Australian researchers are moving closer to unlocking the breeding secrets of the endangered black rhinoceros - and Monash is playing a vital part.

By David Bruce

At the Western Plains Zoo in central New South Wales, Monash postgraduate researcher Mr Andrew Thorne is doing groundbreaking scientific work armed with a slice of bread and a cotton bud.

Dr Ian Gunn says knowledge of how the black rhinoceros breeds will aid its survival.

The zoo holds the largest collection of the endangered black rhinoceros outside the African continent. The birth of Chikundo in March brought the zoo's population to 13. Chikundo ('victory' in the Shona dialect of South Africa) was the third successful birth out of a breeding program that began in 1993 between the zoo, the International Rhinoceros Foundation and Monash's Animal Gene Storage Resource Centre. The research now involves other partners across Australia, in southern Africa and throughout an international network of research zoos.

In only the last 30 years, the wild population has declined from around 65,000 to a meagre 2500, predominantly in South Africa, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Kenya and Tanzania. That equates to about nine rhinoceroses killed every day since 1970. Their prized horns have kept poachers on their trail to this day, despite tight security and severe sanctions. The horns are used for dagger handles and medicines.

Problems in the wild aside, the black rhinoceros is a poor breeder in captivity. As the wild populations continue to decline, the task of improving the fecundity of the captured animals becomes more urgent.

Mr Thorne's research involves extracting hormone samples from the saliva of female black rhinoceroses to determine the nature and timing of the reproductive cycle. This is also used for pregnancy diagnosis. Research into this species is in its early days, and the most basic facts about its reproductive biology are still being discovered.

"It may seem insignificant what we are doing here," says Mr Thorne. "What are 13 black rhinos and three births in the scheme of things? But we are learning what makes these animals tick. In learning all the little bits, we are adding to the bigger picture of being able to use artificial breeding techniques.

"If we can artificially inseminate rhinos, we can breed one of our females here with a male in Germany or a male in the wild. The captive breeding group is not just our 13 but the whole 2500 that live in the world."

Monash researcher Andrew Thorne uses a cotton bud to extract saliva from a black rhinocerous at the Western Plains Zoo.

Dr Ian Gunn, Animal Gene Storage Resource Centre project director and Mr Thorne's research supervisor in conjunction with Professor Alan Trounson, deputy director of the Monash Institute of Reproduction and Development (MIRD), is convinced that the gains made with the black rhinoceros are important first steps in its long-term survival.

"We are not going to reverse the decline with poaching still being a major problem in a number of African countries," says Dr Gunn. "But we are starting to know the basic principles of how they breed in captivity."

The animal gene storage centre is part of the MIRD, a world leader in reproductive medicine research in both humans and animals and a pioneer in such techniques as artificial insemination, in vitro fertilisation (IVF), embryology, gene cloning and cryobiology (freezing of tissues and cells).

The centre has successfully collected and stored black rhinoceros semen. Dr Gunn is now planning to take samples from Cape hunting dogs and hopefully African lions.

"This is one way of trying to maintain the genetic diversity of various species, in the hope that sometime we will be able to keep them in their natural habitat," he says. "Until then, the goal is to establish a self-sustaining captive population."

So, how does Mr Thorne take a hormone sample from a fully grown female black rhinoceros? Easy: he strolls up to her pen with a handful of fresh white bread and she begins eating out of his palm, creating an indecent amount of saliva in the process. Mr Thorne deftly soaks a cotton bud in the saliva, seals it in a plastic tube, and takes it back to the lab in an esky for salivary steroid hormone analysis.

"Even the wildest of these guys will tolerate me doing this for a bit of bread," says Mr Thorne. "That's the advantage over taking a blood sample. It becomes a regular part of their routine as they move from the day yard into the night yard. And daily samples are enough to detect the changes in the oestrogen cycles. We can then pick the time the females are more receptive to getting pregnant and put them in with the males."

Apart from the chocolate ones on the shelf at Easter, most people have never seen the greater bilby, or rabbit-eared bandicoot. Shy, nocturnal and confined in ever-dwindling numbers to the semi-arid zones of northern Australia, the endangered bilby is rarely on public display.

This has presented a problem for those trying to save the little creature from extinction. "I've never seen a bilby in the wild, no," admits Dr Ian Gunn, project director of the Monash University Animal Gene Storage Resource Centre of Australia. "You need to be out there at night time sitting and watching for a long time. It is difficult for the public to find sympathy for an animal they have never seen, let alone picked up and cuddled. Hopefully, one day when there are more of them, they can."

The bilby: a critically endangered Australian marsupial.

Dr Gunn has found it easier to get funding for his work with high-profile animals like the rhinoceros, the big cats and the elephants. But work in preserving critically endangered native animals is slowly gaining public support as people become aware of lesser-known Australian animals such as the bilby.

The centre is working with the Western Plains Zoo at Dubbo to define the characteristics of the female breeding cycle, and to isolate and retain samples of the bilby's genetic material to create a stable and genetically diverse breeding population.

Dr Gunn, postgraduate researcher Ms Eliza Curnow, and colleagues at the Western Plains Zoo including Ms Catriona MacCallum, have been studying a small group of 13 bilbies as part of a broader national plan to protect the species. In addition to the gene preservation work, they are taking fecal and blood samples to study the oestrus cycles of the female bilby, testing hormone levels and monitoring behaviour patterns with the hope that this will lead to further assisted reproduction techniques.

"We hope these techniques will succeed in building the bilby's population and in maintaining its genetic viability to the point that some animals can be released back into their natural habitat," says Dr Gunn.

- David Bruce

		The Animal Gene Storage and Research Centre is seeking community support for its research into the black rhinoceros and other endangered animals. For more information, contact Tracy Hocking at the Monash Institute on +61 3 9594 7110 or visit www.monashinstitute.org