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Rhino Causes of Death
Sally

New User


Posts: 3
Joined:
Jun 29th - 23:43

Posted: Jun 30 2008, 12:35 AM
Our 8th grade daughter would like to make her science project have an altruistic purpose to it and she loves animals. And my husband and I have many years of experience in developing epidemiological software applications/databases for researchers for the CDC and other research organizations. In talking with some of the senior epidemiologists that we know, we think that we might be able to apply some of the software applications that have been developed for human epidemiological studies to animals... but we need data.
Specifically, we're looking for data that would ideally include some basic information about each individual animal in the population (sex, age, etc.) and their most likely cause of death.
So I'm wondering if this type of data exists for Rhinos? Other species?
Is there a database that we could obtain that has cause of death info?
If not, would zoos be interested in sharing data on their rhinos so that we could collect this info in a central place?
Forgive me if this is a stupid question... we know nothing about rhinos, but we do know how to help researchers get a handle on their data.... and we'd like to help our daughter help save the rhino.
Any thoughts?

Respectfully,
Jill
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Kees

Moderator


Posts: 111
Joined:
Oct 26th - 08:27

Posted: Jul 1 2008, 09:39 AM
Dear Jill
There is to my knowledge no central database with information on the causes of death of rhinos. When we talk of rhinos in captivity, I collected and published the available data for individual specimens in Rookmaaker, The Rhinoceros in Captivity (1998). I would think that there may be data for no more than a quarter of the animals. Secondly, the studbooks for the black and white rhinos have included the cause of death when known. It will take time, but it is quite possible to search these publications for the details. Then of course individual articles on veterinary issues have details on diseases and sometimes resulting death. It will take a lot of work, but there may be scope in setting up a database of this sort.

--------------------
Kees Rookmaaker
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Sally

New User


Posts: 3
Joined:
Jun 29th - 23:43

Posted: Jul 2 2008, 12:04 AM
Thanks so much for your reply.
If handy, please feel free to email me an article or share a link to anything you think might help get us started.
No obligation... just gratitude for anything you might be able share.

I'd be interested if others think this would be futile.. or potentially helpful?

Thanks again,
Jill
jill@adivo.com
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