World's Last Male Northern White Rhino Under 24-Hour Guard

[rick49]

"Armed rangers in Sudan guard the last male northern white rhino on earth. His species survived for 50 million years."

tinyurl.com/peedk6z

[voice]

a lot of limp dicked Chinese will be disappointed.

[Repat Van]

Humans are sh*t.

[flatandy]

I think this is evidence, actually, that rhinos are sh*t compared to humans. If the rhinos learned how to make guns and use human penises to make themselves more virile there'd lots more horny rhinos out there, and a lot fewer humans.

[auldhippy]

On the plus side he's the last male on earth so is not going to go short.

[flatandy]

Well, if there were more than 2 females he'd be alright.

Unless he's willing to play for the away team and have some southern rhino action, too.

[auldhippy]

Testing the resolve of the females who used the "not if you were the last rhino on earth" line.

[auldhippy]

If he's gay they're fecked.

[rick49]

"The rhino’s horn has also been removed as an added precaution."

"The only reason his horn has been cut off is to deter poachers," Elodie Sampere of the conservancy told The Dodo. "If the rhino has no horn, he is of no interest to poachers. This is purely to keep him safe."

Unfortunately, that doesn't always work. If there is even the tiniest stub of horn left, poachers will go after it. And they have also killed dehorned rhinos out of pure spite.

[rick49]

Sudan,,,last male northern white rhino.






"A rhino caretaker Mohammed Doyo (Front) caresses 25-year-old female northern white rhino, Najin, at Ol Pejeta Conservancy."

[rick49]

They have walked the earth for 55 million years, and we wipe them off the planet in only 55 years. Just because some Chinese think they will make their dicks hard.

[lala]

It's not actually considered an aphrodisiac, but a panacea: www.digitaljournal.com/article/357987

And Rhinos have been hunted to the brink of extinction in colonial period. Asian demand might push them over the edge, but the reason they're near the edge at all is down to four centuries of hunting.

Also, bluntly, I can't really blame dirt poor poachers from exploiting a resource for money. If they had more options and lived in a less ghastly environment, then moral censure would be justified. But we're talking about some of the poorest and most war-ravaged parts of the planet. It isn't that surprising people aren't as fussed as we are over the fate of rhinos. We hunted plenty of species to extinction for sport or through necessity. Because we have the luxury of not living in an immediately precarious environment, we now regard it as obscene. But let's face it, you'd choose your own well being over that of the rhino every time, wouldn't you?

Finally, while the plight of the White Rhino is very sad, we are happily driving other species towards extinction to sate our own desires. Orangutans are listed as critically endangered and the reason is because we want cheap palm oil.

I would suggest a massive and universal re-appraisal of our behaviour and its impacts is needed, rather than fretting about one sub-species of Rhino (his 'species' is not under-threat. His southern cousins are doing quite well).

[flatandy]

Actual, his southern cousins aren't in great shape, either, thanks to a massive spike in poaching in Zim, Zam, SA, Botswana and Namibia. They were fine until 3 or 4 years ago, but numbers have gone into precipitous decline again.

Which is super-crappy.

And those countries, Zim perhaps excluded, don't even have the dirt-poor-warzones excuse.

[lala]

Certainly lots of poor people with guns, though. Supply and demand.

Apparently, some antelope in Asian is being hunted towards endangerment because its getting harder to find rhinos.

Why people don't just eat their own hair if it s that important to have some keratin?

[rick49]

"Also, bluntly, I can't really blame dirt poor poachers from exploiting a resource for money."

Organized crime rings have taken over poaching. They are hardly dirt poor. I don't know of many dirt poor poachers that can afford helicopters to slaughter rhinos and entire herds of elephants at one time.

[rick49]

The last remaining hope for the species is artificial reproduction. Or maybe cloning.

[lala]

I imagine the tech comes from the middle men, initially, though if you can get $65,000 per kilogram for rhino horn (current price, apparently, making it more valued than gold!), I imagine you can quite quickly move out of the dirt poor category.

Which is, of course, why they do it.

[jimboky]

If they want him to survive they should send him to Texas

www.tourtexas.com/content.cfm?id=72

[Repat Van]

Can we just hunt the poachers instead?

I'd support that. Although Jimboky's idea makes the most sense. We should just move the animals over to more civilised places where they can repopulate in peace.

[mids]

Apr 16, 2015 0:45:11 GMT lala said:

It's not actually considered an aphrodisiac, but a panacea: www.digitaljournal.com/article/357987

And Rhinos have been hunted to the brink of extinction in colonial period. Asian demand might push them over the edge, but the reason they're near the edge at all is down to four centuries of hunting.

Also, bluntly, I can't really blame dirt poor poachers from exploiting a resource for money. If they had more options and lived in a less ghastly environment, then moral censure would be justified. But we're talking about some of the poorest and most war-ravaged parts of the planet. It isn't that surprising people aren't as fussed as we are over the fate of rhinos. We hunted plenty of species to extinction for sport or through necessity. Because we have the luxury of not living in an immediately precarious environment, we now regard it as obscene. But let's face it, you'd choose your own well being over that of the rhino every time, wouldn't you?

Finally, while the plight of the White Rhino is very sad, we are happily driving other species towards extinction to sate our own desires. Orangutans are listed as critically endangered and the reason is because we want cheap palm oil.

I would suggest a massive and universal re-appraisal of our behaviour and its impacts is needed, rather than fretting about one sub-species of Rhino (his 'species' is not under-threat. His southern cousins are doing quite well).

tl;dr, it's our fault.