It's the end of an era for the northern white rhino. Image Credit: CC BY-SA 3.0 Guy lemal
The last remaining male of the species, Sudan, was put down on Monday after several months of ill-health.
The 45-year-old rhino, who had been living under armed guard at the Ol Pejeta Conservancy in Kenya, leaves behind only his daughter and grand-daughter - the last two surviving females.
According to reports, Sudan had been suffering from a degenerative condition of the bones and muscles, leaving him with extensive and painful skin wounds. He had been unable to stand at all for over 24 hours before the decision was made to end his suffering as humanely as possible.
"Sudan was the last northern white rhino that was born in the wild," said Jan Stejskal of Dvur Kralove Zoo in the Czech Republic. "His death is a cruel symbol of human disregard for nature and it saddened everyone who knew him."
The future of the species now lies entirely with the possibility of using southern white rhinos as surrogates to carry northern white rhino embryos.
If this works, it may prevent the species from going extinct entirely. If it doesn't, then the northern white rhino will disappear forever when the last two remaining individuals eventually pass away.
The tragedy is not the death of the individual, it is the loss of a species. Of course the species was already long doomed, but the death of this one animal is certainly symbolic of what we are doing to our only home and planet. The loss of biodiversity is like a clicking clock towards our own extinction and we will be far from being the last thing standing on this planet. I said it before often enough. It is not about saving life, life will do fine, it has survived worse than us. It is about our own survival, the prospects of which seem grimer every day!
Agree, but more of them are killed by locals than foreigners. I do agree that the market created by dumb people in Asia help drive the poaching. Also collectors in other places of the globe.
Well let's say the fingers on the triggers belong to local people, but the reason the rifles have been shouldered, like the rifles themselves, originate overseas.
Much better if the facts are clearly presented as it is and not repetitiously blamed on 'Asia' as the main fault ... if the numbers are to be believed the 'parts' are will inundate the Asian markets and will never going to be as costly as it is reported to be ... wiki link
I can't agree. I live a safe, relatively affluent, and very protected life in a safe, affluent and protected country. As a result I can afford scruples. If I lived in a place where my options were limited and my family were hungry I wouldn't give a damn about animals or other people. Well I might, but I'd still do whatever I could for my own first.
I can understand that, however it would still be you who are responsible for killing off the animals. Sure, end users are also to blame, but you would be the one pulling the trigger.
how sad that such a noble animal is now extinct. can't understand why country's can't get together and relocate endangered animals to areas in the world that can better suit and protect such animals.
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