{"id":31766,"date":"2020-01-15T10:37:23","date_gmt":"2020-01-15T09:37:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.micropticsl.com\/rhinoceros-sperm\/"},"modified":"2020-01-15T10:39:28","modified_gmt":"2020-01-15T09:39:28","slug":"rhinoceros-sperm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.micropticsl.com\/es\/rhinoceros-sperm\/","title":{"rendered":"Rhinoceros sperm"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The African rhinoceros\u2019 crisis: What can reproductive biologists do?<\/h2>\n
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Fig. 1: African white rhinoceros shortly after darting (horns have been cut so that poachers may be less interested).<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

There are two species of African rhinoceros, the black rhinoceros, Diceros bicornis<\/em>, and the white rhinoceros, Ceratotherium simum<\/em> (Fig. 1). South Africa hosts the largest population of these rhinos (>80%) but it is well known that their numbers have been dwindling since the 1990\u2019s and the white rhinoceros is classified as near threatened and the black rhinoceros listed as critically endangered (IUCN criteria). In February 2013 records show that 2.2 rhinos were killed per day! The major problem is that rhino horn is considered a traditional medicine (no scientific basis, just keratin like from your nails) in several Eastern countries such as China, South Korea and even used for certain ceremonial ceremonies in Yemen.<\/p>\n

About 25% of South African rhinos live on private owned land and these wildlife farms hire expert security services at a high cost as well as using remotely piloted air craft systems to assist with protection of these valuable wildlife species. However, despite these measures poaching of rhinos seems to have no end.<\/p>\n

What can biologists and veterinarians do to assist in the protection and survival of the rhino species, particularly in South Africa? During 2009\/2010 major research groups from Germany and South Africa combined forces with major financial backing from Zoological Parks in France and the USA to dart (Fig. 2) collect, characterize and freeze sperm from free ranging rhinos (Fig. 3). Private game reserves were targeted in the North of South Africa and also in the vicinity of Pretoria. This was one of the first attempts to quantify through computer aided sperm analysis sperm quality of these species in the wild and also apply and refine cryo-preservation techniques of their sperm.<\/p>\n\n\t\t