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.
Whats really scary is that people like Rhinoplasty show no sympathy for living creatures. Which also means they probably don't have sympathy for humans either. Typical serial killer trait.
Those Rhno's and Dodo birds had families and feelings. You don't think that they were terrified in their last moments? Why would we want humans around that can carry out such acts of violence and not feel anything emotionally?
@Nikki: Racism is a generalization based–get ready–RACE! Saying that most Asians are more interested in animals only for food and medicine is a generalization that you're applying to a racial group, without any consideration of cultural factors. It's also ignoring the role of the developed world in animal extinction. If we helped countries like Vietnam provide healthcare in the first place, these animals would not be going extinct. And then there are all of the white-owned corporations that encourage destruction of the environment. The issue of endangerment and extinction is a human problem; we all have a role to play in ending it. Do your part, instead of blaming one group of people.
im very disappointed. im saddend and furious. i dont care what after life they believe in. but i know this that these poachers and others like them earn a special place in HEL where they will be hunted down and killed brutally over and over again forever.
Well done for killing the last rhino!!!, afteral its no good if there's anything alive on this planet that's worth shooting isn't it? It has to be shot for profit , who cares if nothing is left for future generations. Short term thinking in its finest and purest form!!!
Hey, I heard from an old respectable shaman that ground up human testacles cures a huge variety of diseases which includes asthma, pms, bone loss, some forms of cancer, and of course, erectile dysfunction. Spread the word.
The dummies must not have heard of Viagra.
One way to fight it would to try to breed them in captivity if that happened with this Rino type prob have a replacement. Even breeding them for the horn just pute it out to sleep and saw the horn off. Grow another one.
You can not bargain with ignorance.
I like Forest Gump's mothers description of these embeciles.
Hey, I heard from an old respectable shaman that ground up human testacles cures a huge variety of diseases which includes asthma, pms, bone loss, some forms of cancer, and of course, erectile dysfunction. Spread the word
I feel sure the only thing you would get is a reduction in the population which seems in this case a plus.
These days prob clone it back.
heh maybe did they get a female to make the baby?
if dolphins were so smart, they wouldnt get trapped in those little nets.
It seems to be analogous to... if people are smart they wouldn't be hoodwinked by politicians/so-called leaders of all kinds.
They're smart, just not smart enough to figure out how to avoid the nets.
If humans were so smart, they would be able to live at balance with the world around them.
1 animal... they couldn't protect 1 lousey animal...
Whether or not this has a direct impact on human wellbeing is beside the point. I don't understand why some people on on this forum think that it is acceptable to drive a species to extinction because it is deemed 'unimportant'.
It's amazing.. We know for sure, even if there is another "earth" out there.. We could never get to it.. Yet we continue to disrespect this one jewel in the universe that we call home.
Killing off animals, destroying the land and the oceans, the air .. People killing each other..
AS if "easy come, easy go"... Just amazing...
Man is the most destructive "animal".. created. Or "evolved".. How ever you want to view it, man will be the end of it all.He is the last ...He will make sure of it.
So what about the thousands upon thousands of species that became extinct before man was on the scene?
It's the damn chinese's fault. they're the root of all problems in the world today.
just that stupid natural cure crap thinking about them horns