Western black rhinos feared extinct

[Banquo's Ghost]

In case anyone thought it was just obscure frogs that went extinct in our lovely modern world:

IUCN (http://www.iucn.org/en/news/archive/2006/07/7_pr_rhino.htm)

And all because some fools think that powdered hair makes their pecker stand up... :no:

[Aenlic]

It's most certainly not just a few species. The current extinction rate is the highest it's been since the K-T boundary mass extinction 65 million years ago which killed off the dinosaurs. I've heard people say vapid things like "well, species die all the time" and such. Right. There have been only 5 events that we know of with a larger extintion rate, all of them mass extinctions - like the end of the Cambrian and the end of the dinosaurs.

It's not hard to understand, and this time it's not due to asteroids or the Siberian traps; it's almost entirely due to human activites, such as transplantation of species carried about intentionally or by accident like in the ballast water of cargo ships and pollution and human-caused global warming. The previous mass extinctions took thousands of years, maybe as much as 80,000 for the Cambrian extinction, for example. We've managed this one in less than 500 years. Good old human ingenuity at work. Who says you can't beat mother nature? We are.

It isn't just animal scecies, either. Plants are counted in the numbers. The average yearly loss of rain forests due to human expansion is about 18 million acres. That's an area roughly the size of Ireland - every year.

The New Scientist had an article (http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn4797) about it a while back.

Three quarters of the Amazon's amphibians gone in 20 years. One quarter of the world's mammals in 100. And many more. Just plug the words "biodiversity" and "extinction" into a search engine and read.

A subject dear to Papewaio's heart, I'm sure, the bonobos will be extinct within 20-30 years - mankind's closest primate relatives.

That leads me to wonder if perhaps we aren't actually much more closely related to lemmings. :skull:

[Devastatin Dave]

Isn't there some still in zoos? Tragic indeed. Luckily, we still have tiger teeth and panda piss to make our peckers stand at attention.:no:

[Patriarch of Constantinople]

i want to beat the guy who has a black rhino horn on his wall. with a panda rug with ivory lining. come here you inconsiderate...!:viking:

[rory_20_uk]

Pandas and Rhinos are not really animals whose loss I can get worked up about. Sure, Pandas are pretty, but a carnivore that eats bamboo and almost nothing else is not one of Nature's winners. Nor is an animal with the brain the size of a shrivelled pea. Destruction of the rainforest is a far greater concern.

I also have to say that people get very worried when plants or animals are transported to another place and proceed to do well. Isn't that a good thing? Fiding new niches etc etc? Seems like all news is always bad news to conservationists.

~:smoking:

[yesdachi]

Sadly there is not much of a place in the world for a gigantic horned animal anymore that doesn’t mooo. Western Black Rhinos could have been extinct for 50 years and I would have never known, their existence (or lack thereof) doesn’t affect me or probably anyone else except for the people trying to save/kill them.

[Devastatin Dave]

Sadly there is not much of a place in the world for a gigantic horned animal anymore that doesn’t mooo. Western Black Rhinos could have been extinct for 50 years and I would have never known, their existence (or lack thereof) doesn’t affect me or probably anyone else except for the people trying to save/kill them.
The only problem with looking at this at that angle is that if something this large has become extinct then that means other creatures in that region that depend on this animal (rino eats vegetation with seeds, feces move and fertilise seeds, parasites feed off the rino, birds eat the parasites, Circle of Life, Walt Disney, Whoopi Goldberg as a hyena, etc:laugh4: ) will suffer as well. Species and subspecies need to be protected. I'm still wondering if there are any of these black rinos left in zoos. Sometimes, unfortunately, that's where most species will find their only safe haven.

[yesdachi]

The only problem with looking at this at that angle is that if something this large has become extinct then that means other creatures in that region that depend on this animal (rino eats vegetation with seeds, feces move and fertilise seeds, parasites feed off the rino, birds eat the parasites, Circle of Life, Walt Disney, Whoopi Goldberg as a hyena, etc:laugh4: ) will suffer as well. Species and subspecies need to be protected. I'm still wondering if there are any of these black rinos left in zoos. Sometimes, unfortunately, that's where most species will find their only safe haven.
I understand what you are saying but won’t something else more adaptable just fill the rhinos absent spot. Like a wildebeest, which has a birthrate x2 a rhino.

[discovery1]

I also have to say that people get very worried when plants or animals are transported to another place and proceed to do well. Isn't that a good thing? Fiding new niches etc etc? Seems like all news is always bad news to conservationists.

Becuase generally they kill off large chunks of the native wildlife that are not equipted to deal with them.

