Once it has been identified as a separate species, wildlife biologists and conservationists begin to monitor this animal in its native habitat. It goes through a cataloguing process where scientists can utilize advanced imaging, biochemical analyses, and traditional morphology to help distinguish this species from another. First, a particular species may be discovered. Let’s go through the entire (summarized) cycle. When Do Scientists Consider An Animal Extinct?

Let’s move on to the relevant point of this post – why is the Western Black Rhino extinct? Before all else, it is important to know how and when scientists determine that. But even if some of these articles were incorrect, at least we know that extinction is a serious topic that people care about. There are multiple subspecies of black rhino, so I suppose it wouldn’t be hard to get information confused. It’s possible that some of these articles were surfacing due to the circulation of inaccurate information. Well, in fact, it was formally declared extinct in 2011 according to the IUCN red list (International Union for Conservation of Nature). Within the past year or so, I remember coming across articles and Facebook posts about the extinction of the Western Black Rhino and up until now, I was under the impression that this species had recently become extinct.

Western black rhinoceros extinct