Northern White Rhino Probably Gone - Only 4 Confirmed In Remote Congo Park In 2006 - Reuters

[hatrack]

NAIROBI - Rhino numbers in Africa have reached record levels but one sub-species confined to a remote and lawless corner of Congo is on the brink of extinction, a leading conservation group warned on Tuesday.

While populations thrive elsewhere, the northern white rhino -- found only in northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo's (DRC) Garamba National Park -- has been hounded by poachers. The Swiss-based International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) said there were just 30 of them left in April 2003, and only four confirmed animals as of August 2006.

"Worryingly, recent fieldwork has so far failed to find any presence of these four remaining rhinos," Martin Brooks, head of its African Rhino Specialist Group, said in a report. "Unless animals are found during the intensive surveys that are planned under the direction of the African Parks Foundation, the sub-species may be doomed to extinction."

White rhinos are targeted by poachers for their horns, which fetch high prices in Yemen, where they are made into dagger handles, and in the Far East, where they are coveted for their supposed medicinal qualities. But wildlife protection is almost impossible in the eastern DRC due to militia violence that still haunts the region five years after a war that killed some 4 million people, mostly from hunger and disease.

EDIT

http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/48837/story.htm

[phantom power]

1. I assume "supposed medicinal qualities" == "penis enlargement myths"

[hatrack]

2. Yes, or as I prefer to put it . . .

FUCK CHINESE TRADITIONAL MEDICINE.

[phantom power]

4. Do you know what's sad? Nobody will learn anything from this.

None of these Asian folk with their dreams of penis enlargement is going to say "Wow, my need for a bigger boner caused an entire species to become extinct, and ironically ended the supply of my phony aphrodesiac anyway."

No, one of two things will happen. Either they will purchase fake rhino horn powder, at astronomical prices on the theory that really it's the secret last-stash of the real stuff, or they'll move on to some new byproduct of poaching other endangered species, and hasten their extinction.

Probably both.

[Dogmudgeon]

5. Save a flip of the bird for Mr. Mugabe, too

The civil war(s) in the Congo have made it impossible to save any threatened species.

Cocks-n-wars. We are such idiots.

--p!

[Nihil]

7. Whilst I'm always happy to flip the bird to Mugabe ...

... he doesn't have any control over the Congo ... he's too busy
f*cking up Zimbabwe ...

I agree with the rest of your post though! :hi:

[Dogmudgeon]

8. Hmm ... thanks for the update

I thought he was hip-deep in most of Central Africa trying to become the African Hitler.

I guess having too many dictators is bad for a smoothly-functioning state of tyranny.

Would you believe that Once Upon A Time, I thought he was a good guy and would help Africa develop some unity and strength?

Ah, the folly of my youth! Fortunately, I'm a rich, easily-distracted American.

--p!
Well, maybe not exactly "rich" ...

[Nihil]

9. Well, there's always a chance I suppose ...

... but as his main task at the moment is to kill off or torture
enough of the opposition to enable him to claim "democratic victory",
I don't think his foreign policy is really on his mind ...

> Would you believe that Once Upon A Time, I thought he was a good
> guy and would help Africa develop some unity and strength?

There's always the optimism that accompanies change "It *must* get
better now" but, far too often, it is followed by the despair that
yet again gullibility has won out and it's just the same old shit
with a different label ...

:shrug:

[OwnedByFerrets]

3. I truly hope they get

dna samples so that a more enlightened society (if one ever exists in the future) can recreate all the wonderful creatures we have destroyed by our ignorance and greed.

www.wearableartnow.com

[Dead_Parrot]

6. And another one bite the dust.

Damn, damn, damn.