25 per cent of mammals are at risk of extinction, warned the compilers of the latest update of International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) on Thursday. Despite the action of conservation programmes, the reassessments of several Rhinoceros species show that the subspecies of the Black Rhino in western Africa.
The Western Black Rhino (Diceros bicornis longipes) has officially been declared extinct, The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species said. The subspecies of the White Rhino in central Africa, the Northern White Rhino (Ceratotherium simum cottoni) is currently teetering on the brink of extinction and has been listed as Possibly Extinct in the Wild.
The Javan Rhino (Rhinoceros sondaicus) is also making its last stand, as the subspecies Rhinoceros sondaicus annasmiticus is probably extinct, following the poaching of what is thought to be the last animal in Vietnam in 2010. Although this is not the end of the Javan Rhino, it does reduce the species to a single, tiny, declining population on Java.
A lack of political support and will power for conservation efforts in many rhino habitats, international organised crime groups targeting rhinos and increasing illegal demand for rhino horns and commercial poaching are the main threats faced by rhinos.
Simon Stuart, Chair of the IUCN Species Survival Commission commenting on the existent situation said this would had been very different if the suggested conservation measures had been implemented. International Union for Conservation of Nature and its partners in their to expand the number and diversity of species assessed have reviewed more than 61,900 species.