San Diego Zoo Safari Park Male northern white rhino in San Diego is dead.

The 44 year old male northern white rhino at the San Diego Safari Park died on December 14, 2014, leaving one female remaining in San Diego - and five northern white rhinos left in the world. Sigh.

https://www.facebook.com/sdzsafarip...152622368089/1085477878135554/?type=1&fref=nf

 

Im really really upset by this. Angalifu was my favorite animal to see at the safari park along with Nola. Rest In Peace Angalifu I will miss you.

 

Wow, very sad news. Glad I got to see him earlier this year.

 

Very sad news indeed. Hope they preserve as much as possible material from him, you never know......!

 

Good age for a rhino.

 

So, it is.

I do hope they retained his genetic material for AI procedures at some convenient point from now (as has been done with other captive northern whites in Dvur).

 

Article about the death of this male :
Rare Northern White Rhino Dies in US Zoo - ABC News

 

RIP Angilafu

 

RIP Friend I Never Met.

 

He will be missed.

 

It looks like the last northern white rhino in San Diego, a 40 year old female, has not been feeling well: With 5 Left in World, San Diego Zoo Checks Health Of Its Northern White Rhino | KPBS

 

Nola is improving.

Ailing rare rhino at San Diego Zoo Safari Park appears to be improving - LA Times

 

I'm glad, she looks like a sweetie, like an animal you would love even if she wasn't among the last of her kind.

 

Nola's health has improved, and has been returned to her usual habitat.

Zoo’s rare white rhino returns to exhibit in better health | FOX5 San Diego ? San Diego news, weather, traffic, sports from KSWB

 

In which exhibt has the park kept the Northern White Rhinos in 2005 ? I think, it was the east africa exhibit. Were kept also togehter kept with southern white rhinos in the Southafrica exhibit ? I think, they keep now Nola together with an old simum bull in east Africa ?

 

Nola isn't kept with any specific animals as far as I know. Unfortunately I see her alone most of the time now that Angalifu has passed Normally I see her by the waterfowl lake in South Africa though,so I believe she's still in South Africa,and I think that's where she's always been,but I'm not sure of that. (P.S. is anyone else bothered by how terribly unhelpful the Safari Park's map is for the field exhibits?)

 

At one point, the Northern Whites were kept in the more geographically correct East Africa while the Southern Whites were in South Africa. I know this was the case at least at some point in the 90's, though by my visit in 2001, I think the subspecies had switched exhibits.

OK - quick San Diego Safari Park rhino history question. Anyone know when the black rhinos were removed from the main East African field exhibit? I know from earlier photos and publications that the black rhinos were in the main field exhibit, but I'm almost positive that they had already been removed to the smaller side exhibit by 1990, when I made my first visit. Additional question: are there any multi-species exhibits (excluding smaller birds) that include black rhinos remaining in American collections? White rhinos are very common in mixed-species settings, but due to their solitary habits, less-agreeable dispositions, and other husbandry, black rhinos seem to never be exhibited with much else (though I know they formerly shared their Safari Park enclosure with the also oft-troublesome Grant's zebra).

 

Does anyone know if there is enough work done at the moment to determine if C. s. simum and C. s. cottoni are distinct species? I hear about it everywhere, but it seems like an uncertain subject at the time. Several different sources even list in with certainty as the Nile Rhinoceros, Ceratotherium cottoni.

I understand that this is a dire time for the species/subspecies continued existence, but if it really is distinct, wouldn't a study proving so make its situation much more important and bring more attention?

 

If you follow the phylogenetic species concept, then yes, it is distinct. If you follow other concepts, then it might not meet the criteria. This paper explains the scenario in as much detail as you could need.

PLOS ONE: The Sixth Rhino: A Taxonomic Re-Assessment of the Critically Endangered Northern White Rhinoceros