NationStates Jolt Archive

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/36B1DE44-2594-4E7E-A893-41D0F69E69FB.htm

While doing my war reading I noticed this link. The white rhino may soon follow.

Brazil looks like a few monkey species will go as well.

Progress right? :(

:( indeed.

I wish us humans didn't annihilate our contemparies... oh well... natural selection and all of that, I suppose :(

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/36B1DE44-2594-4E7E-A893-41D0F69E69FB.htm

While doing my war reading I noticed this link. The white rhino may soon follow.

Brazil looks like a few monkey species will go as well.

Progress right? :(
Unfortunatly, that is correct. progress doesn't always mean everyone moves forwards... some species do get left behind, reguardless and in spite of human efforts. :(

Thats saddening:( Now we need to put as many of the white rhino in reserves as possible

If you ever want to get really angry at the selfish stupidity of humanity, read some of the history of the attempts to protect the various rhino species. People have devoted their entire lives to making sure these creatures don't go the way of the dodo, just to be thwarted again and again by poachers, who make a couple of dollars per rhino for providing horns to be used for the amazingly useful purpose of.......adorning Yemeni decorative dagger handles. Ugh.

(A great book for people with no background in biology/conservation science is Last Chance to See, by Douglas Adams (of Hitchhiker fame), which discusses the northern white rhino, among other species.)

The rhino had some serious evolutionary drawbacks. Sure, it was big and strong, but it was terrible at taking stress. If you chased one in a jeep for no more than ten minutes, the odds are it would die.

Another curse is the extreme nearsightedness of the Rhinocerous, which makes it impossible for the Rhino to see a predator coming at range. This isn't much of a problem against traditional predators, but against humans with guns it means bad news for a Rhino.

What else, oh yeah, being dumb as a rock isn't all that good for the Rhino either.

The rhino had some serious evolutionary drawbacks. Sure, it was big and strong, but it was terrible at taking stress. If you chased one in a jeep for no more than ten minutes, the odds are it would die.

Another curse is the extreme nearsightedness of the Rhinocerous, which makes it impossible for the Rhino to see a predator coming at range. This isn't much of a problem against traditional predators, but against humans with guns it means bad news for a Rhino.

What else, oh yeah, being dumb as a rock isn't all that good for the Rhino either.

Good eyesight would not have saved it. Poaching is wiping out many animals that are well equiped to avoid humans. Tigers, elephants, and bear for example. Let's not forget the primates as well.....

Not much of a chance against a high powered rifle......

Well, they can't all be winners.

Progress right? :(

Absolutely. Once our new and improved version of natural selection has run its course, the only species fit to live on the hot, humid, paved-over and polluted planet Earth will be humans, rats, roaches, and germs.

Only those that can cope with the new eco-hell will earn the privelege of living in it. Adaptation. Survival of the fittest. In a word: progress.

Absolutely. Once our new and improved version of natural selection has run its course, the only species fit to live on the hot, humid, paved-over and polluted planet Earth will be humans, rats, roaches, and germs.

Don't forget about ants those little bastards will out live humanity.

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/36B1DE44-2594-4E7E-A893-41D0F69E69FB.htm

While doing my war reading I noticed this link. The white rhino may soon follow.

Brazil looks like a few monkey species will go as well.

Progress right? :(

May be extinct? Rhinos are pretty hard to miss...

May be extinct? Rhinos are pretty hard to miss...

Not relative to large portions of continents, they aren't.

May be extinct? Rhinos are pretty hard to miss...
Unless there are less than 1000 in the entire world and even less on the continent they live on spread over hundreds if not thousands of square miles.

Well, they can't all be winners.


Maybe but a hell of a lot more of them could be if humans weren't such greedy assholes who are by large completely oblivious (or just don't care about) what we are doing to our Earth and the things living in it... or is it on it? I'll just saying what we are doing to the biosphere.

Extinct? What, don't they have any in zoos? If it's near extinct, they should at least keep a couple of male/female pairs in the zoo.

Maybe but a hell of a lot more of them could be if humans weren't such greedy assholes who are by large completely oblivious (or just don't care about) what we are doing to our Earth and the things living in it... or is it on it? I'll just saying what we are doing to the biosphere.

