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When did it go extinct - 2011 and because poachers used their horns for money.
Where did they live - South Africa, Zimbabwe, and a smaller group in South Tanzania. The last black rhino was spotted in Cameroon.
What did they eat - They eat long grass, leaves, twigs, branches and, fruit.
Facts - The Western Black Rhino had very poor eyesight, which manily led them to their extinction.

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The black rhino Ntombi was used for her genome. The scientists are hoping to use it to see within her history and help identify what makes it susceptible to disease. The data could be used to create a "biobank" that will be used to understand the genomes of all 8 subspecies. There are 8 subspecies of the black rhino, 3 of which are extinct. The southern black rhino, north-eastern black rhino and the western black rhino.

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Three extinct black rhino species could one day be resurrected, now a crowdfunding campaign to sequence the animal's genome has reached its target.

The campaign, launched on science funding platform Experiment, which supports open research projects, surpassed its $15,000 goal on 11 July. The money will enable the team to use an Illumina HiSeq sequencing kit to map the genetic code of of six-year-old black rhino Ntombi (who is active on social media), one of only around 5,055 black rhinos remaining in the wild.

The young rhino could end up being the salvation of her long-deceased cousins; there are eight subspecies of black rhino and three of these, the southern black rhino, north-eastern black rhino and western black rhino, are all extinct. The hope is that sequencing Ntombi's genome will not only provide incredible insights into the ancient animal's history and help identify what makes it susceptible to disease -- so ensuring conservation efforts beyond countering poaching are effective -- but that the data could be used to create a "biobank" that will be used to understand the genomes of all eight subspecies. "We intend to use this project as a catalyst to sequence all subspecies of black rhino and understand the genetic divergence within and between rhino species," writes the team, headed up by co-director of the University of Washington's Institute of Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine, Chuck Murray. "This will be a foundation that future researchers can utilise and could possibly help bring the three currently extinct black rhinoceros subspecies back into existence."

The team will be using the southern white rhino genome, already being sequenced, as a reference point to speed up the work. "This is a quick way of putting some structure around the sequence," Murray told one backer on the Experiment platform. "We may do another crowdfunding effort to further annotate this assembly; however, we also hope that some of this work will be done by others once the initial assembly is in the public domain."

Work is already being done to help save the southern white rhino at the San Diego Institute for Conservation Research. In February the institute was given $110,000 to help in the effort, which involves using cryopreserved cells from deceased male members of the species, along with those from five remaining across the globe -- all too old to reproduce naturally. Instead, the Zoo hopes to use the cells from the northern and southern white rhino to create an embryo that a southern white rhino will carry.

After aligning the black rhino data with that of the white rhino's, the UW team -- which is working with New Harvest, a non-profit that wants to take animals out of the food chain, and Pembient, a biotechnology startup that wants to replace poached rhino horns with sustainable, 3D printed counterparts-- plans to create a "fully annotated" version of the black rhino genome, which will then be published openly in a peer reviewed journal for others to investigate. Pembient will also be able to use the data to push its business plan forward, and begin the work needed to produce the world's first rhino horn 3D printed in the lab. It's something Murray was also working on, before the two teams joined, and will be at the heart of whatever research is funded through the project. The hope is the black market could be flooded with replica horns indistinguishable from the real thing, and undermine poaching.

Poaching has been the main reason behind the rapid decline of the species, with 1,215 rhinos killed in South Africa alone in 2014. Numbers have plummeted since the start of the 20th Century, when there were around 500,000 of the species throughout Asia and Africa. Numerous conservation efforts have been trialled to combat the problem, from controversially auctioning permits to kill the endangered species to raise conservation funds, to using armies to stop poachers crossing borders, and even launching surveillance drones. The fact remains, poachers are willing to risk their lives for goods that remain in high demand in parts of Asia. A 2012 report estimated illegal wildlife trade was worth $12 billion, and efforts to dissuade rich buyers from funding the industry have so far fallen flat. Earlier this year, the director of Save the Rhino International said having rhino horns has become as much a status symbol in Vietnam as a sports car: "These businessmen have a rhino horn on the hearth to show how successful they are. Or they grind it up and mix it with rice wine to share with dinner guests, or even snort it. It's like, 'I'm so wealthy I can grind up the rhino horn I can afford to buy.'"

