
The last male northern white rhino - Red_Tarsius
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/may/12/last-male-northern-white-rhino
======
JacobAldridge
On the extinction of species, I am reminded of John Donne's note on how
connected we are (ought to be?) as mankind - perhaps a sentiment that needs to
be extended more into nature:

 _" No man is an island entire of itself; every man is a piece of the
continent, a part of the main; if a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is
the less... any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind.

And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee."_

------
whybroke
Markets often result in the Tragedy of the commons[1]. Here again is the
extinction of an in demand spices rather than husbandry to perpetuate the
supply. Likewise fishing stocks that frequently collapse and climate change
resulting from oil production.

Ironically there is a way to prevent these disasters when there is sufficient
public will and control over the market.

[1][http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tragedy_of_the_commons](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tragedy_of_the_commons)

------
JoeAltmaier
Another last male living thing: a cycad in London. Yes, supposed to be gone in
the last great extinction.

[http://www.npr.org/blogs/krulwich/2011/05/10/136029423/the-l...](http://www.npr.org/blogs/krulwich/2011/05/10/136029423/the-
loneliest-plant-in-the-world)

~~~
cmrdporcupine
Ok but it can and does make hybrids. So they could hybridize it with a closely
related species. Then backcross the pistillate offspring from those crosses
with this original male. And keep doing that until there's >95% cycad
genetics. You'd have low genetic diversity, and there might be issues with low
vigor and runts because of that, but you'd have a population of cycads. I'm
sure hybridization happened in the wild anyways.

------
im3w1l
They will have their genomes sequenced, as will the frozen remains of 12 more
rhinos. Hopefully we could be able to revive the species later.

[http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-rhino-
money-2015...](http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-rhino-
money-20150226-story.html)

~~~
dm2
What's the relationship between "genome sequencing" and IVF?

This quote from that article was interesting to me, I had always assumed that
mammal reproductive systems were relatively similar: "The reproductive system
of rhinos is very complex and there is still so much we do not know,"

------
blizkreeg
I am curious if environmental/wildlife groups and/or the government in the
countries where their horns are in demand done anything to educate the public
re: their unfounded beliefs/superstitions?

If individuals don't realize the impact of their actions on the world at
large, shouldn't the government or public groups (e.g., in Vietnam or China)
step in and take a stand on it, no matter how unpopular that stand is?

You'll never win the fight against the poachers. The only way is to cut the
demand at source. Too late for that unfortunately. This really made me sad.

------
jader201
Is there a story leading up to this one? I guess I was looking for answers to
questions like:

\- At what point did Sudan become the last male northern white rhino?

\- Were similar conservation and breeding efforts done on the previous male
northern white rhinos?

\- If so, why did those fail (for both conservation and breeding)?

\- How far back were conservation and breeding efforts executed and failed,
leading up to the last one?

\- Is this a case of hunting efforts out-pacing diligent conservation and
breeding efforts, or was there not enough education and funding for truly
diligent conservation and breeding efforts?

