Talk:Death of captive rhino halts propagation efforts in US

Dr. Terri Roth will be speaking about Suci's death on Wednesday, April 2, 2014 (UTC April 3, 3014) at the University of Southern Indiana campus. Crtew (talk) 16:49, 1 April 2014 (UTC)

Rachristia1 notes
Orginal reporting notes from Dr. Terri Roth's USI lecture:

“At the Cincinnati Zoo, we focus on a few key programs ... We have four things we concentrate on – rhinos, small cats, exceptional plants and polar bears."

"We work with zoos all over the world, and it’s really this collaboration that makes this all work. When working with endangered animals, your challenges are never over and you learn to expect the unexpected."

"In the 1980s, there was a lot of concern about how are we going to save these Sumatran rhinos. The Indonesian government agreed to a captive breeding program with U.S. zoos. The idea was the U.S. would breed them, then return them back to the wild."

"The rhinos are extremely solitary and it was very hard to get to them."

"We received seven rhinos from Indonesia and the problems started almost right away ... A couple of them died, and they may have died because we were feeding them the wrong thing."

"The odds are against us. This is going to be a hard species to save. It’s been a roller coaster experience, and it’s been a challenge."

"We were finally down to two in America, and they were both brother and sister. And we were going to breed them just because we didn't really have any other choice. Indonesia made it very clear that we weren't going to get any more rhinos."

JustinRLaw notes

 * Dr. Terri Roth is director of Conservation and Research of Endangered Wildlife (C.R.E.W.), which is a research facility on the Cincinnati Zoo's grounds.
 * CREW are experts in propagation and has 4 signature conservation projects in propagation:
 * Polar Bears
 * Small cats
 * Exceptional plants
 * Rhinos
 * Sumatran Rhino
 * In 1987 → concern for saving Sumatran rhinos led to an agreement
 * 7 Sumatran Rhino sent to America
 * Problem 1: Health issues with them once brought to America (wrong food; switched from hay to ficus)
 * Problem 2: Lost 5 pregnancies when Cincinnati Zoo tried to breed the female.
 * CREW used Progesterone supplement to help with 6th birth
 * 2001: Andalas (male) born. First Sumatran Rhino born in captivity in 112 years.
 * 2004: Suci (female) was born in 2004, died Mar. 31, 2014
 * 2007: Harpan (male) in 2007
 * In the wild, there were approx. 400 in 1996 and now there are fewer than 100

Ctmathies notes

 * Fewer than 100 rhinos left
 * Center for Conservation and Research of Endangered Wildlife (C.R.E.W.), whose tagline is "Saving species with science", focuses on animals and plants with goal of ensuring long-term survival of species. Foundation of program is research.
 * Focus on certain groups of animals:
 * Rhinos
 * Small cats
 * Exceptional plants
 * Polar bears
 * Two-pronged strategy for saving the Sumatran rhinos -- Captive and wild life
 * Sumatran Rhino Trust Agreement – Indonesia and U.S. – 1987
 * U.S. zoos would get half of captured
 * U.S. had to provide certain resources
 * Agree to return rhinos
 * US: 7 Sumatran rhinos sent to America (1988-1991).
 * The Sumatran rhino is solitary and so mating was tricky
 * Only 3 left in 1996
 * CREW could detect pregnancy 16 days after breeding
 * After 5th failure, CREW turned to inject progesterone into bread to assist next pregnancy.
 * Andalas was born in 2001 : First Sumatran rhino born in captivity in 112 years.
 * Suci was born in 2004
 * Harpan in 2007
 * Problem: Wild population dropped 90% in 28 years
 * 3 in Sabah, Malaysia
 * 100 in Sumatra
 * 0 in Penninsulan, Malaysia