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How to resurrect extinct rhinos? Launch a crowdfunding campaign

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Three extinct black rhino species could one day be resurrected, now a crowdfunding campaign to sequence the animal's genome has reached its target. The campaign, launched on science funding platform Experiment, which supports open research projects, surpassed its $15,000 goal on 11 July.

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- Black rhinos are heavy browsers which restricts woody plants from over growing, therefore more grass is able to grow which feeds other animals
-They have a tendency to attack any animals or trees/bushes because of their poor eyesight
-They only come together to mate, otherwise are somewhat spread out.
- Besides attacking them and mistaking them as threats, they normally live in peace with other animals.
- Rhinos play a role in the make-up of grass lands (selective lawnmowers)
- They are able to leave good grass for other animals to eat and survive.
- I do think that it will bring more humans because of how much money they could make off their horns.

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Black Rhinoceros Characteristics

The Black rhinoceros (Diceros Bicornis), is sometimes called the 'Hooked-lip rhino'. The rhinoceros is a mammal in the order Perissodactyla and is native to the eastern and central areas of Africa including Kenya, Tanzania, Cameroon, South Africa, Namibia and Zimbabwe. Although the Rhino is referred to as black, it is actually more of a grey-white colour in appearance. It will sometimes take on the colour of the soil that it lives around.

An adult Black Rhinoceros stands 140 - 170 centimetres (57.9 - 63 inches) high at the shoulder and is 3.3 - 3.6 metres (10.8 - 11.8 feet) in length. An adult weighs from 800 to 1400 kilograms (1,760 to 3,080 pounds), some may weigh 1820 kilograms (4,000 pounds), with the females being smaller than the males. The rhinos two horns on their skull are made of keratin with the larger front horn typically 50 centimetres long, some can measure up to 140 centimetres. Sometimes, a third smaller horn may develop. These horns are used for defence, intimidation and digging up roots and breaking branches during feeding.

The Black rhino is smaller than the White rhino and is more agile in movement. Black Rhinos can still show considerable bouts of aggression, even though they are mainly shy and solitary animals. Black Rhinos tend to live alone, except when breeding and raising offspring.

Black rhinos have a 'prehensile' lip - 'prehensile' meaning - adapted for grasping and holding. The Black Rhinos prehensile lip is used much like a finger to select and pick the twigs and leaves that they prefer.

The Black Rhinos skin harbours many external parasites, which are eaten by birds such as the ox peckers and egrets that live with the rhino.

Black Rhinoceros Diet

The Black Rhinoceros is a herbivore that eats leafy plants, branches, shoots, thorny wood bushes and fruit. The Black Rhinos diet helps to reduce the amount of woody plants which results in more grasses growing for the benefit of other animals.

Black Rhinoceros Vocalisation

The Black Rhino has a wide vocal range and can possibly communicate the same way as an elephant can by frequencies well below the range of human hearing. Breathing is also an important part of rhino communication.

Black Rhinoceros Behaviour

Black Rhinos are heavy browsers that restrict woody plants from over-growing in their habitat. This is important because it allows grasses to grow which provides food for many other animals on the grassy plains.

Black Rhinos have a tendency to attack just about anything, this is because of their poor eyesight. Black Rhinos have been known to attack trees and rocks by mistake. They rely heavily on their strong sense of smell and well developed hearing. If it catches a smell of an unfamiliar presence, then it will instinctively charge mistaking it as a threat. Most of their 'charges' are bluffs but because they act in this way, they have been given a bad reputation as being aggressive and dangerous. Black Rhinos do however, live in harmony with other animals generally. Black Rhinos will attack other animals though if their territory is threatened, they also fight amongst themselves. Black Rhinos will fight each other over territory and females - even courting males and females sometimes fight one another. Black Rhinos use the larger of their two horns as a weapon when fighting. Sometimes it can break off, however, this regenerates and grows back eventually.

Black Rhinoceros Reproduction

Adult Black Rhinoceroses are solitary in nature, coming together only for mating. Mating does not have a seasonal pattern, however, births tend to be towards the end of the rainy season in drier environments.

The gestation period of a female Black rhino is 16 months. She will give birth to one single calf. The calf will weigh about 100 pounds at birth.

Female Black rhinos will use their horns to protect their young from predators such as lions and hyenas. Although they are fierce, Black rhinos do have a softer side.

Black rhino mothers are very affectionate towards their young and will look after them for years, protecting them and teaching them how to survive independently. Unlike a White rhino calf, a Black rhino calf will run behind its mother. Young Black rhinos will live with their mother until another sibling is born, they are about 2 years old when this happens and are almost adult size and ready to go off and live independently.

