Contribution of private game ranching and captive bred operations in South Africa to white rhino Ceratotherium simum species survival conservation

Abstract

The southern white rhinoceros (SWR) Ceratotherium simum simum, like all extant rhinoceros species, is under global threat of extinction, due to their dwindling wild population numbers in protected areas and state-owned parks as a result of poaching. The Kruger National Park (KNP), the renowned state-owned stronghold for SWR, has suffered an estimated decline of over 75.0% of its population since 2011, with the highest annual poaching rates over the past decade and a remaining population estimated at only 2,607 animals by the end of 2020, which is an average annual population decline of -10.2% from 2008 to 2020, and 2,458 animals left by the end of June 2022. On the contrary, SWR under private custodianship and management on rewilded agro-sustainable biodiversity game ranches in South Africa (estimated currently at >8,000 animals, some of which are registered Captive Breeding Operations [CBO]; assessed CBOs contained 2,882 rhinos at the time of this study (Sep 2021), have increased in population numbers and survival rates, sustaining average annual population growth performances of 9.0%. This increase has been attributed to effective security, provision of additional habitat, dispersal, and frequent genetic exchange of rhinos between breeding subpopulations by the private sector. The conservation success of the private sector has largely been overlooked and disregarded by world conservation bodies and organizations, mostly due to misguided and prejudiced media publicity and the lack of scientific analytical assessment. Private rhino custodians and their biological/ conservation breeding practices, with private agro-sustainable biodiversity wildlife management and/ or captive breeding, generally being perceived and branded as either "canned" or equated to "captive zoological-gardens". Since the commencement of the International Convention on Biodiversity, global controversy exists whereby most of mankind today perceive bio-conservation of a species to be assigned in principle solely to protected areas and state-owned parks. The unique and advantageous roles of rewilded bio-conservation and sustainable-use conservation CBOs, being a key to green-economy and natural capital in a post-Covid-19 struggle, are mostly ignored. This study serves to assess and quantify the impact of private wildlife ranching in South Africa with specific focus on its potential contribution to rhino conservation specifically for that of the SWR C.s. simum. Data Availability StatementThe data belong to third parties, six different private owners respectively, and cannot be shared publicly. Interested, qualified researchers can request the data by contacting the author, subject to owners permission. The authors confirm that they did not have any special access privileges to the data and data will be made available to other researchers in the same manner that the authors accessed it.