Unfortunately, the goal of this article seems to be to strike at the readers'
emotions vs. present a factual story of the past and present. Not saying the
former is bad, just that I was hoping for more of the latter.

~~~
svl
There's eight links of "related content" underneath this article. Not all
about this particular species, but pretty easy to filter through to see what's
directly related:

In 2007, there were 14 of these rhinos left, 4 wild and 10 in captivity:
[http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2007/mar/04/conservat...](http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2007/mar/04/conservation.internationalnews)
\- this article also cited a number of 30 back in 2000.

In October 2014, the second-to-last male died at the relatively young age of
34, leaving just 6 and removing the last realistic hope for breeding:
[http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/oct/18/northern-...](http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/oct/18/northern-
white-rhino-dies-six-alive-world)

In December 2014, the next-to-last male died, of old age, leaving just 5:
[http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/dec/15/northern-...](http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/dec/15/northern-
white-rhinos-death-leaves-just-five-left-in-the-world)

It's painting a pretty dismal picture altogether. I guess conservation efforts
were too little, too late, with the remaining population already too small and
too aged to ever offer much hope for success. :(

------
Fastidious
That article is so painfully sad. I have done nothing to cause their
extinction, yet can't help but feeling guilty. It might be because I have done
nothing.

"Human beings – we always kill the things we love."

------
adamnemecek
If you want to get involved to prevent things like this in the future, contact
your representative a lot of states are currently considering banning the
sales of rhino horn and ivory. You can read more about it here
[https://www.reddit.com/r/babyelephantgifs/comments/338f7t/co...](https://www.reddit.com/r/babyelephantgifs/comments/338f7t/contact_your_state_representatives_about_current/)

------
manishsharan
Can someone explain the fascination of the so called 'asian medicine market'
with rhino horns, tiger bones and penis and other such endangered animal parts
? I had earnestly hoped that viagra and other erectile dysfunction medication
would rid the blackmarket for tiger bones but that hasn't happened in the
least bit.

------
Lorento
Wow, there are also 2 females. Is there any technical reason why they don't
just use artificial insemination to make some more babies? It would be pretty
irresponsible to let the species go extinct because they didn't really try to
save it.

------
kazinator
There needs to be some international treaty which declares poachers to be
subhuman, such that they can be hunted for sport, without prosecution for
murder: immunity in the country where the hunting takes place, as well as
immunity back home, or in any state which is a signatory to the treaty.

After that, to be a poacher will mean taking a tremendous risk: simultaneously
becoming not only hunter, but hunted. Hunted by a group of psychopaths who
appear wherever poachers appear, anywhere in the world, to take advantage of
the treaty.

And, of course, many of those psychopaths will be none other than ...
competing poachers. All traces of cooperation among poachers will be gone,
replaced by paranoid mistrust of the purest kind.

A poacher won't even be able to sell an elephant tusk to anyone without fear.
If you're approached by someone offering a tusk, he can be defined by the
treaty as a poacher, which means you can legally kill him and take the tusk
(and the same risk upon yourself as you try to do with that tusk what he just
did).

~~~
1971genocide
Sounds good in theory but in practice this would turn out to be terrible.

How do you even define a poacher ? Maybe they start using intermediaries.

They use anonymous locations as a way to sell the horns ?

Maybe once their buyer appears on site to take the horn, they take a picture
and shot the buyer calling him the "poacher" to collect the poacher money and
resale the horn ?

Allowing legal murder of humans should only be instituted by the state and not
be individuals, even the state screws up the process and individuals are much
less trustworthy.

The poaching problem requires both attack from supply side and demand side
using various soft techniques. The only reason the horns are important is due
to its social value.

We do not have poaching problems with ants,spiders,monkeys,etc. because
killing and the keeping their body parts has little social value to humans and
there exists a strong penalty if you have a dead monkey in your house !

This is frankly china's problem.

~~~
kazinator
> How do you even define a poacher?

Quite trivially. First, precisely identify certain geographic areas (habitats
of endangered animals subject to poaching). Then, anyone in those areas with
any sort of equipment for poaching (guns, traps, whatever) is by definition a
poacher. To make it simple, a poacher killer, if armed, is also defined as a
poacher while inside one of these areas. "Inside" also includes air space,
which extends 30,000 feet above ground, and three miles beyond the border of
the area. Anyone who would be a considered a poacher if standing in the area
is also a poacher if in the air space. All passengers and crew of the craft
are considered poachers if any one of them satisfies the definition.

------
notnot
Biology startup idea:

Since Rhino horn is just like keratin and dirt or something, design a process
to create spot-on fake rhino horns and flood the market with them.

You would make lots of money at first and eventually drop the price of rhino
horn to the point where it wouldn't be economically feasible to harvest real
Rhino horn.

