Only five white rhinos left worldwide, after one dies at San Diego Zoo
42 replies, posted
[video=youtube;V7mvN3OUdec]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V7mvN3OUdec[/video]
[QUOTE][B](CNN)[/B] -- A northern white rhino has died at a San Diego zoo, leaving only five worldwide and bringing the species closer to extinction.
Angalifu, 44, died of old age Sunday at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park.
"With Angalifu's passing, only five northern white rhinos are left on the planet, including Nola, our elderly female," the zoo said in a statement.
Of the[URL="http://www.cnn.com/2014/10/20/world/africa/kenya-northern-white-rhino/index.html"] handful of northern white rhinos[/URL] left worldwide, a few are at a wildlife conservancy in Kenya. There are no known northern white rhinos left in the wild.
Northern white rhinos and southern white rhinos are different subspecies genetically.
Last year, the International Union for Conservation of Nature declared the northern white rhino as "teetering on the brink of extinction."[/QUOTE]
[url]http://edition.cnn.com/2014/12/15/us/san-diego-white-rhino-dead/[/url]
Fuck, imagine there's only 5 of you left on this world.
So, what about breeding attempts? Or is it all males left? In that case, try male insemination to a normal rhino and see what pops out.
breeding in captivity hasn't been successful.
Not quite right. This is the northern white rhino, the southern white rhino is faring slightly better at around 700 in captivity, and they breed quite readily. Still a tragedy, since this subspecies is entirely extinct in the wild, and we'll likely see it go extinct entirely in the next decade or two.
Was refering to the northern white rhino. I remember reading an atricle about it several years ago.
[QUOTE=ghost901;46732376]Was refering to the northern white rhino.[/QUOTE]
I know you were, but a lot of the articles referring to this, and the title, seem to claim that there are only five white rhinos in total, but they're misrepresenting it and leaving out the southern white rhino.
It's always more weird when it's a big animal going extinct, really.
At least this one died of old age and not from a slow agonizing death from a poisoned arrow or something
Isn't animal cloning a somewhat existing science already? Why not applying it with there?
I know that even if cloning was perfected it wouldn't a real solution since the gene pool woudn't change but still...
[QUOTE=GoDong-DK;46733198]It's always more weird when it's a big animal going extinct, really.[/QUOTE]
Yeah we should forget about all the amphibians and insects and shit that are going extinct.
Shame people only give a fuck if it's a big cool animal like a Rhino.
[QUOTE=GoDong-DK;46733198]It's always more weird when it's a big animal going extinct, really.[/QUOTE]
The bigger they are, they less they are able to adapt and are for more likely to go extinct. Man is rapidly reaching the top tier of the size list, too.
[QUOTE=bravehat;46733447]Yeah we should forget about all the amphibians and insects and shit that are going extinct.
Shame people only give a fuck if it's a big cool animal like a Rhino.[/QUOTE]
Which is definitely not what I was saying? It's kinda weird seeing something so majestic just die out - I'm not saying it's [I]worse[/I] than any other species dying out - you just have this expectation that larger animals soldier through for some reason, you know?
Well, the best we can do is preserve as much genetic material as we can, so that one day, we may revive the species. Five isn't nearly enough to support a population.
[QUOTE=GoDong-DK;46733551]Which is definitely not what I was saying? It's kinda weird seeing something so majestic just die out - I'm not saying it's [I]worse[/I] than any other species dying out - you just have this expectation that larger animals soldier through for some reason, you know?[/QUOTE]
Rhinos can disappear and really all that would happen is we'd be sad and thee would be one less huge herbivore.
[quote]The GAA analyzed all 5,743 amphibian species known to science. It
found that:
• At least 1,856 species are considered threatened with extinction, representing
32 percent of all amphibian species. By comparison, 12 percent
of birds and 23 percent of mammals are threatened.
• At least nine species have gone extinct since 1980. Another 113 species
have not been found in recent years and are considered to be possibly
extinct. Scientists suspect that many species have declined due to chytridiomycosis,
a disease found primarily in the Americas, the Caribbean,
and Australia. These numbers suggest that we are experiencing an epidemic
number of extinctions – hundreds of thousands of years’ worth in
just a century.
