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With the Rhinos specifically or everyone
knows about the poaching crisis that's
that's going on there's three rhinos get
poached every day on average there's a
lot of pressure on these species we see
climate changes we see habitat
fragmentation human population growth is
pushing these populations to the limit
Rockwood is a captive breeding
organization and part of their aggressive
conservation approach the goal of that
entire operation is to protect rhinos
basically from extinction so we have
different aspects anti poaching breeding
project the cryo vault project and then
also educating the people around so
rather likes the holistic direct action
approach so far most of the conservation
efforts have been the conventional
conventional ones where you protect a
habitat you move animals between
habitats actually it's not it's not
possible anymore to expand into new
areas so we have to look into new
techniques to sort of create that same
possibility of bringing new genetics in
into these populations by finding other
ways to do it and one of those ways is
to use artificial or assisted
reproductive technologies
the hemmersbach rhino force cryovault is a
progressive conservation but also
scientific approach to conservation
as a nonprofit organization we
focus on two approaches to develop the
biggest genetic reservoir for rhinos in
the world of viable semen and ovaries ova eggs
so what we do when we do as
human collection we just anesthetize the
animal by by the means of a dad once
animal is down and and sleeping and we
use electro ejaculator so that means we
use low voltage stimuli interact early
to stimulate the prostate the actual
process is not that invasive but it does
require time we collect our light sample
we take it to the lab we analyze it we
look at the sperm if it's good quality
it's going directly into there
freezing protocol so that means we use
liquid nitrogen to deep freeze the sperm
sample and this way it's going to be
preserved for decades maybe even 100 or
more years which could then even help in
the future if the populations keep on
declining that we still have preserved
some sperm samples of different individuals
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if you're doing research that's
going to guide management in the future
it's not just you know arbitrary
research it's research it really can be
can be put to use this method has been
proved in many different domestic
species and also wildlife species it's
it's a it's a good and easy way to get
sperm in principle and the Rhino is a
bit more difficult because it's such a
large animal and we need to adapt all
our equipment to the size of the animal
first we have our ranges the men on this
ground looking after the animals and if
an animal is lost we can go in and
salvage genetic material or what we can
so we're no longer losing the animals
it's very important that we have very
defined roles in a team like this once
you start to get people you know in a
team that where they their experiences
and the expertise overlap and perhaps
you get a conflict of interest but in
order to undertake projects like this
it's you need a vast wealth of
experience coming in and each person has
their own area of expertise every day we
see something and every day we realize
we know nothing the more we see the more
we realize there's such a big picture
behind this and everything is connected
its environment its nutrition its
disease its DNA everything comes
together and plays a role it's not just
reproduction everything is connected
with everything and that's exciting
because you every day you are pushed to
think out of the box and to see what
nobody else has seen before
or to think you see what other people
have seen before but you think
differently about it that's an exciting
challenge as a scientist what we really
appreciate about appreciate about
Rockwood here is actually that
everything is in
and perfect because this is a huge
operation there is more than 250 rhinos
around here and they are all very well
maintained well fed and all I mean each
individual is known by the owners and
this is a great advantage for us because
when we are going out and collecting
samples and information
we need also these background
information about the animals where they
come from how old they are if they are
proven breeders and all these things are
really necessary Rockwood has offered us
a platform to come and look at these
animals and to collect samples and do
breeding soundness assessments for
Wicus that will aid him into selecting
bulls to useful breeding it also gives
him information about what we see on the
ground on this population so that he and
his veterinarian can use it in managing
these breeding operation it's fantastic
that a place like Rockwood and and
someone like Wicus is prepared to
invest so much money and time and and
you know and and passion into something
that he really believes in it just takes
a handful of really passionate people
that really care for these animals and
you can make a difference it's
individuals that you need to take action
and they will make the difference for
the animals in the future
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