[Aenlic]

Pandas and Rhinos are not really animals whose loss I can get worked up about. Sure, Pandas are pretty, but a carnivore that eats bamboo and almost nothing else is not one of Nature's winners. Nor is an animal with the brain the size of a shrivelled pea. Destruction of the rainforest is a far greater concern.

I also have to say that people get very worried when plants or animals are transported to another place and proceed to do well. Isn't that a good thing? Fiding new niches etc etc? Seems like all news is always bad news to conservationists.

~:smoking:

No, it's not a good thing. Generally, transplanted species, called exotics, don't just find new niches. Because they have no natural enemies at the new site, they instead thrive too much and often form monocultures, driving out all the other species in an area. Or they find some native species particularly delectable and kill that species off, and along with all the other species in the ecosystem dependent upon it to survive. Sometimes the introduction is accidental, like the canal system into the Great Lakes which allowed access to lampreys. Lampreys killed off nearly all of the Great Lakes trout by the 1940's.

I recommend you catch a movie called Darwin's Nightmare on cable, if you have cable, or go rent it. It will open your eyes about transporting species, in this case intentionally. Nearly every species of fish except one is now gone from Lake Victoria; because some git got the bright idea to improve the lake's fishing industry by importing Nile perch there.

Do you know why Dutch elm disease nearly killed all of the American elms in the 1930's and 1940's and is still a problem today? Because the European elms had immunites to it; but when European elms were imported to the U.S. they brought along a disease which the local elms had no protections against.

Sounds hauntingly familiar, that idea of no local immunity. That's because that's how various native populations in the Americas were wiped out - no immunities. No more Caribs in the Caribbean. Introduction of exotic populations brings along other things, like disease and parasites that may not be obvious - until they wipe out a local population which has no defenses.

Australia has a particularly colorful history when it comes to transported species. In a few, very few cases, such things might be beneficial. The world's only existing wild camels live in Australia now. But compared to the massive screwups, the accidental successes are insignificant. Buy a ticket to Australia, find an Australian farmer. Tell him you'd like to sell him some European rabbits. Then run. :grin:

And rabbits weren't the only case. There were the foxes introduced to kill the rabbits. Turns out the foxes like the local wildlife better.

New Zealand is suffering from the effects of species transplanted from Australia. If you survive your encounter with an Australian farmer, take a flight over to NZ and ask a farmer there if he'd like to buy some bush-tailed opossums. Then run - again. :grin:

In the U.S. most people in the south are familiar with the Kudzu vine, which is wreaking havoc all across the southeastern U.S. thanks to importation to provide shade for southern mansions in the 1870's. Now it kills off trees at a phenomenal rate, resulting in more than $50 million per year worth of lost timber and farm production.

Almost half of the species on the U.S. endangered lists are there because of the introduction of exotics. It's not quite as bad elsewhere; but it's getting there. Exotics = bad news.

Think of it as Michael Crichton's Andromeda Strain but just with other earthly species, thousands of different types - all the result of intentional or accidental human transplantations of species. And the results rarely have the pat happy ending like Crichton's book did. :wink:

[Crazed Rabbit]

A loss, if true, though I won't get that worried about it.

And I refuse to accept any guilt for my personal actions (As I do not poach, trade, smuggle or buy edit:rhino horn) or that of my country's.

Crazed Rabbit

[Big_John]

rhino horn is not ivory, just fyi.

[Crazed Rabbit]

Whoops. Good catch.

Crazed Rabbit

[Papewaio]

A subject dear to Papewaio's heart, I'm sure, the bonobos will be extinct within 20-30 years - mankind's closest primate relatives.

That leads me to wonder if perhaps we aren't actually much more closely related to lemmings. :skull:

Bonobos are interesting because they are close to us in sexual attitudes. Larger Chimps are closer to us in violence.

Sadly I think we follow larger Chimps attitude (or at least more readily identify with it) which makes us think all evolution is red in tooth and claw.

Lemmings never voluntarily jump off cliffs, they do if pushed by another lemming or a disney camera man...

[Aenlic]

Ah, come on! You're messing with my spur of the moment allusion! It was the best I could do off the top of my head. :wink:

I suppose there are no other species who strive so mightily to wipe themselves out, aside from us; and we are supposed to be intelligent enough to know better. Only we are smart enough and advanced enough to ruin our own food supply, air supply and water supply while gamely pretending we aren't actually doing it. :no:

[Papewaio]

No the allusion is more cunning and informative with this data just like a rainbow is more beautiful the more we understand how it comes to be.

We humans are pushing each other over the cliff of extinction together. And we don't see the cliff because our monkey sphere is right behind someone elses butt not on the horizon ahead.

Plenty of other things kill themselves as they go about their business of life. If it wasn't so we wouldn't have to fortify wine to make port...