Black Rhinoceros Life Span

The overall life span of the Black rhino is between 25 - 40 years, in captivity they live a little longer because they are more protected - usually to about 45 years old.

Black Rhinoceros Anatomy

Black Rhinoceros Conservation Status

Conservation Status: Critically Endangered. People of some cultures believe that rhino horn contains medicinal properties. This is most likely not true, however, this is one of the main reasons rhinos are poached. There are fewer than 2,550 black rhinos alive today. All five species of rhino are in danger of extinction.

Subspecies of Black Rhinoceros

There are 3 subspecies of black rhino, the South-central rhino (Diceros bicornis minor), which is the most numerous and once ranged from central Tanzania south through Zambia, Zimbabwe and Mozambique to northern and eastern South Africa.

The South-western rhino (Diceros bicornis bicornis) which is better adapted to the arid and semi-arid savannas of Namibia, southern Angola, western Botswana and western South Africa.

The East African rhino (Diceros bicornis michaeli), primarily in Tanzania.

The West African rhino (Diceros bicornis longipes), the World Conservation Union (IUCN) announced on 7 July 2006 that the West African Black Rhinoceros has been tentatively declared as extinct.

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Black Rhinoceros - Facts, Diet & Habitat Information

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Black Rhinoceros Characteristics The Black rhinoceros (Diceros Bicornis), is sometimes called the 'Hooked-lip rhino'. The rhinoceros is a mammal in the order Perissodactyla and is native to the eastern and central areas of Africa including Kenya, Tanzania, Cameroon, South Africa, Namibia and Zimbabwe. Although the Rhino is referred to as black, it is actually more ...

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African landscapes may become very different places if rhinos aren't there to diversify plant life and create prime grazing spots for other animals

smithsonian.com

Some large animals influence their surroundings more than others. Elephants are known as ecosystem engineers for their tendency to push over trees and stomp shrubby areas in the savannah into submission. This keeps forests at bay, which otherwise would overtake open grasslands. Wolves, on the other hand, are apex predators. They keep other species like deer in check, preventing herbivore populations from getting out of hand and eating all the plants into oblivion. Both elephants and wolves are keystone species, or ones that have a relatively large impact on their environment in relation to their actual population numbers.

African rhinos, it turns out, also seem to be a keystone species. According to a recent study published by Scandinavian and South African researchers in the Journal of Ecology, rhinos maintain the diverse African grasslands on which countless other species depend.

Surprisingly, prior to this study no one had looked closely rhinos' roles in shaping the ecosystem. Most researchers focused on elephants instead. Suspecting that these large animals influence their environment, the authors took a close look at rhinos in Kruger National Park in South Africa.

Today, around 10,500 white rhino live in the park, but that was not always the case. In 1896, rhinos went extinct there due to overzealous trophy hunting. In the 1960s, conservationists began reintroducing the animals back into the park. The population rebounded over the decades, although the rhinos haven't distributed themselves around the 7,500-square mile area equally. As a result, Kruger acts as a sort of "well-documented natural experiment," the researchers write, showing what happens when an animal is excluded from and then put back into an environment.

The authors first examined a 30-year aerial survey record (beginning in 1980) of where the rhinos did and did not livearound Kruger. This record also showed how rhino distributions varied over time as they slowly expanded into new areas. So, by studying these surveys, the researchers could identify and compare places where rhinos had inhabited the longest or the shortest.

After pinpointing high- and low-density sites, the authors went into the field and recorded the plant species found along 40 sections of the park, totaling just under 20 miles. They built a statistical model to analyze the results and controlled for factors such as soil content and the presence of other large grazers, including impala, warthog and wildebeest.

The places where the fewest rhinos lived, they found, had 60 to 80 percent less short grass cover than places where rhinos frequently hung out. "Short grass" is a catch-all metric commonly used to approximate plant diversity in grassy areas in Africa, referring to a number of munchable species. Rhino-inhabited areas also had about 20 times more grazing lawns, or patches where specific grass species grow that are prime eating for not only rhinos but also smaller grazing animals such as zebra, gazelle and antelope.

Based on these findings, the authors think that the rhinos are probably playing a role in controlling the make-up of the park's grasslands. Rhinos, like other grazing species, selectively browse on certain grass species, which leaves room for others that otherwise could not compete to move in and promotes a diverse mosaic of edible plants. As a science writer for the University of Washington put it, "Think of them less as lawnmowers and more as...selective lawnmowers."

