Vietnam's rare Javan rhinoceros was declared extinct in that area after poachers killed the last remaining animal in the country for its horns, the World Wildlife Fund said.
“Vietnam must see this loss as another warning sign of its looming wave of species extinctions,” Dr. Barney Long, WWF’s Asian species expert, said in a statement. “The single most important action that is needed to save remaining threatened species like tigers and elephants is protection.”
The country had been struggling to keep the population alive amid widespread poaching that the WWF said was the cause of many Asian rhino species being brought to the "brink of extinction."
The WWF said people in certain parts of Asia believe the horns, when ground down and dissolved in boiling water, help treat typhoid fever or even cancer, the WWF said, noting that there has been no scientific proof of that.
The group said trying to bring the species back into the area won't work.
“Reintroduction of the rhinoceros to Vietnam is not economically or practically feasible," WWF’s Asian Elephant and Rhino Program Coordinator Dr. Christy Williams said. "It is gone from Vietnam forever."
So now, the Javan rhino only exists in one area in the world, according to the WWF.
The Javan rhinoceros is in danger of becoming extinct.
The group reported that there is one population of less than 50 animals in the Ujung Kulon National Park in Java, Indonesia. Now, workers will turn their attention there, working with anti-poaching patrols to hopefully keep the species from going extinct.
“For the Javan rhino, we now have to focus entirely on one site in Indonesia where strengthened protection is needed along with fast-tracking the proposed translocation and habitat management,” Long said.
I don't see why this can't be solved fairly easily.
You setup a refuge and patrol it. If you see anyone in the refuge, you kill them. Repeat. Soon there are 1000s of Rhinos and Tigers and Elephants and other life forms.
It is not a western country where everything is planned and controlled and patrolled with guns. Nor do these countries have the resources to do it. So it's easier said than done – setting up reserve and protecting them.
Why don't you do something like that?
This is why I support the Republicans call for deregulation. We should let people do whatever that want in order to make a profit. Even it means destroying the world.
Your sarcasm is not missed; meaning I got it.
I don't think his point is entirely sarcastic. His point that this is the result of an unregulated market is literally true.
Unresolved democratic issues, maybe?
Nothing to see here. It's extinct "in that area," but thrives elsewhere.
THE RHINO IS NOT EXTINCT. Just more alarmist hack journalism by CNN.
You didn't read. The *Javan* Rhino is *extinct from Vietnam. The only remaining place has a population of FIFTY. 50. FIVE ZERO.
You're right. This is hack journalism. After all, there are a whopping 50 left. CNN should wait a few months when they are all gone - then they write this article.
I wouldn't call 50 animals left in a small spot as "thriving".
They are extinct in Vietnam and there are only 50 left in Indonesia on the brink of extinction. Did you miss that part?
Thrives? The article states that there are about 50 of them in Indonesia, and that's it. I wouldn't exactly call that thriving. You should read more carefully.
You call 50 thriving? I wish people who didn't complete grade school were not allowed on the Internet.
Thrives elsewhere? 50 left on the planet is hardly thriving. If only ignorant people would go extinct, you would not be missed...
The word the journalists should have used is extirpated, meaning 'extinct from a certain area.' They should have said extirpated in the article and then explained what it meant. The use of the word 'extinct' while correct, gives people the wrong idea and sets off all sorts of alarms.
There's a few left! I saw 'em.
you're an idiot
7 billion humans.
Time to thin the human herd. This willl take the pressure off "mother" nature.
let's start from you:)
@ooloo.......Actually I have been dead for over 20 years now. The grim reaper doesen't have the ba!!s to come get me!
Ooooooh, brain dead for 20 years. That would explain your posts...
I'm a b!tch!
And Americans are surely not guilty of driving animals to extinction like everyone else? IE passenger pigeons, sea minks, sea cows, etc.?????????????
Poachers should understand that if they hunt endangered animals then they are fair game as well. Shoot the poachers!
Wow....you are so ignorant. Some of people who are trying to protect the rhinos are asian too.
Natural selection...sorry, but we are animals so it is natural. Even if people think our technology isnt natural...IT IS.
I hope humans will soon become extinct too !
You are an idiot, it is survival of the fittest. At this point in time Humans are the fittest.
Poachers anywhere should be shot on sight....with the full backing of the governments involved...that might slow down the slaughter of these animals....the real problem ( as usual) are the people buying these products ....they are the ones that should be considered "Pariahs" in their respective countries.....with a full media blitz showing their pictures etc.....Ignorance is Bliss as they say.....
You need to read the 10 commandments!
We, humans, are really good are messing over our own habitat. When are we going to realize that we are all interdependent?
for all those who're saying "well it's not extinct", there are only 50 left in the world. that's nothing. not enough to sustain a long-term population. and for what? cuz some village witch doctors say it'll cure cancer or get somebody's 2-inch lil pee-pee hard? man, i can't wait until technology and civility reach the far corners of the globe.
Aside from what TV/news says and many "bloggers" mimick, this story reminds me of two things. 1.)When a female African elephant who is raising a youngster gets poached, her "teenaged" elephant "son" is looked-out for by the herd under the direction of the matriarch, the oldest and wisest female. If the orphaned "teenager" shows signs of juvinile delinquency by attacking a friendly rhino, one of the herd, usually the matriarch, starts to discipline them...beating the juvi with her trunk. If the juvinile delinquent goes as far as killing a rhino, the juvi is trampled to death by the herd. Incidences of this are very rare, because baby elephants grow-up knowing better. 2.) The "ground up rhino horn" said to cure ailments, etc reminds me of pharmaceuticals that amount to nothing more. Ritalin, said to help with a "problem child", for example, did nothing but cause the child, who is upset about life at home, to develop attention deficit disorder. Ritalin is not a replacement for mothers loving discipline.
Charlie don't surf and now he can't find a rhino in the bush. If those no good hippies back home would of let us do our job back when I was in 'NAM those damn Rhinos would still be around. Charlie would have been "Americanized" by now and lost his backward ways. Everyone knows Americans have a love and mutual respect for nature. A few more carpet bombings and we would of had 'em by the horns!! But no, you peace and love, tfree love, flower people wined and moaned and the backstabbers in DC buckled. Now th epinkos one and the world has one less Rhino.
i'm sure throwing napalms at the entire vietnamese population would have solved everything. are you kidding? i'm not a hippie but war is NOT the answer, just look back at our history and see for yourself, it only causes trouble. and you don't think your bombs in vietnam not only killed, burned, and maimed innocent human beings, but also animals? it isn't vietnamese people you should criticize, it is humans who have no respect for nature or animals. and those exist in every single country in the world, unfortunately.
Amanda,
My war did give you the right to be stoopid.
Amanda: War is ALWAYS the answer. There aint nothing a war can't solve. It sure as heck would have saved the Rhinos. As I stated honey, Americans have a mutual respect for Nature, the Vietnamese and all your Asians for that matter do not. This is a anthropological fact.