~~~
technotony
There are at least two startups working on this idea. eg
[http://synbiobeta.com/pembient-bioengineered-wildlife-
produc...](http://synbiobeta.com/pembient-bioengineered-wildlife-products/)

Personally I think it's a bad idea, as it's demand which drives this not
supply. fixing supply may only increase demand for the 'real thing' even more.

~~~
timc3
Exactly what will happen, more supply will create more demand, which in turn
will create a demand for a premium product - the real thing

------
typpo
What is the best way to personally contribute to rhino conservation? A quick
search yields many rhino charities. Would be great to know which, if any, are
actually making an impact.

------
euphoria83
Very poignant

------
kbart
It's so fuckin sad, I literary cried reading it. I simply don't get how we (as
humankind) cannot prevent such disasters happening while wasting billions on
much less important things.

~~~
dragonwriter
The two main reasons are:

1\. Lots of humanity doesn't agree that those are less important things, and

2\. Among those that have a value system that does agree with you on that
point, there's still a tragedy of the commons problem.

------
tehchromic
It's the saddest thing.

------
peterwwillis
What really pisses me off about this is the mentality of human beings toward
other living creatures. Specifically, how every god damn living thing on the
planet is seen as ours to control, like the whole of nature is our own little
fishbowl entirely full of our own pets. And once our pets are limping along,
gasping for breath, we pretend to care.

There are five northern white rhinos left. All of them were in zoos until four
were moved from a zoo in Czech Republic to a conservancy in Africa.

Can you imagine being the last human being and living out the rest of your
short, lonely, depressing life in a tiny artificial habitat, poked and peered
at by weird creatures for god knows why?

Most of these animals were born in captivity. That means they don't even
reflect the mentality of the original animal in its natural habitat. This is
effectively no longer a wild animal; it is our pet. The hope, one imagines, is
that somehow scientists can figure out how to breed enough of them that they
could reintroduce them to the wild, but this is a risky, expensive, difficult,
long-term process. But the track record of this system over the past 50 years
proves this will not work.

In order to try to convince poachers not to kill them, there was a systematic
attempt to dehorn rhinos in captive populations in the 90s that continues
today. In order to keep these animals alive, we mutilate them, ignoring the
long process of evolution which adapted these animals with very pronounced and
specific biological features. This still doesn't stop poachers from killing
them for a multitude of reasons, but it reduces the likelihood of human and
rhino caused mortality.

Extinction is a natural process, which occurs due to geological
transformation, climactic oscillation, and species interaction. About 99.9% of
all species that have existed on the planet are extinct.

Human growth, however, has drastically accelerated the extinction of species.
Some of the ways humans cause extinction include water pollution, overfishing,
overgrazing, thermal pollution, excess turbidity, deforestation, agricultural
development, urban conversion, introduction of alien species, and of course,
hunting. In rainforests, which include up to 80% of the species diversity of
the planet, deforestation causes the loss of up to 50,000 species a year.

Considering all of that, think about this: we are guarding one fucking rhino.
We know it's not going to breed; they've been trying for 50 years and made one
or two cows. So naturally this begs the question: why the fuck are we
pretending so hard to care about this one giant mammal when it's already too
late?

We don't actually care for, or need, this species. It is effectively already
completely removed from nature, so it has no effect on its environment or
other species. The only reason we're dicking around like this is guilt. Guilt
that we abused our pets, and so we make a lame attempt to put a band-aid on it
and say we're sorry, so that our parent or God or whatever moral authority you
choose will forgive our sins.

But feeling guilty doesn't save lives, and it doesn't keep an environment
healthy. So this process of burning the world, then giving it CPR when it can
no longer crawl, does nothing to help the fauna of the planet. We're not
actually helping. We're trying to make ourselves feel better. And this false
compassion is fucking infuriating.

Sorry for the rant.

------
TheGrassyKnoll
Crime

------
dm2
Here are some approximate rhino population levels as of 2013:
[http://www.rhinos.org/rhinos/state-of-the-
rhino-2013](http://www.rhinos.org/rhinos/state-of-the-rhino-2013)

The Southern White Rhino has a population of about 20,000 (Endangered).

