Cincinnati Zoo to try incest to save Sumatran rhino

Sumatran rhino returns to the Cincinnati Zoo in the face of crisis

July 2013. "Harapan," a six-year-old male Sumatran rhino born at the Cincinnati Zoo in 2007 and later moved zoos in Florida and Los Angeles Zoo, was returned to Cincinnati in July in an effort to help save his rapidly disappearing species from extinction. With no more than 100 Sumatran rhinos left on the planet and only two in the USA (Harapan and his sister, nine-year-old "Suci"), this move demonstrates just how desperate the effort to save this species has become.

Harapan is one of three Sumatran rhinos successfully born at the Cincinnati Zoo since 2001. Scientists at the Zoo's Lindner Center for Conservation & Research of Endangered Wildlife (CREW) are hoping they can work their magic once again with Harapan and Suci. Although the tenet at CREW is to maximize genetic diversity and avoid inbreeding, in this case scientists are forced to make an exception or watch the species disappear altogether.

"No one wants to breed siblings, it is something we strive to avoid, but when a species drops below 100 individuals, producing more offspring as quickly as possible trumps concerns about genetic diversity." said Dr. Terri Roth, Vice President of Conservation and Science and Director of CREW at the Cincinnati Zoo. "We are down to the last male and female Sumatran rhino on the continent, and I am not willing to sit idle and watch the last of a species go extinct."

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