Four of the five rhinoceros species face extinction - and their survival will depend on humans, writes Eileen Battersby
Alone, in a sudden burst of sunshine, he becomes alert and shrugs into action, leaving his two female companions drowsing like holidaymakers. Warily, as if burdened by the sadness of the centuries, this most ancient of creatures picks his way delicately towards us on his flat, three-toed feet. His skin folds and unfolds and with each slow, careful movement, bits of mud flake off.
Possessed of bizarre grace, he looks like a samurai, yet he is not aggressive, only curious, as nervy as a horse, and his short legs are capable of surprising speeds, approaching 45kph (28mph). An aura of the prehistoric lingers about him - his earliest ancestors first walked the earth some 50 million years ago. The southern white rhinoceros rivals the hippopotamus as the largest land animal after the elephant.
The skin is thick, the body is dense, massive, as is the head - with its two horns now the source of his problems. It is ironic that these, which have given the rhino his false reputation for aggression, have also made him a target for poachers. The rhino is being killed for his horn, which is composed of keratin, a tough, compressed, protein substance. It only perches on the roughened area of the skull, and is not part of it, so can be removed without having to kill the animal. It is increasingly sawn off in wildlife parks in a bid to prevent rhinos being killed by poachers. Long used in traditional Asian medicines to reduce fever, the horn is now prized as a handle for jambiyas - ornamental daggers worn by wealthy men in Yemen.
It is difficult when stroking the soft flanks of Sam, the friendly, tactile 29-year-old senior male rhino in Dublin Zoo, to appreciate how vulnerable the animal has become. Its plight has made it the focus of the current conservation campaign organised by the European Association of Zoos and Aquaria (EAZA). This campaign, supported by Save the Rhino International - which raises funds for 13 selected conservation projects throughout Africa and Asia assisting rhinos in the wild - has set out to raise public awareness. An estimated 125 million people visit the zoos of Europe each year and this is the fifth EAZA campaign. Previous campaigns highlighted the bush meat trade scandal, the threat to the rainforest, the tiger and, most recently, the turtle and tortoise.
The six white rhinos residing in the African Plains area of Dublin Zoo appear very content. They have two large paddocks with mud wallows as well as indoor stalls with rubber matting and bark substrate. Some of them enjoy straw bedding.
They all eat a diet of grass, hay, haylage and a rhino concentration feed, as well as a range of vitamins including cod liver oil, linseed oil and vitamin E. The diet marks just one of many similarities with horses, to which they are related and with which they share digestive patterns.
Sam and two females - Suki (37) and Reni (a 20-year-old native of Bulgaria's Sofia Zoo) - live together, with Sam playing the role of browbeaten husband. He came to Dublin from a British zoo when he was little more than a year old. About 14 years ago, he fathered a female calf, but her story had a sad ending. When she was four years old she was being prepared to be transported for breeding purposes but escaped during loading.
Team leader in the African Plains, Helen Clarke, tends the rhinos and she recalls the day it happened. "It was about nine years ago and when she got out, the zoo was busy, there were lots of people walking about and there she was, a four-year-old rhino on the loose. We had no choice but to shoot her, it was terribly sad but we learnt a lot from the experience."
When the new facilities were built, a plan was incorporated to allow an area in which a crate with the loaded animal could be lifted from the enclosure by crane to prevent further escapes.
In the second compound are three young rhinos, which arrived 18 months ago from Umfolozi and Kruger national parks in South Africa. They are intended for breeding, as Dublin Zoo is a member of the EAZA breeding programme. The young male, Chaka, now aged six, has already been brought to Reni. He is friendly and will approach the keepers, although the two young females, aged four and five, are less approachable and react badly if a human strokes Chaka while they are near him. One in particular, shuns human contact. The second female has already formed a bond with Chaka, but as Clarke explains, "they will have to be separated as it is more of a brother and sister bond and this affection could interfere with them mating".
MEANWHILE, CHAKA HAS already chanced his luck with Reni. As she is taller than he, his efforts at mounting her have required the assistance of mounds of sand which have been especially provided to help him in his efforts.
Rhinos have poor eyesight and compensate for this with highly developed senses of smell and hearing. It is this that brings them towards us, just as detecting something alien on the air will cause them to flee. Despite the slow action and the apparent careful placing of their feet, they can move very quickly. A rhino charge is spectacular, and they can also change direction at speed with surprising manoeuvrability.
Of the many species of rhino that once lived, five remain - and four of these are facing extinction. These are: the Sumatran, the smallest, which has few wrinkles; the Javan, single-horned and among the rarest of mammals with only 60 still in existence; the Indian, also single-horned; and the black rhino. The southern white rhino is faring better and is proof that intelligent conservation can work. About a century ago there were only 50-100 southern white rhinos. Co-ordinated conservation efforts, consolidated by breeding programmes, were devised, and today the species, no doubt helped by its being the most sociable of the rhinos, has improved its status from the critically endangered listing of the other four species to its current "vulnerable" status.
There are now about 11,000 white rhinos in the world, but this, it should be stressed, is a result of them living in a conservation-dependent situation. (Equally, there are believed to be only about 30 of the critically endangered and extremely rare northern white rhinos still in existence.)
Aside from being the largest, with a large male weighing about 2½ tonnes, the white rhino has the added drama of two horns, with the front one more than a metre long. It is exclusively a grazer, while the other species also eat stems, branches and leaves. The white rhino, which is as grey as the black rhino, is actually named after the Afrikaner word for "wide" as it has a wide mouth and a wide, straight upper lip.
ZOO VISITORS IN general gravitate towards the rhinos as they do to elephants, hippos and giraffes. Whereas the big cats are the superstars, prowling and pacing, magnificent, always sustaining the impression of power and rage simmering beneath the surface, watching the rhino helps give some sense of an animal living at peace within its society. Sociable but self-contained, the rhino does not depend on its fellow creatures for food as it is not a meat eater.
Watching Sam strolling about his compound on a sunny afternoon, content with his immediate world, emphasises how disappearing habitat and poaching have made life impossible for his relatives in their natural home. All rhinos may be protected under international conservation laws, but in reality, this means very little for animals in the wild. Ironically, the future of the rhino, as with so many wild animals, depends on scientifically controlled breeding in captivity.