TIL about the Woolly Rhino: [http://www.rhinos.org/rhinos/extinct-woolly-
rhino](http://www.rhinos.org/rhinos/extinct-woolly-rhino)

Would it even be responsible to save the Northern White Rhino right now? Maybe
wait a few years, let the current ones die off, then breed several of them
using Southern White Rhino surrogates could be one plan.

~~~
wbhart
If they could use southern Rhinos as surrogates, doesn't that imply the
southern and northern white rhinos are the same species? So we are not talking
about the extinction of a species here, only one less habitat for a species?
(Not that this somehow makes it acceptable of course.)

~~~
goodcanadian
Surrogacy is simply using the womb. It is not interbreeding, so it does not
necessarily imply they are the same species.

There are many definitions of species. If they are able to interbreed and
create viable (i.e. non-sterile) offspring, they might be considered to be the
same species. However, there are cases where offspring are viable, but less
fit for a variety of reasons. In this case, many biologists would still
consider them separate.

------
patcon
This short article about a rhino made me curiously sad. I'm not a die-hard
animal lover, but it just somehow seems allegorical to many of humanity's
problems...

------
yellowapple
[http://i.imgur.com/gzCATUl.png](http://i.imgur.com/gzCATUl.png)

I was incredibly confused for a good 5 seconds.

~~~
masterminding
Lol

------
bargl
Does anyone know if they have tried artificial insemination and if so why it
hasn't worked?

~~~
dm2
They can but it's risky and there are new challenges with different animals.
The process isn't perfect, the animals might die:
[https://www.google.com/search?q=white+rhino+IVF](https://www.google.com/search?q=white+rhino+IVF)

It's also not been considered too urgent since they have the sperm and eggs
already, they can always put the baby in a Southern White Rhino.

You must also consider the fate of that animal and the security it would
require. It might be better to let them go extinct, make a big deal about it,
then bring them back. Plus if they did it this way they would get much more
recognition verses if they saved the species with a few still living.

~~~
artursapek
> It's also not been considered too urgent since they have the sperm and eggs
> already, they can always put the baby in a Southern White Rhino.

Source? Why is the Guardian article framing Sudan as the species' last chance
if this is the case?

~~~
dm2
The 1st link on the Google search I linked to was my source.
[http://www.bbc.com/news/science-
environment-31001941](http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-31001941)

The Guardian article is written by someone who is most likely a freelance
writer. Their goal is to pump out articles that make attention grabbing claims
while staying truthful. The author was not a rhino expert and likely didn't do
much journalism research to find the facts people need to know, but some sob
story about the last of it's kind is better news (more shares, more likes,
more viewers, more ad revenue).

~~~
chestnut-tree
_" The Guardian article is written by someone who is most likely a freelance
writer"_

The Guardian writer, Jonathan Jones, is the art critic for the newspaper.
Hence, the links to art history and a very descriptive interpretation of the
rhino in the picture ( _" His head is a marvellous thing. It is a majestic
rectangle of strong bone and leathery flesh, a head that expresses pure
strength"_).

The article is part of a series called 'Framing the debate' which the site
describes as follows:

 _" A great photograph doesn't only say more than a thousand words, it can
also create a hundred different reactions. In this series we take a close look
at contemporary and historical photographs and videos that divide opinion"_

[http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/series/framing-
the-...](http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/series/framing-the-debate)

------
forrestthewoods
If I were living in abject poverty and someone told me that if I killed an
animal and sawed off it's horn they'd get me $300,000 I would probably murder
that animal.

I view poaching as a poverty issue. Poachers are largely in poverty and buyers
of animal goods are largely in cultures with major poverty issues. Yes some
rich people in those cultures spend outrageous sums of money on items, but I
contest that if you eliminate poverty the majority of these issues are also
eliminated.

~~~
sharp11
Poachers are not largely in poverty. Poachers are primarily large, well-funded
criminal syndicates, although they do (sometimes) use impoverished locals for
their hunting ability and knowledge of local conditions.

