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.
Start hunting poachers...
We should start arming gorillas and chimps and start teaching them how to protect their lands...if we can attempt to train Iraqiis and Afghaniis, we can definately teach gorillans and chimps...
Stupid, slant-eyed rodents! Kill em all; save the sharks and stop torturing brown bears!
Who cares about these animals???? We can survive just fine without them. Idiot environmentalists would rather save a baby manatee than a starving child. Ridiculous.
Are you sure? The ripple effects of such a thing may be very far reaching... an important ecological maxim is 'you can't do just one thing'.
It takes 5 minutes to make a new baby. It took a million years to make these rhinos, and they will never return.
Brian A**hole, Please do not reproduce.
When species starve are get infected with disease, nature is trying to correct a problem....overpopulation.
Let's try a dose of reality, shall we? These animals are part of the food chain. Take them out of it and you'll have unexpected and potentially bad results... you know, results that can affect humans. THAT"S why people try to save species from extinction. Of course, some people don't bother to find that out. They prefer to mouth off about how stupid it is to save this species or that species. Let's cheer ignorance! Yeah!
Too late, iCare, sorry! And a million years to make rinos??????? What are you talking about? So you're comparing the total evolution of a species to an instantaneous occurence of human fertilization. that does not even make sense. Go smoke another one, dude.
You clearly do not understand how ecosystems work. Humans suck, go rhinos!
Let's kill all the cows too, who needs them.
"These animals are part of the food chain. Take them out of it and you'll have unexpected and potentially bad results"
your logic is flawed. These rinos were at the top of the food chain, and there weren't that many left anyway, therefore having minimal effect on the global food chain. If you want to talk about honeybees being killed off, that's a whole 'nother book. ANd if you want to talk about bacteria dying, that affects everybody. Large, ancient, OUTDATED animals becoming extinct DOES NOT AFFECT ME OR YOU PHYSICALLY.
Tens of thousands of cows are slaughtered everyday because they are delicious. All I see here is a bunch of name-calling without any arguments dealing with REALITY. Typical environmentalists.
Do us a favor and please don't reproduce as you sound very ignorant. Saving a species from extinction is a good thing to do. Making a statement that who cares must correlate with your IQ.
I suppose you thought the Tasmanian tiger was not worthy of saving either. Hmm you might ask what that was since it went extinct too.
Poachers need to have strict penalties applied to them and incarcerated for many years as they are greedy ignorant people.
You guys that dont care.....make me think what humanity has come to. You think were the kings of this planet? Think again. We are just passing through. Eliminate 1 species and you create a domino affect. Our food chain is crumbling. We too will go extinct. 99.9% of species on this planet will go extinct including man unless we give our heads a shake and rethink our existence. Who cares you say.....I do.
Creatures at all levels of the food chain (or web) are important. By your logic, it would be acceptable to kill every other living thing on this planet other than humans. Somehow, I don't think that would work out so well for us...
" Saving a species from extinction is a good thing to do"
And my question to you W H Y ???????
"By your logic, it would be acceptable to kill every other living thing on this planet other than humans"
DISAGREE. That is not my "goal" per say. Its just funny that environmentalists care about large mammals...tigers, manatees, elephants, etc.......but nobody gives a care about the species that REALLY matter to our survival....such as bacteria, certain fungi, insects, etc. It is all non-sensical.
You represent everything wrong with this world, you ass.
Instead of telling you that you're an idiot, perhaps these people would like to explain why they think you're wrong.
For example, the genetic code of any given species is unique, and could, for example, hold the key to curing certain illnesses among many other uses. Biodiversity, therefore, in general, is a very valuable thing to preserve. A starving baby is, however, simply a baby. No valuable genetic code will be lost if they die. This is why I would choose the baby endangered animal over the baby human, purely for the preservation of highly valuable biodiversity. This does not make me an 'idiot environmentalist', this makes me 'educated'. Human babies are very easy to make. Species are not.
Obvious troll is obvious.
I would rather save the both the animal and the child. Why not?
BrianA and Practical –
One human life indeed! Humans are vermin that only take from the planet and give nothing. The only positive about human population increase is that humans are the cause of their own eventual extinction. Then, the planet and it's species will recover.
99.9% of all species that have ever existed on the planet have gone extinct... so I get your point.
What do babies have to do with anything here? I don't understand the correlation. Nobody is talking about people putting animals before babies. The only thing that is ridiculous is that you don't care that many species are becoming extinct and that future generations won't ever be able to look at an elephant or even fish...yes, withing 50 years some studies report we won't have any fish left for consumption thanks to our irresponsible behavior. How ignorant can you possibly be?
Jeez, thanks Sean something logical FINALLY. So we lost some genetic code from this Rino maybe. I am now in fear of my life. With tongue planted firmly in cheek.
BiranA leads the human race to it's extinction with a too typical callous disregard for lives he personally finds no merit in. It's the mindset that leads to wars and genocides and it's NOT OK!
not much between the ears, huh Brian...?
Ooooh, the latest prediction.. ALL FISH WILL BE EXTINCT in 50 years. Are you friggin nuts?
@BrianA, just stfu already.
Many people care about these animals and human beings as well. You can be a decent person and have room in your heart for all living creatures, not just one or the other. Why did you read the article anyway?
"BiranA leads the human race to it's extinction with a too typical callous disregard for lives he personally finds no merit in. It's the mindset that leads to wars and genocides and it's NOT OK!"
Now I'm LEADING THE HUMAN RACE TO EXTINCTION! Dude, do I get like a trophy or something. You guys flatter me so!
