‘Saving species with faeces’ plan for rhino

A team of UK-based scientists is collecting rhinoceros droppings for a new conservation initiative to help prevent the extinction of the species.

In a collaboration dubbed “Saving species with faeces”, the team from Chester Zoo and the University of Manchester aims to identify causes of poor population growth of Africa’s “mega-herbivores”, including Eastern black rhinos, Grevy’s zebras and Cape mountain zebras.

A major focus for the initiative is the endangered black rhino, a species successfully bred in captivity at the Chester Zoo in recent years and whose excrement is a source of useful data to understand the health of the animal.

“Most of the research that we’re doing to assess health and stress involves collecting a lot of poo,” Professor Susanne Shultz, of the University of Manchester, said.

“We want to take these models that have been developed on captive animals and apply it to these wild populations and assess its relative health and well-being.”

The team uses hormonal bio-markers present in animal dung to understand stress and reproductive health in wild animals and they say it can be collected without disturbing the animal.

“Through the poo we can see how stressed the animals are, what condition they are, their individual health, are they reproducing,” Dr Danielle Gilroy, who is leading a project on another endangered species, the Grevy’s zebra, said.

“All these different factors basically indicate their fitness.”

Classed as critically endangered, there are about 5,000 to 5,400 black rhinos in eastern and southern Africa, according to the World Wildlife Fund.

The initiative not only hopes to look at the human and environmental impacts on wild populations, with some faring better than others, but also develop a strategy to promote natural reproduction. –