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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsA picture of loneliness: you are looking at the last male northern white rhino
What is it like to look at the very last of something? To contemplate the passing of a unique wonder that will soon vanish from the face of the earth? You are seeing it. Sudan is the last male northern white rhino on the planet. If he does not mate successfully soon with one of two female northern white rhinos at Ol Pejeta conservancy, there will be no more of their kind, male or female, born anywhere. And it seems a slim chance, as Sudan is getting old at 42 and breeding efforts have so far failed. Apart from these three animals there are only two other northern white rhinos in the world, both in zoos, both female.
It seems an image of human tenderness that Sudan is lovingly guarded by armed men who stand vigilantly and caringly with him. But of course it is an image of brutality. Even at this last desperate stage in the fate of the northern white rhino, poachers would kill Sudan if they could and hack off his horn to sell it on the Asian medicine market.
Sudan doesnt know how precious he is. His eye is a sad black dot in his massive wrinkled face as he wanders the reserve with his guards. His head is a marvellous thing. It is a majestic rectangle of strong bone and leathery flesh, a head that expresses pure strength. How terrible that such a mighty head can in reality be so vulnerable. It is lowered melancholically beneath the sinister sky, as if weighed down by fate. This is the noble head of an old warrior, his armour battered, his appetite for struggle fading.
Under his immense looming shoulder, his legs protrude like squat columns from the tough tank of his body. The way his foreleg emerges from his thick coat of skin reminds us how long human beings have been wondering at the natural spectacle that is the rhino. For Sudan does not look so different from the rhinoceros that Albrecht Dürer portrayed in 1515. They have the same little legs stuck out of a majestic body and they even lower their heads in the same contemplative way. Dürer was a Renaissance artist picturing an exotic beast from the exotic lands that Europe was starting to see more and more of. In 1515 a live Indian rhinoceros was sent by the ruler of Gujarat to the king of Portugal: he in turn sent it to the Pope, but on the way it died in a shipwreck.
More at link: http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/may/12/last-male-northern-white-rhino?CMP=fb_gu
countryjake
(8,554 posts)geardaddy
(24,924 posts)BrotherIvan
(9,126 posts)speechless
turbinetree
(24,632 posts)Right----and you are utterly correct -------------this is speech less.
To think that someone thinks that this animal this timeless wonder of long ago who was here before us, from the past, gives them more sexual drive, is outrageous----totally outrageous
BrotherIvan
(9,126 posts)And the way the guard has his hand laying on the rhino's back, that's even more poignant.
countryjake
(8,554 posts)I'll never forget a mythical misrepresentation from "The Gods Must Be Crazy" where some guy expounds on the dangers of lighting a campfire due to the supposed wild, instinctive charging nature of White Rhinos. That scene pissed me off way back then, long before the White's numbers were so desperately low.
I hope that the rhinos of Nepal are faring well during all these quakes...not sure what their particular species is called, but I read a thing not long ago which said that even their numbers were dwindling in the foothills of the Himalayas.
As long as economic equality is non-existent around the globe, bastards will continue to grab profit wherever they possibly can. Stupid humans.
BrotherIvan
(9,126 posts)If 49% of pregnancies in the US are unplanned, think about worldwide where there isn't access to birth control. We need to put all of our efforts into 100% effective, safe, pleasant and easy-to-use birth control. We are exploding out of control and the rest of the world is suffering. We need to start being responsible and look around and say, we probably have enough people on this planet. The world can't take unlimited population.
hifiguy
(33,688 posts)Whether the die off is engineered by the billionaire class or is the result of some confluence of overpopulation and natural disaster, spaceborne or earthborne, or all of the above, things cannot go on as they have.
It seems to me that a realistic carrying capacity for the earth is 1-2 billion people total.
BrotherIvan
(9,126 posts)And do both in a positive way--i.e. culturally and with medical advancements such as birth control, it will save a lot of pain and suffering. We have to grow up as a species and take responsibility. And we have to stop listening to religious fanatics who want to make an army for god or some shit.
hifiguy
(33,688 posts)I tend to take the Roddenberry view of the next 100-200 years. There will be a catastrophe that knocks over about 40-60% of the population and that society will be rebuilt around cooperative and socialist structures, with an accompanying planetary rejection of the profit motive; people will learn, I think, from the catastrophe that is capitalism. I won't live to see it, but that's the hope I will carry to my end.
BrotherIvan
(9,126 posts)I think people forget that historically, there were cultures that learned to live in a cooperative way. But I think one's worldview must be shaped from very early to be able to see it. I have no idea where we are going, but our leaders will be considered villains and rogues for turning their backs on what was plain for all to see.
hifiguy
(33,688 posts)"He's just some poor dope from the Stupid Ages." That will be their view of us.
yeoman6987
(14,449 posts)I still think it would have been cool to still have dinasours around. What a beauty they would be.
countryjake
(8,554 posts)I can just picture families keeping dinosaurs and woolly mammoths as house pets, ha!
Yup, it is such a sad picture to see.
Liberal_in_LA
(44,397 posts)Response to geardaddy (Original post)
onehandle This message was self-deleted by its author.
beam me up scottie
(57,349 posts)I have not the words to describe how I feel.
Terra Alta
(5,158 posts)It breaks my heart that he is likely the last of his kind, and it's all due to humans.
I hate humans sometimes.
geardaddy
(24,924 posts)The hubris and narcissism of humans makes me sick.
Worried senior
(1,328 posts)They claim the difference between humans and animals are our souls. In my opinion it's the animals that have the souls.
I too hate humans at times.
brer cat
(24,401 posts)Enjoy life while you can, Sudan. Humans can be so disgusting, self-centered, and short-sighted.
hifiguy
(33,688 posts)and it is ignorant superstition that seems to have played a huge role in the devastation of these wonderful animals.
bigwillq
(72,790 posts)kick
robinlynne
(15,481 posts)IVoteDFL
(417 posts)ffr
(22,649 posts)That's net gain of 216,000. Per. Day.
What's its problem?
alphafemale
(18,497 posts)Not lethal but at least to a never wanting to feel that sick again level.
Maybe something that would have a "withering" effect since these assholes seem to usually participate in slaughter for dick enhancement.
gcomeau
(5,764 posts)..for artificial insemination / cloning not an option here? A little extreme maybe, but the circumstances seem to warrant it...
geardaddy
(24,924 posts)LostOne4Ever
(9,267 posts)[font style="font-family:'Georgia','Baskerville Old Face','Helvetica',fantasy;" size=4 color=teal]There was a thread a while back on bringing back species we drove to extinction.
Expect a bunch of bad Jurassic Park references if the subject comes up again...[/font]
ellenrr
(3,864 posts)much as I try - with this 6th Great Extinction --
it is hard to grasp the concept-- of gone forever.
sigh...
polly7
(20,582 posts)Omaha Steve
(99,070 posts)shenmue
(38,501 posts)Aldo Leopold
(685 posts)Joel Sartore's book "Rare". It is beautiful, and will rip out your heart, if you have one.
polly7
(20,582 posts)But I'm glad people write about these poor animals headed for extinction, it must be very difficult to do.
geardaddy
(24,924 posts)I'll have to look that up.
MannyGoldstein
(34,589 posts)angrychair
(8,593 posts)and goodbye.
SummerSnow
(12,608 posts)AZ Progressive
(3,411 posts)is nearly extinct. The southern white rhino numbered about 17,460 as of 2007. The population of Northern White Rhinoceros' seems to have always been much smaller, about 2,000 in 1960 according to the WWF