Decurry notes

 * Between 2001-2007 there were 3 births @ Cincinnati Zoo
 * Center for Conservation and Research of Endangered Wildlife (C.R.E.W.)
 * Saving species with science
 * Signature projects:
 * Small cats
 * Rhinos
 * Polar bears
 * Rhinos – Sumatran
 * In 1987 agreement between Indonesia and U.S. is signed. Agree to send half of captures to U.S.
 * Only 7 were sent to U.S. and a few died from diet of hay. Started feeding them ficus.
 * Problem: Solitary animals so they don’t like to be kept together.
 * In 1996, 3 left in U.S. At that time, all were moved to Cincinnati Zoo to breed
 * Figured out how to make them less aggressive out of solitary for breeding
 * 16 days after breeding they can be tested for conception.
 * The female lost 5 pregnancies
 * Next injected progesterone into "Wonder Bread"
 * Andalas, m, 2001: Had 1st Sumatran Rhino born in 2001 and in in captivity in over 112 years.
 * Suci, f, 2004: Suci born without hormone treatment
 * Harapan, m, 2007
 * CREW sent Andalas back to Indonesia along with progesterone research for mating and he and she had a calf born in Indonesia.
 * Around 100 Sumatra Rhinos left total in wild
 * Rhino protection units
 * U.S. will not receive any more Sumatran rhinos from Indonesia
 * Cincinnati Zoo will be sending Indonesia all of their research
 * Tried artificial insemination, but never successful
 * Too soon to know what next step is.

Bsgray2 notes

 * Based on agreement from 1987, the U.S. zoos would get half the animals captured
 * The captures were done in areas where the habitat was destroyed
 * Of those, 7 sent to America.
 * Later, fed 100 pounds a day of ficus, after hay was a problem.
 * Problem, Sumatran rhino is solitary
 * Female conceived on second try, but lost 1st pregnancy after 42 days (lost 5 total).
 * Andalas – first born in captivity in 112 years
 * Suci – 2004
 * Harpan - 2007

Roth: "I kind of went with my gut instinct, which said, 'You know what, just like a human, once you carry a pregnancy to term, there's this tendency to be more fertile and more capable of carrying the next one to term.'"

Roth: "The odds are against us ... this will be a tough one to save."

The U.S. will not be given anymore Sumatran Rhinos to protect further danger and to preserve the existence of rhinos in Asia. Roth said it is important for Indonesia to breed rhinos in country, it is a matter of national pride.

Crtew notes
Dr. Terri Roth, the vice president of conservation and science, director of (Lindner Center for) Conservation and Research of Endangered Wildlife (CREW), Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden.

"The animals that we have in captivity are studied and learned from in ways that we cannot in the wild."

"Two prong strategy": Late 1990s, Indonesia had 50 acre enclosures for wildlife that we couldn't do in the US, where we had to rely on zoos and captivity.

Snapshot of population:
 * Malaysia = 0
 * Sabah Malaysia = 3
 * Indonesia = 100
 * US: From original 7, the US was down to 3.

After 4 out of the 7 Sumatran rhinos died in captivity from the wrong feed (hay), and the US captive population was down to three (now fed ficus), all were sent to Cincinnati Zoo and CREW.

CREW's propagation of the Sumatran rhinos:
 * Emi, f, was bred with Ipuh, m
 * Andalas, m, was born 2001 and first SR born in captivity in 112 years, since 1889, in Calcutta.
 * Andalas was returned to Indonesia and bred with Ratu, f, who gave birth to third gen Andatu
 * Suci, f, 2004-2014
 * Harapan, m, 2007-


 * SR males mature sexually at between 6 to 7 years
 * Females may have benefited from hormone treatments of progesterone fed through bread but scientifically that is not known for certain.
 * Pregnancy can be detected 16 days by ultrasound.

CREW was trying to breed brother Harapan with sister Suci but that is no longer an option. Suci (f) died Sunday, March 30 at the Cincinnati Zoo (10 years old, 2004-2014).

"We're going to stay committed to rhinos. We can move genetic material between populations -- both captive and wildlife.

Roth told me after her lecture that the autopsy would take longer than 2 weeks and they didn't expect the full results back before the 4-6 week window. She confirmed to me that CREW and US zoos would not receive any more females and that without a female in the US, the work on Rhinos may continue with the Indian Rhino and with Sumatran Rhino, the work would shift toward diversity of the genetic material.

