Warming weather puts rhinos at risk.Credit: Ashes_Sitoula
Lire en françaisThe inability of rhinos to sweat means populations in Namibia’s Etosha National Park and Eswatini’s Hlane National Park may not survive under predicted climate change scenarios.
Rising temperatures will particularly affect rhinos because they bathe, or seek shade, to keep cool. Authors of a paper in Biodiversity used standard scenarios for future greenhouse gas emissions to predict changes in temperature and precipitation in national parks in South Africa, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Kenya, Botswana, Tanzania and Eswatini.
Led by Timothy Randhir, from the University of Massachusetts, they assessed the effect those changes would have on both black and white rhinoceroses over the next 30-60 years. They concluded that climate change will significantly reduce the probability of both species surviving, with temperature being a more important factor than precipitation.
“The sensitivity of rhinos to climate change can be significant and needs management strategies that protect these wildlife through explicitly incorporating climate predictions in management plans,” Randhir said.
