GA4

Friday, July 07, 2006

NORTHERN WHITE RHINOS - Four left?

ABC News has an article today about a recent survey that suggests that the Black Rhino of West Africa appears to be extinct.

Northern White Rhino
Northern White Rhino
Northern White Rhino
Northern White Rhino
It also includes the horrible news that confirms the Northern White Rhino is also on the verge of oblivion.
Restricted in the wild to Garamba National Park in the Democratic Republic of Congo, recent ground and aerial surveys … have only found four animals," Brooks said. [Dr Martin Brooks, chairman of the World Conservation Union's African Rhino Specialist Group]
Full story at ABC News.



Elsewhere, New Zealand's Scoop has news of an IUCN report on the home of the Northern White Rhino - Garamba National Park - one of the 15 sites on the "List of World Heritage in Danger". The sites are under threat for a variety of reasons including dam construction, war, poaching, deforestation, and poor management.

1 comment:

D.B. Echo said...

This is horrible. The Baiji Dolphin was probably doomed as soon as China entered the Industrial Age, but this - this could have been prevented. This was the result of corruption, and inertia, and the high profitability of the illegal animal trade.

If there are only four Northern White Rhinos left, there may as well be none, from a genetic diversity point of view. (Chattham's Island Robin notwithstanding - is that the one where the population was reduced to a single pregnant female?)