult to hold the numbers of animals you need in Sue's to keep a sustainable gene pool. You have to triage what you can do and who is the most important to work with. Is problematic. Since the world has got to mass extinctions, is there any reason to believe if we go through one this century that it will profoundly affect our existence? Not one that can predict that, I don't know the information that well. If we see in the same trajectory of population -- overpopulation of humans is probably the single cause at root of everything else that goes on. If we seen the same trajectory is, it's going to be devastating. We have seen the effects of climate change already. The trajectory suggests it's going to get bad. I want to thank you both for speaking with us about this. And for your efforts in the frozen zoo and the other things the San Diego zoo is taking part of. Randy is curator of mammals that the San Diego zoo David Archibald emeritus professor.