Black rhino extinct?

[falling rain]

Sad news if it's true

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/5167266.stm

and just a couple of years ago they were saying this

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/3835745.stm

Very sad

 

[wiggles]

thats so sad

wiggles

 

[leon-1]

Sad news if it's true

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/5167266.stm

and just a couple of years ago they were saying this

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/3835745.stm

Very sad

I thought that the breeding program that they had set up (I think it was Aspinell's) was working well and they were re-intoducing to the wild

 

[leon-b]

its so sad that animals ave to come extinct due to over hunting
leon

 

[falling rain]

I thought that the breeding program that they had set up (I think it was Aspinell's) was working well and they were re-intoducing to the wild

Not heard of that Leon. Mind you I'm no expert. I hope you're right.
All I can say is ....Nice one..... People have once again managed to make extinct a beautiful animal for their greed. Oh well never mind, we'll just move on to the white rhino and see if we can manage the same with those as well, and why stop there?, lets totally collapse the cod stocks while we're at it, and then we'll move on to the...................makes me very miffed!!

 

[leon-1]

Nick, I know that the black rhino had a program with one of the groups, this is slightly different as this is one of the sub species and I agree that it is a very sad occasion if indeed it is true that the western has indeed slipped into the west.

Hopefully it will not be the case and that a remnant can be found, in which case it's capture would probably be the best thing for it (as much as it may sound harsh) and that at a later date a full re-introduction via a breeding program may be carried out.

 

[SowthEfrikan]

That's not to say I don't believe in shooting and eating Bambi, and mumsie too, just that it is unfortunate that the demand for ivory was such that rhino and elephant didn't really stand much of a chance.

South Africa is one of the few countries still rich in game. Zimbabwe was not doing badly either, but then Robber Mugabe came along. Now Zimbs are reduced to eating virtually anything that moves.

It's less a question of greed, in Africa, than a question of survival.

 

[leon-b]

yes me neither i i often go shooting with a group of us and i love the whole hunting thing, but i dont think its fair to hunt just for the ivory so that you can make money
leon

 

[ScottC]

I sponsor the WWF in their Black Rhino programme, got a phone call the other day telling me it was going well and there had been several new births?? Sad news if it is true.

 

[steve a]

The ZSL are involved in a conservation effort, details can be found here:
http://static.zsl.org/files/black-rhinos-6.pdf

 

[CLEM]

Makes me feel both angry and sad.Truly human beings are the worst and most needlessly destructive creatures on the planet.Imagine a world with no animals,the earth only populated by humans.Theres grim for you

 

[falling rain]

It's less a question of greed, in Africa, than a question of survival.[/QUOTE]

Not sure about that.............. as far as the rhinos are concerned anyway.
Fair comment the people need to eat, but rhinos are killed by poachers, (not hungry people) for their horns which are powdered and used in China/Taiwan/Yemen etc as a supposed aphrodisiac and to make ornaments and dagger handles etc, and not for food. Poachers kill for profit not food, and have no morals, or care who or which animals gets harmed in the process. They saw off the horns and just leave the dead carcass where it has fallen. That's the way I understood it anyway.

 

[SowthEfrikan]

Yes, animals with ivory are killed with poachers, but you are writing it off as greed from the comfort of a first world armchair. Too simplistic. Those poachers don't earn a fortune for the kill, at least not in terms of the money we bring home, and it puts food on the plates of extended families. Animals continued to die, despite the best efforts at educating people about endangered species, which is when the horns started being sawn off hoping for their protection. What's worse, wardens were getting killed, too.

 

[demographic]

That's not to say I don't believe in shooting and eating Bambi, and mumsie too, just that it is unfortunate that the demand for ivory was such that rhino and elephant didn't really stand much of a chance.

South Africa is one of the few countries still rich in game. Zimbabwe was not doing badly either, but then Robber Mugabe came along. Now Zimbs are reduced to eating virtually anything that moves.

It's less a question of greed, in Africa, than a question of survival.

About 18 years ago I read about a scheme that ruined the ivory sales by capturing the elephants and dying their tusks bright blue (as far as I remember it also penetrated into the cracks in the tusks), it worked a treat but for some strange reason the government stopped it.
I wonder who in power got a backhander for that decision, I can't remember which African state it was though.

Not much of a market for blue ivory.