The boom in trade in rhino horn, elephant ivory, etc. has been largely fueled
by increasing incomes in China and elsewhere. It is not the result of poverty.

~~~
Lawtonfogle
Think of a fast food place. The people making the most money are the well
funded groups running it (the corporations and to a lesser extent the
franchise owners). But the day to day operations are only possible by the
hoards of workers who would often rather be at a different job but are there
because of economic necessity.

Those who benefit the most from poaching are the well funded criminals. But
the locals do benefit, the well funded criminals just ensure the locals only
benefits as much as needed to ensure they still get their own big payday.

If the locals weren't benefitting at all, it wouldn't end all poaching, but it
would have a significant effect. If instead the locals benefitted from
stopping poaching, it would have an even greater effect.

Consider the case of control animal hunts where big game hunters pay to hunt
the infertile old elephants who are still consuming resources that could
otherwise go to the herd. The money spent helps the local economy, including
to help pay for protection of the younger fertile elephants, and it helps the
herd by culling the older elephants (my understanding is that the older ones
interfere with the fertile elephants mating, there could be some benefit to
having older herd leaders who are infertile, so it isn't a simple
calculation).

------
Red_Tarsius
The article frames man-made extinction as unethical toward animals. The real
problem is the diminishing _biodiversity_. Every time a species goes extinct,
we – as well as ALL future scientists – lose _invaluable_ sources of data.

As one door closes an opportunity is forever lost. The effects of man-made
extinctions reverberate through time and fill the pool of _unreachable truths_
(Hofstadter).

It's unethical toward the whole human race as well.

~~~
guard-of-terra
We shoud devise ourselves to collecting as much cell cultures as possible.
Then we do not lose information and might as well recreate this diversity in
the future.

For example, Siberia will really like to get rhinos, mammoths and other large
animals back, and it is possible to breed them from existing warm-climate
ones. And there's a lot of space for them to thrive.

~~~
saidajigumi
> Then we do not lose information and might as well recreate this diversity in
> the future.

This is an understandable position, but difficult in practice. We're losing
"information" in a lot of other ways as well. Habitat destruction is probably
the most obvious part of that for many species. It's not enough to have a
genome without knowledge of what I'll call that genome's "context of
relevance". Which amounts to a vast web of climate, local environmental
history, other organisms in that context, and so on. All of that will likewise
affect any given organism's epigenetic expression, something else that a naive
recording of genetic data will miss.

Likewise, we're destroying what amounts to animal "culture". Go read Elizabeth
Marshall's _The Tribe of Tiger_ [1], esp. the part that describes the
extremely interesting relationship between the Bushmen tribes of the Kalahari
desert and the resident prides of lions.

As far as we can manage, it's still best to preserve as much as possible of
our "archives of life" in living form vs. recorded on media somewhere.

[1] [http://www.amazon.com/Tribe-Tiger-Elizabeth-Marshall-
Thomas/...](http://www.amazon.com/Tribe-Tiger-Elizabeth-Marshall-
Thomas/dp/0743426894)

[2]
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Forge_of_God](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Forge_of_God)

~~~
guard-of-terra
We already know that Siberia was home to wooly rhinos and mammoths. We can as
well reintroduce them there. Of course it will take time for them to adjust.

~~~
sdrothrock
But what else might have been in Siberia when there were wooly rhinos and
mammoths? It's very probable that simply introducing them wouldn't do much
(i.e., they'd just die again) without reconstructing the ecosystem around
them.

~~~
guard-of-terra
Of course ecosystem should also be recreated:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pleistocene_Park](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pleistocene_Park)

------
eosrei
The impending extinction of the Northern White Rhinos is discussed in chapter
three "Leopard-skin Pillbox Hat" of the book Last Chance to See by Douglas
Adams. Yes, that Douglas Adams. It's his only non-fiction.

According to the book, the primary use for the horns is to make jewelery.
There were thousands of Northern White Rhinos in the early 1900s, 1,000 in
1980, 13 in 1985, and the population got up to 22 by the time the book was
published in 1990. He thought we could save them.

~~~
nacs
This [1] article explains another big reason:

> The appetite for killing rhinos to saw off their horn is fuelled by demand
> in the far east, which has risen as countries such as Vietnam, one of the
> biggest consumers of rhino horn, and China have become more prosperous.

> Rhino horn is made of keratin, the same material as human toenails, but an
> unfounded belief that it cures everything from hangovers to cancer and can
> serve as an aphrodisiac, has fed demand and sent prices soaring to an
> estimated $75,000 (£50,000) a kilo.

[1]: [http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/apr/27/ol-
pejeta...](http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/apr/27/ol-pejeta-kenya-
sudan-worlds-last-male-northern-white-rhinoceros)

~~~
VLM
"Rhino horn is made of keratin, the same material as human toenails"

And hair and fingernails and ..