• 43 percent of all species are in population decline – fewer than one
percent are increasing. Twenty-seven percent are stable, and the rest are
unknown. [/quote]
[url]http://www.natureserve.org/library/amphibian_fact_sheet.pdf[/url]
Don't get me wrong I'm not trying to have a go at you, but we have far bigger problems than the disappearance of a couple of Rhinos.
[QUOTE=Axsisel;46733446]Isn't animal cloning a somewhat existing science already? Why not applying it with there?
I know that even if cloning was perfected it wouldn't a real solution since the gene pool woudn't change but still...[/QUOTE]
Because ethicfags.
[QUOTE=Daemon White;46732348]So, what about breeding attempts? Or is it all males left? In that case, try male insemination to a normal rhino and see what pops out.[/QUOTE]
Only one of the five left is a male and he's considered unable to mate naturally according to BBC. A couple of the females also have health issues that have made artificial insemination unsuccessful.
Worth noting it [i]is[/i] possible for a species to come back from the brink like this. Cheetahs were in this spot about 10,000 years ago where the population fell to as low as five or six and came back to flourish until their population started dropping again only within the last few decades. It does leave the species incredibly weak genetically though, with a very small gene-pool and little genetic diversity.
With only 5 left, you'd think there would be an effort to preserve various samples of its DNA for posterity/cloning.
[QUOTE=adamsz;46734251]With only 5 left, you'd think there would be an effort to preserve various samples of its DNA for posterity/cloning.[/QUOTE]
We don't have the proper technology for a rather wide scale cloning/repopulation but you can bet your ass DNA would be collected and stored for when that could become a reality
[QUOTE=Buck.;46733598]Because ethicfags.[/QUOTE]
People are still against cloning? I thought the people against it were just fighting to prolong an inevitable defeat, like gay marriage.
[QUOTE=Comrade_Eko;46734270]People are still against cloning? I thought the people against it were just fighting to prolong an inevitable defeat, like gay marriage.[/QUOTE]
Cloning is a Pandora's box, ever watched Gattaca ?
[QUOTE=AntonioR;46734296]Cloning is a Pandora's box, ever watched Gattaca ?[/QUOTE]
Oh I was just talking about animal cloning, I know a lot people are against human cloning.
I thought public opinion was fine with animal cloning now though.
[QUOTE=Citrus705;46733211]At least this one died of old age and not from a slow agonizing death from a poisoned arrow or something[/QUOTE]
They kill them for their tusks. They practically hack their faces off.
Can't say with much certainty about the use of poisonous arrows though, or what is their usual cause of death when dealing with poachers and the like.
Could just leave them be, if they're gunna die out then they're gunna die out. Not a great deal we can/should do about it.
[QUOTE=bravehat;46733577]Rhinos can disappear and really all that would happen is we'd be sad and thee would be one less huge herbivore.
[url]http://www.natureserve.org/library/amphibian_fact_sheet.pdf[/url]
Don't get me wrong I'm not trying to have a go at you, but we have far bigger problems than the disappearance of a couple of Rhinos.[/QUOTE]
Don't get me wrong either, I'm not saying we don't. What I'm getting at is that Rhinos are big animals and it's very apparent - visually - when they're going extinct; so why weren't we able to prevent it?
I totally understand that the white Rhino isn't as nearly important ecologically compared to much, much smaller creatures.
[QUOTE=Comrade_Eko;46734309]Oh I was just talking about animal cloning, I know a lot people are against human cloning.
I thought public opinion was fine with animal cloning now though.[/QUOTE]
And that's mostly true but you will always have a very vocal community blaming the scientists for playing god and whatnot.
[QUOTE=aaro1450;46734673]Could just leave them be, if they're gunna die out then they're gunna die out. Not a great deal we can/should do about it.[/QUOTE]
Satire post?
[QUOTE=aaro1450;46734673]Could just leave them be, if they're gunna die out then they're gunna die out. Not a great deal we can/should do about it.[/QUOTE]
Why not help them out if we have the power to do it ? We don't always need to gain something in return to do a good action to help someone out, even if it's an animal.
