Mr Francesco Nardelli

Francesco Nardelli has worked on the ex situ conservation of Indonesian rhinos since the early 1980s. As Curator at Howletts and Port Lympne Wildlife Parks in the United Kingdom from 1981, he established and coordinated breeding programmes for highly sensitive mammal species, achieving several first-time breeding successes in the UK.

In 1983 he became Executive Director of the Sumatran Rhino Conservation Project in Indonesia — the first ex situ conservation initiative for Dicerorhinus sumatrensis, a multinational programme involving the Indonesian Government, Howletts and Port Lympne, the San Diego, Los Angeles, New York and Cincinnati zoos, IUCN and WWF. He went on to serve as Overseas Project Manager for Howletts and Port Lympne and as Studbook Keeper for the Sumatran rhinoceros, and in 1989 co-founded the Indonesian Mitra Rhino Foundation (today YABI). On 13 September 2001 the first Sumatran rhinoceros ever conceived and born in captivity was born under that programme. Since 2003 he has authored a number of papers on the Javan and Sumatran rhinoceroses.