ABSTRACT
There are five living species of rhino, but only just. Three species, Sumatran, Javan and Indian rhinos, occur in Asia while two species, black and white rhinos, occur in Africa. Rhinos are now among the world’s most endangered large mammals. Two Asian species, the Javan and Sumatran, and one African species, the black rhino, are critically endangered (Table 9.1). Several sub-species, including both sub-species of Javan rhino, the northern white rhino and the western black rhino, occur at such low numbers that they teeter on the edge of extinction. By contrast, the southern white rhino is currently well conserved in limited areas of its range in southern Africa, as is the Indian rhino in even more limited areas in India and Nepal. However, the total world populations of southern white and Indian rhinos are still only in the low thousands, and their continued long-term survival is by no means guaranteed (Foose and van Strien, 1997; Emslie and Brooks, 1999).