Sskerchief notes
Suci dies at age 10. She is one of the last two Sumatran rhinos in the United States.

Sumatran rhino population is barely 100. Once spanning a large portion of Southeast Asia, the species is now spread thin among only a few remaining areas in Indonesia and Malaysia.

Since 1985 the Sumatran rhino population had decreased by about half leaving only about 100 Sumatran rhinos worldwide with only 9 presently in captivity. The U.S. collaborated with Indonesia to develop a captive breeding program in 1987 in order to preserve the dwindling species. Through this project the U.S. received seven rhinos.

"Realistically, odds are against us. This is going to be a tough one to save."

Dr. Roth and her team planned on breeding both Suci, a ten year old rhino, and her brother as a last attempt to save the population of captive rhinos.

"We were hoping to produce another calf, for a number of different reasons. One is that the females do lose fertility over time if they don't get pregnant. So we thought even though were not doing a good genetic match, at least getting her pregnant would preserve her fertility. Although, we never got the opportunity to do that." Dr. Roth said.

Dr. Roth spoke about the processes involved in breeding animals while in captivity on the University of Southern Indiana's campus Wednesday night.

The team experienced many trials with propagating the Sumatran rhinos.

Roth's work begins in 1996. She joined Cincinnati zoo in 1996 when the zoo director asked her to help their Sumatran Rhinos reproduce. Roth specializes in animal reproductive physiology.

This particular species of Rhino is native to dense tropical forests and are generally solitary which posed challenges for breeding as they displayed violent behavior when caged together.

Sources checked
I've fact checked this revision of the article, and everything is accounted for either from the OR notes above, or the sources on the article itself.. This isn't a review per se (it's 3am [it took longer than anticipated], and isn't a complete review, I just wanted to relieve the actual reviewer of having to check all the sources). It's still in the review queue. However (and these aren't blocking issues; they're relatively minor): It was a good read, and the video was pretty swish. You have a nice lecture hall, too. Microchip08 (talk) 02:08, 4 April 2014 (UTC)
 * There's an issue in which the OR notes for the first quote: "[r]ealistically, the odds are against us. This is going to be a hard species to save" is worded differently in two distinct OR notes.
 * The students caught a good quote. There is enough overlap for reliability. And when you put it all together, it reads well. I remember hearing it like that and I'm not worried that there is any substantial content difference. It's about which word was used. Crtew (talk) 04:45, 4 April 2014 (UTC)
 * Stylistically, and probably personal preference: "them" in the final sentence. Wikinews is international, so a hypothetical Indonesian reading the article might find it a little jarring.
 * In the Calcutta paragraph, we talk about a rhino being born in 2001. This is directly followed by a sentence in the next paragraph, stating that a male was born in 2001. It seems a bit odd to split it over the two paragraphs, or at least repeating the "2001" part.
 * On my first parse, I read "Roth, who is the vice president of Conservation and Science and the director of Conservation and Research of Endangered Wildlife" as meaning that she was in charge of some presumably prestigious scientific journal known as 'Conservation and Science.
 * Not a journal but part of the zoo's organizational chart. Crtew (talk) 04:45, 4 April 2014 (UTC)
 * Users on Wikimedia Commons are the same users (mostly) as on English Wikinews, but users on one aren't guaranteed to have created a user page on the other. We should change the redlinks (e.g. User:Ltshears) to ones specifically pointing to the correct user page (commons:User:Ltshears).
 * Some malformed syntax is showing in the Sources section.
 * I used the IUCN external link as a source (the red list is mentioned in the article, but not in any of the sources, which only state that it is critically endangered). I don't think this is an issue.
 * She also said this during the lecture, but I think we all wanted to see it for our own eyes. Skeptical? Crtew (talk) 04:45, 4 April 2014 (UTC)
 * I added Category:Science and technology; all Wikinews articles should have a top-level category from Category:News articles by section.
 * The OR talks about the pact being a bilateral pact, but some of the sources talk about other countries being involved.

Thank you for the thorough read! Crtew (talk) 04:45, 4 April 2014 (UTC)