Conservation of the Eastern Black Rhinoceros

Conservation of the Eastern Black Rhinoceros

Author: PNAS July 21, 2025 Duration: 10:48


Managing eastern black rhinoceros populations with genetic studies

Science Sessions are brief conversations with cutting-edge researchers, National Academy members, and policymakers as they discuss topics relevant to today's scientific community. Learn the behind-the-scenes story of work published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), plus a broad range of scientific news about discoveries that affect the world around us.

In this episode, Barbara Mable and Ronald Mellya show how allowing endangered rhinos to move between populations enhances genetic diversity.

In this episode, we cover:
•[00:00] Introduction
•[01:00] Evolutionary geneticist Barbara Mable explains why is genetic diversity important in managing small, isolated populations of rhinos.
•[02:59] Park warden Ronald Mellya describes how his firsthand experience with rhino management led to this study.
•[04:52] Mable explains the methods of the study and the contributions of co-author Anubhab Khan.
•[06:20] Mable talks about the results.
•[07:24] Mellya tells how the study has changed rhino management in Tanzania.
•[08:37] Mable and Mellya enumerate the caveats and limitations of the study.
•[10:20] Conclusion.

About Our Guests:

Barbara Mable
Professor
University of Glasgow

Ronald Mellya
Park Warden
Tanzania National Parks

View related content here: https://www.pnas.org/doi/abs/10.1073/pnas.2414412122

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Tune into PNAS Science Sessions for a direct line to the people shaping modern science. Produced by PNAS, this podcast offers more than just summaries of published research; it’s where you hear the candid, often personal stories behind the headlines. Each episode features concise conversations with the researchers themselves-from emerging voices to established Academy members-alongside the policymakers whose decisions are informed by this work. You’ll get a genuine sense of the questions that drive these experts, the unexpected hurdles they face in their labs and field studies, and why their findings matter right now. The scope is deliberately wide, reflecting the interdisciplinary nature of science itself, covering discoveries that range from microscopic processes to planetary-scale phenomena. This isn't about dry lectures, but about capturing the human endeavor of investigation. For anyone curious about how science actually unfolds and wants to understand the context of breakthroughs as they happen, this podcast serves as an essential, engaging resource. It connects the dots between a published paper in a prestigious journal and the real-world implications that ripple out from it.
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