Rhinos have only been around the park for a relatively short amount of time, so future studies will have to confirm whether their presence leads to even more substantial ecosystem changes. Examining other places in Africa will also help confirm whether or not rhinos have the same influence wherever they go.

Rhinos are one of the few megaherbivores-plant-eaters that weigh more than 2,000 pounds-that still live in the world. Most others have long gone extinct, many of which were victims to human hunting and expansion. Rhinos' continued existence, however, is questionable. Poachers killed nearly 1,000 rhinos in South Africa alone last year-an almost 50 percent increase from 2012-so as things now stand, rhinos may very likely go the way of so many other species before them.

If the rhinos do disappear from Africa, the authors warn, the savannah will likely become a distinctly different place-in addition to an emptier one.

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About Rachel Nuwer

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Here's What Might Happen to Local Ecosystems If All the Rhinos Disappear

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smithsonian.com Some large animals influence their surroundings more than others. Elephants are known as ecosystem engineers for their tendency to push over trees and stomp shrubby areas in the savannah into submission. This keeps forests at bay, which otherwise would overtake open grasslands. Wolves, on the other hand, are apex predators.

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From research I've done, this subspecies shouldn't be brought back. Western black rhinos or rhinos in general are a main target for poachers or hunters. They use their horns as an income for money. They will sell the horns on the black market or in their own markets. This subspecies has been extinct since 2011, the environment has adapted without them. Why would we bring them back just to suffer?

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Canary in the Coal Mine - Western Black Rhino Now Officially Extinct in the Wild IUCN

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- There would be more grasslands for animals to eat since rhinos are heavy browsers
-More grass lands means less co2 in the atmosphere, less grasslands leads to more co2 in the atmosphere.
- They make water holes, which could mean for water for the animals
- They germinate plants
- No rhinos manes less grazing area than there aren't as many herbivores, which leads to a drastic decline in predators.
- No rhino = no big five = no tourists = no tourism jobs = poor economy

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To every thing there is a yin and yang, a balance. The web of all species is intricately connected, each relies on the others.

When we let a species go extinct, we upset the balance. So if we fail the rhino, what will happen to the rest of the savanna?

Rhinos are mega-herbivores, the lawn maintenance crew of the savanna. Their job to the ecosystem is to carve out paths for other creatures (eating), make water holes (digging), and to help germinate plants (defecating).

It may seem simplistic, but they are the only sizable creatures in this habitat to do it. The other mega-herbivores, elephants affect different parts of the savanna, as they eat from a different menu, browsing on taller bushes and trees.

Rhinos eat an average of 23.6 kg during the course of each day. The dung piles they share can be 5 metres wide and 1 metre deep. That's a sizable amount of trimming and fertilizing!

Research (by Scandinavian and South African researchers in the Journal of Ecology) indicatesareas with higher rhino population had 20 times more grazing areas. These areas supply food not just for rhinos, but for zebra, gazelle and antelope.
No rhinos = less grazable area = less herbivores (i.e. antelope) = less predators (i.e. lions)
If we fail the rhino, what will happen to the people?

Eco-tourism relies heavily on tourists wanting to see the Big 5: the lion, elephant, rhino, cape buffalo, and leopard.

Obviously without the rhino, it's down to 4. But if the savanna suffers without grazable area, ultimately so do the lion and leopard, since their lunch will be terribly diminished by the lack of herbivores.

So will people pay to come see a barren landscape with a few scattered elephant and buffalo?

The World Travel and Tourism Council estimates 3.8 million jobs could be created by the tourism industry in Sub-Saharan Africa over the next 10 years. They go on to say that eco-tourism can only be sustainable IF the natural assets are protected from degradation.

Tour operators, tour drivers, cooks, housekeepers, souvenir vendors, wait staff, hotel staff, taxi drivers, restaurants, store employees...they could all be out of a job without tourism.
No rhino = no big five = no tourists = no tourism jobs = poorer economy
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If we fail the rhino, we let terrorists, politicians, poachers, trophy-hunters, and most of all apathy win; making it that much harder for the next endangered species. If we fail the rhino, we ultimately fail ourselves.

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To every thing there is a yin and yang, a balance. The web of all species is intricately connected, each relies on the others. When we let a species go extinct, we upset the balance. So if we fail ...