Yes, I would rather save an entire species from extinction (made extinct by the idiotic and ignorant beliefs of the largest parasite on earth) then save your child. I would save the Rhino in a second. In fact, if we could shed about 3 billiion human parasites we may be in a position to save what's left of the earth from man. Morons like you breed like rabbits with no thought to the societal or environmental repercussions we are creating.
Chris, just put your fingers in your ears and repeat to yourself "Al Gore is GOD, Al Gore is GOD, Al GOre is GOD..."
When animals like rhinos eat they effect the landscape of that environment which in turn effects other plants and animals, including humans. Losing species of animals puts other plants and animals in jeopardy. Really, you should have learned about this as a child.
"Yes, I would rather save an entire species from extinction (made extinct by the idiotic and ignorant beliefs of the largest parasite on earth) then save your child. I would save the Rhino in a second. In fact, if we could shed about 3 billiion human parasites we may be in a position to save what's left of the earth from man"
Welcome back from the dead, Hitler! Thought you shot yourself...
I think your underpants are way too tight.
Sorry to hear you didn't reach your goal of 3 Bil....
Relax everyone. Obviously this is terrible news and that goes without saying. BrianA is your garden variety troll. He probably didn't even read the article. He just knows that if he says something really controversial that he will get the precious attention he craves. Much like his mommy and daddy did when he'd act out and bang pots and pans together. This is why we should raise our children well. Lest their life someday becomes trolling new sites.
I would kill 1 billion humans to save one other species.
BrianA, to back up my statement which you seem to regard as unbelievable...LOOK IT UP..."Research announced today shows that, if present fishing practices are allowed to continue, there will be no viable ocean fishing in just another 40 to 50 years. As this ScienCentral News video explains, the research, published this week in the journal Science is the result of four years of work by a dozen scientists from all over the world." You're just as ignorant as they come...tough being you.
That's an unbelievably ignorant thing to say. we are sowing our own destruction by destroying the biodiversity on this planet. There will be a tipping point when it will be too late to save ourselves.Talk to the bee keepers and the bat enthusiasts if you don't believe me.
While I do agree that the sequencing of a single genome is next to meaningless in the grand scheme, and no one claimed that the extinction of a certain rhino will have any impact on YOUR life. This same mentality, however, extrapolated to consider every different species with the same type of discare could very well have a significant impact on human kind. You sir, do not care because it does not affect you. We care because it has the potential to affect all of humanity and its posterity.
Are you christian? just wondering because I detect that you get the feeling that the world was created for you to exploit. Humans are not any better than other animal species by definition; you are actually quite worse than any of them. Disgusting small mindedness in a nutshell.
Moron! We can also "live" without art, literature, technology, music, mathematics and science. Not everyone is content to live without beauty, both natural ans man-made. Climb back under your rock.
Mrks3 said it for all of us!!! Rock on Mrks3! BrianA obviously didn't listen in highschool or retain any of the knowledge he was offered for free. Courtesy of taxes his parents and neighbors paid. BrianA please tell me on what planet a Rhino is at the top of the food chain?! LOL!
I would kill all the animals on the endangered species list to save just one human from death.
I'm a conservationist and a hunter but I would still enjoy watching an animal kill and eat your body, same with Brain A above.
...and it wouldn't happen anyway with my 50 cal in its brain.
good thing you're a loser with neither the resources nor intelligence to act
Wouldn't it be a whole lot easier if YOU just got off the planet??? I know we'd be happier!
Why not save both?
you must be related to Brian...stupidity runs in the family...
All humans will die eventually. You can't save one single human from this. And while the sun will burn out, perhaps we can bring these other species to new planets if we don't go and make them all extinct just to save one mortal, who will eventually die anyway. Please re-evaluate your moral system.
Any human? So you would rather let an entire species die than let Adolph Hitler, Joeseph Stalin, Tamerlane, Atilla the Hun, Idi Amin, Pol Pot, Mao Ze Dun, Nero, Quadaffi, Bin Laden, Jerry Fallwell, Joel Osteen, Orel Roberts, or Pat Robertson die? Wow. Human's are useless by and large and are nothing but parasitic plagues on the world's resources and environment. How can anyone logically think like you?
Its always something weird–Shark Fins, Tiger Wine and meat, Rhinos, Leopard meat, –It does not stop. This is just a few of the animals going or becoming the last of their kind in that part of the world or in our world.
Who are the poachers?
We need photos! We need their nudes too! So we can spam them online
why do you want nudes? is this a poacher fetish???
Well, I guess no Rhinos were killed when we dropped all those bobms and agent orange in the jungles of Vietnam. A better article would have focused on the exotic species that got extinct during the gorilla warfare.
LOL "gorilla warfare". im sure those apes were quite angry at the bombs dropped over them.
They see me trollin'
They hatin'
Too bad the rhinos couldn't shoot back !!!
asians have a terrible record when it cames to animals.....i mean they eat cat and dogs after all.....people need to watch y ou t u be on how koreans and chinese slaughter dogs and eat them in an open market...so enjoy made in china!
Oh god, this is horrible. Brought me to tears. YOU SONS OF B**CHES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
silence
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OSkoqRV_YRU&feature=related
.
Nobody wants to watch your video.
How does making a buck for profit tie to saving a life? I read these posts and hope all the readers conitnue their jobs as fry cooks at the local Burger King. People need to get a clue that saving animals and keeping the environment clean also reduces carbons and poisens that have a toll on their life.
What does poisen mean? Way to insult people while you're a giant moron. Hypocrite
1 rhino was left – who cares how it died? It's not like it was gonna repopulate Vietnam by itself anyhow.