Don't blame all of us. My family isn't a bunch of dumb African fuckers who kill rhinos for their horns' "healing properties."

Yeah, People Suck.

Edit: Almenia, if I'm not mistaken most of the poaching is done by Non-Africans, then sold to other Non-Africans.

Extinct? What, don't they have any in zoos? If it's near extinct, they should at least keep a couple of male/female pairs in the zoo.

The West African was the rarest of the 4 species. None where in zoos. Some creatures don't handle it well. For example, there are no captive Moutain Gorillas.

The point of concern is if one subspecies goes, it usually means the others are getting wiped out as well.

http://www.rhino-trust.org.na/html/body_bestnde.html

Don't blame all of us. My family isn't a bunch of dumb African fuckers who kill rhinos for their horns' "healing properties."

He has a point. It's one thing to say it's not right and it's another to do something about it.

Problem is Mathew's First law of Cynicism:

If it requires effort and or money, people aren't interested.

The West African was the rarest of the 4 species. None where in zoos. Some creatures don't handle it well. For example, there are no captive Moutain Gorillas.

Well, build a big captivity that looks like the wilderness. Or just make a reserve, fence out a piece of Africa. Jesus.

Yeah, People Suck.

Edit: Almenia, if I'm not mistaken most of the poaching is done by Non-Africans, then sold to other Non-Africans.

Some. Many of the natives do it because there is a market for it.

The non-africans have equal blame because the create the demand.

Well, build a big captivity that looks like the wilderness. Or just make a reserve, fence out a piece of Africa. Jesus.

They do that. Poaching patrol requires money and training. Only Kenya has cut down on it.

If you are found out on the plains with weapons and you don't look like tourists, you die.

So? You lose a few species every now and then. It’s part of the evolutionary process that humans are a part of. They weren’t suited to their environment. They failed to adapt quickly enough.
Maybe but a hell of a lot more of them could be if humans weren't such greedy assholes who are by large completely oblivious (or just don't care about) what we are doing to our Earth and the things living in it... or is it on it? I'll just saying what we are doing to the biosphere.
Why do we have any more responsibility to it that say, a pig that roots up plants? We don’t, unless you follow some ridiculous spiritual definition of the world which, frankly, doesn’t deserve consideration by reasonable people.

So? You lose a few species every now and then. It’s part of the evolutionary process that humans are a part of. They weren’t suited to their environment. They failed to adapt quickly enough.

Actually they were suited for their environment.

Poaching isn't part of the evolutionary process.


Why do we have any more responsibility to it that say, a pig that roots up plants? We don’t, unless you follow some ridiculous spiritual definition of the world which, frankly, doesn’t deserve consideration by reasonable people.


You actually said "reasonable people" :D

Some here would argue you really can't be called that.....

Damn that Macgyver episode was off by only a few years...

So? You lose a few species every now and then. It’s part of the evolutionary process that humans are a part of. They weren’t suited to their environment. They failed to adapt quickly enough.

Why do we have any more responsibility to it that say, a pig that roots up plants? We don’t, unless you follow some ridiculous spiritual definition of the world which, frankly, doesn’t deserve consideration by reasonable people.

No animal can possibly adapt sufficiently in a matter of a a few generations, which is how long it's been since people started showing up with guns. Why on earth can't we just "adapt" to decide having a cool-looking handle on your dagger doesn't make you more of a man?

And if we're thinking of things in terms of "responsibilities," pigs also have responsibilities to the planet, but they're doing a much better job fulfilling said responsibility, unless you've seen any pigs speeding up extinction rates a hundredfold recently. If you'd like, though, you can instead think of things in terms of enlightened self-interest. The thing with ecosystems is that that functionality of one part is dependent on the functionality of the other parts. We cannot just destroy things willy-nilly without seeing very serious effects on our own lives.

I wish I could buy a big plot of land with lots of endangered species in it, make it as good a place for the animals to inhabit as possible, and have heavily armed guards who would shoot to kill every person who trespassed. That way, I could save all of these species from those scumbag poachers.