North African White Rhinoceros †
Ceratotherium mauritanicum
Original range and subspecies 3
The North African white rhinoceros (Ceratotherium mauritanicum) used to occur in savannah-type landscapes north of the Sahara in Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria. The species is now extinct, but its sister taxon, the White rhinoceros (Ceratotherium simum) still exists in southern Africa. It may have disappeared due to savannah habitat becoming scarce in the Maghreb, but there's a good chance human pressures necked the species. And as always with these things, maybe the savannah disappeared because the megafauna that kept it intact disappeared, instead of the other way around. It's always difficult to determine what's the chicken and what's the egg in these coincidal landscape changes/megafauna extinctions. The White rhinoceros is currently extinct in our region and occurs in 0% of its former range in the W Palearctic.
Reintroduction efforts so far 4
None. Probably one of the trickiest species for reintroduction, and not only because it's a giant, dangerous animals that is vulnerable to poaching. First, research would need to be done if white rhino could still survive in today's climate in the Maghreb. As it's not entirely certain if the species disappeared because of climate change or human pressure it's uncertain if the species could be successfully reintroduced.
Fontes e Créditos
- (c) copper, alguns direitos reservados (CC BY-NC), uploaded by copper
- (c) Stan van Remmerden, alguns direitos reservados (CC BY-NC), uploaded by Stan van Remmerden
- Adaptado por Stan van Remmerden de uma obra de (c) Wikipedia, alguns direitos reservados (CC BY-SA), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ceratotherium_simum
- (c) Stan van Remmerden, alguns direitos reservados (CC BY-SA)
Mais informações
BioDiversity4All Mapa
| Ecological niche | Megaherbivore |
|---|---|
| Region | North Africa - Western |
| Status in w palearctic | Globally Extinct |
| Z ecotourism potential | 5 |
