Boosting black rhino conservation with data gathered in partnership
IRF serves as a funder, partner, convener, facilitator and trainer for rhino conservation programs through in-country partners and staff to strengthen local rhino conservation efforts, engage people and protect rhino habitats. IRF is the only organization to provide funding strictly for rhino research. In 2023 IRF distributed nearly $300,000 to fund nine worthy rhino studies.
The following blog discusses the findings of the study “Applied conservation research for metapopulation management approaches of the critically endangered black rhino (Diceros bicornis minor) in South Africa” in collaboration with the University of Pretoria and World Wildlife Fund South Africa. The article was written by Dr Rachel Stein and Professor Adrian Shrader at the University of Pretoria, South Africa.
A major challenge for conservation of the critically endangered black rhino is gathering enough data to conduct comprehensive studies. Key to overcoming this is long-term partnerships. The Black Rhino Range Expansion Project (BRREP) is a 20+ year partnership between World Wildlife Fund, South Africa, Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife, Eastern Cape Parks and Tourism, and numerous reserves working to increase black rhino populations in southern Africa. BRREP partners have collected detailed data on all their black rhinos and provided it to Dr. Rachel Stein, a Post-Doctoral Fellow supervised by Professor Adrian Shrader at the University of Pretoria, South Africa. The International Rhino Foundation supported Dr. Stein over the last year as she used the BRREP dataset to ask questions about black rhino population performance, social behaviour, and monitoring. The number and diversity of projects is a testament to what scientists can accomplish with long-term data gathered by many partners. To date, Dr. Stein and the team have produced five separate studies using these data. Here are two of those projects:
Factors influencing black rhino population performance
With black rhinos, key concerns for population growth are competition within black rhino populations and from other herbivores, and access to quality food. Dr. Stein found that this competition affects the BRREP populations, but not always as expected. For example, many managers have expressed concern about kudu (a large mammalian browser) eating too much of the same food as black rhinos. But Dr. Stein found that browsers, including kudu, did not harm black rhino populations and might even help them! These browsers may do this by stimulating new growth on the trees from which they have fed. In turn, this then increases the availability of high-quality food for black rhinos. Additionally, Dr. Stein found that competition within black rhino populations around food access was more important than competition from other herbivores – affecting birth rate, mortality rate, sex of calves, and the age of females at first conception. Together, these results will help conservationists approach black rhino management from multiple angles to ensure the species’ recovery.
A method for identifying births
Black rhino females tend to ‘disappear’ for weeks to months while giving birth. Tracking is difficult and dangerous because black rhinos use dense vegetation and are extremely aggressive, especially with a new calf. Because of this, calves that died before being seen by rhino rangers go unrecorded, altering birth rate estimates. Moreover, little is known about newborn calves. Dr. Stein proposed that a North American method of analysing GPS data may overcome this problem. Under the supervision of Dr. Stein and Professor Shrader, Honours student Mr. Devon Kerr improved and validated the method, thereby providing a practical and safe tool for accurately determining when black rhino mothers give birth. By being able to remotely monitor the survival rate of black rhino calves, managers can identify population declines, assess the success of conservation efforts, and initiate timely management actions.