Which brings up the obvious point that the best way to "save the rhino" is to
gather about 1000 pounds of nail clippings, grind them up, and put them on
ebay as counterfeit rhino horn. That'll poison the marketplace (something
we're pretty good at) which will help ruin the profitability of rhino
poaching, and it'll also kill the price, changing rhino poaching from "a
worthwhile risk with the possible reward of a zillion bucks" to "an idiotic
risk with little return"

The governments and activists involved should be flooding the market with
counterfeit rhino horn today, if they really cared about the rhino.

~~~
jules
Did you know that bread contains a product made from keratin (cysteine)? Most
of it is counterfeit: it's claimed to be from duck feathers, but it's actually
made from human hair collected mainly from Chinese barbers.

~~~
jules
Just out of curiosity: do people downvote this because they think it's false,
or because of another reason?

~~~
VLM
Probably epic chemistry fail. Its like saying there's grass in my cheezeburger
because some of the amino acids in grass proteins end up reassembled as muscle
proteins in cow muscle. Not only that, but aside from the biochem obviously
every single carbon atom in the cow came from grass. Real cows eat grass not
corn which is a whole nother topic and there are some lipid (fatty oily)
issues.

This can obviously be abstracted to my innards are grass, because the amino
acids in the cow were consumed and re-arranged into programmer pot belly and
my stylish hair do. (glances down at my hairy belly) yes you are grass aren't
you...

The other epic fail is there's real food, then there's bread, and finally at
the bottom of the barrel theres not-even-bread. And the worst of the
chemically preserved artificial bread shaped stuff may include various
peculiar preservative compounds. But when I eat junk food like bread, I eat
the good stuff. So, no, "bread" is not a singular atom or compound or food,
and only the cruddy stuff is full of preservatives of weird sources.

~~~
jules
This "epic chemistry fail" is a strawman. I did not say there's hair in bread.
I said there's cysteine in bread, cysteine which is made from keratin from
human hair. Quite obviously it's not in all bread, but you'll find it in most
if not all industrial bread and even in many local bakeries (you won't find it
in a good bakery though). The actual chemical process for extracting cysteine
is boiling the hair in hydrochloric acid, which separates it into other stuff
and a white powder, which is the cysteine.

Whether you personally eat that bread is not very relevant for this
discussion, but for what it's worth, I personally think that whether cysteine
is made from duck feathers or from human hair is irrelevant, it's chemically
the same molecule. I generally bake my own bread, but when I don't I have no
qualms about eating bread with cysteine in it, and if my own bread would taste
better with cysteine I would put it in. Scary chemicals are just a label
people put on things, salt is a scary chemical too when you call it natrium
chloride.

Duly noted that HN prefers not to learn such factoids though =)

------
wuschel
There is a start-up that tries to eliminate "the $750 million illegal rhino
horn poaching trade by growing rhino horns made from rhino DNA and 3D printed
keratin".

(Disclaimer: I am not affiliated with _Pembient_ ).

~~~
31reasons
People who are crazy enough to consume rhino horn for any purpose will discard
this attempt as "fake rhino horn".

~~~
rdmcfee
Maybe it's more a lack of access to modern scientific knowledge than
'craziness'.

~~~
berberous
Are the main customers for items like this the poor and uneducated, or the
wealthier segments of Asian society with plenty of access to modern scientific
knowledge?

Also, I wouldn't be surprised if it's analogous to the Dr. Oz / anti-vaccine
set in the U.S. Those people have access to all the knowledge they could want,
but you still couldn't shake their misguided beliefs out of them.

~~~
31reasons
Rhino horns = illegal and dangerous = very expensive = rich buyers.

