The reality of these distinctions needs to be examined. The external phenotypic differences between Northern and Southern forms of White Rhino tentatively raised by Groves have been extended and supplemented by Hillman-Smith and colleagues. Further material and analysis has been published by Guérin –. Detailed information and measurements have been published on a remarkable Early Pleistocene skull KNM-ER 328C this had earlier been reported briefly by Hooijer. The metrical data of Groves, and some collected subsequently, can be re-analysed using sophisticated statistical packages that have become more readily available. In the thirty years since the last taxonomic revision of the White Rhinoceros, genus Ceratotherium, new material and analytical tools have become available, necessitating a reassessment of the taxon. The taxonomic status of the Northern form is central to determining its conservation importance and will be a critical driver of efforts to save it. Urgent and concerted effort is required to stave off its extinction. ![]() Teetering on the brink of extinction, its in-situ and ex-situ survival hang by a thread. In contrast, the once tolerably numerous Northern form has been reduced to a tiny remnant (less than 20) in the Garamba National Park, Democratic Republic of Congo, and a similar number in two zoos. ![]() After recovering from a handful of survivors at the turn of the 20 th century, the Southern form escaped relatively unscathed from the large-scale African rhino poaching epidemic of the 1980s. As much a cause for celebration the conservation success of the Southern white rhino is, equally shocking and dire is the fate of the Northern white rhino.
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