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

[lala]

To be honest, I also think Jimbo's idea is the best. We think they are precious, we should shoulder the burden of maintaining them. Otherwise, stop pretending to care.

[Deleted]

A few years ago there was a TV docu ostensibly about the Bush Meat Trade.

Endless emotive details and figures of how beautiful forest creatures are being hunted to extinction for food.

Some details of some of the efforts being made to 'train' local people in farming so they can get their food from crops.

Two short excerpts however were the most telling.

In the first, an interview with a few people, cooking and eating bush meet in a town. When asked if they felt any 'guilt' over what they were doing, they pointed out, their ancestors, (our ancestors) were eating bush meat thousands, hundreds of thousands, even millions of years ago. There has always been more than enough meat available.

The difference now is the Europeans and Japanese have come in, taking down the trees to transport to Europe.

They also pointed out that, as the forests are removed, the animals have no cover and are prey to poachers.

I hold a citizenship in a small African country that is very mountainous. It's eco system is based upon a cycle of seasonable rains, water stored in the mountains, then slowly released to the valleys. That system is being destroyed by intense logging. Such are the rewards for hard wood that few penalties are not enough to deter loggers.

A second clip, in the same program, filmed some people who had given up hunting to farm. Their farms are regularly invaded by Elephants, Primates and other creatures, taking the crops. The people have nothing left to eat. In one case, a widow, whose husband had been killed for poaching, and with several children, all of whom had helped to plant the crops, sat crying after her farm had been destroyed by Elephants. She said, I was told the animals are my friends. How can friends leave my family to starve?

Ray Mears and similar, haul their generous waist lines around the world, living in luxurious RVs lecturing us all about how we must save these beautiful creatures. More money is spent on saving the Panda than any other conservation projects in history.

Ray Mears has never gone hungry in his life and Pandas are too stupid to even breed let alone eat.

[Deleted]

That's the answer, bring these endangered animals to America or Europe.
Until Africa gets its act together.

[lala]

Actually, a more amusing option might be to ship the entire human population of Africa to Texas - guns and all - and see what happens.

[Repat Van]

No room.

And the animals wouldn't stand a chance.

[wetkingcanute]

I had a dream last night about building a boat.
A voice said it is to be of gopher wood, smeared inside and out with pitch, with three decks and internal compartments; it will be 300 cubits long, 50 wide, and 30 high; it will have a roof "finished to a cubit upward"; and an entrance on the side.

Would that be any help?

[mids]

Seems a bit big for just one rhino.

[Deleted]

What's wrong with collecting some sperm and fertilising the females?
Anyone like to have a go?
Maybe he could look at some sexy lady Rhinos in a video

[Deleted]

Maybe the Royal family could take some of them on a bit of land, as Princes William and Harry seem to be concerned about species going extinct.
I think they are right to be concerned.
It isn't just so our children's children can see them, it would be a terrible world without animals, even if we needed them for meat one day

[jimboky]

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.






These poachers are mostly poor people with families to feed, and little other means to support them. These wild animals are white elephants to them, can't hardly blame them for wanting to kill them to feed their children

[Repat Van]

Which is why in retrospect I like your idea.

Although I still want to hunt fuckwits. If not poachers, then the dim witted limp dicked men who buy potions made of rhino horn. I should be able to hunt them.

[mids]

I blame white people.

[Deleted]

Actually, it's everyone's fault except the poachers', poor hard done by little things that they are.

[voice]

I saw an interesting thing on the expansion of Chinese power in eastern Africa, they have built some fantastic roads there apparently, given billions to local governments and as a result whole countries are being stripped of wildlife whose bits are now being funneled down these really good roads to ports heading for China to make useless remedies but no one does much cos of the money and the facts its 'traditional' for the Chinks to use woo when modern medicine could do the job so much better.

[Deleted]

Apr 16, 2015 16:30:02 GMT voice said:

I saw an interesting thing on the expansion of Chinese power in eastern Africa, they have built some fantastic roads there apparently, given billions to local governments and as a result whole countries are being stripped of wildlife whose bits are now being funneled down these really good roads to ports heading for China to make useless remedies but no one does much cos of the money and the facts its 'traditional' for the Chinks to use woo when modern medicine could do the job so much better.

Th Chinese are indeed building a lot of public works in many African countries. Their aim is to build relations and improve their trading links.

But any suggestion the Chinese government is using those works as a screen to destroy African wild life are a nonsense.

[lala]

'the Chinks'

Really?

[voice]

I never said it was Chinese gov policy to do this, only its a clear side effect, the same prog showed all these high end shops in Shanghai and Beijing busting at the seams with ivory products fresh from Africa

[Deleted]

Apr 16, 2015 19:01:03 GMT voice said:

I never said it was Chinese gov policy to do this, only its a clear side effect, the same prog showed all these high end shops in Shanghai and Beijing busting at the seams with ivory products fresh from Africa

I appreciate the clarification and the point. I do apologise of I appeared to have picked up the wrong end of the stick.

However, the Chinese are seeking to build bridges here. They know that African markets are their own future. However big China is, it needs those foreign markets. Europe, the Americas, all, quickly becoming closed shops. The Chinese are in for the long haul.

Their investments are huge. To suggest they would risk that by allowing their people to steal anything? Seriously. In China, they execute people for embezzlement.

[flatandy]

More than the market, China knows that a huge amounts of their raw materials are in Africa. And rather than take the US war-for-oil type approach, they've decided to offer all kinds of support to all kinds of regimes (and their enemies - get in with every crowd) and start spending of infrastructure - stuff that's not high quality so cheap to the Chines, but which is far better than what is currently in place in many African countries.

Markets come later. But at the moment rare earth metals and the like are what the Chinese are interested in.

[clarity]

Artificial insemination seems to be the answer, that's if the rhino is still up to it. Those 2 females could be pregnant and guarded in a safe place. Perhaps Texas is the wrong place to home the male, too many gun carrying nutters there. What about San Diego Zoo? That's a great place for an old rhino to spend his last days. If he gets bored he can hop the tram to TJ