Friday, January 04, 2013

Humans, Be Not Proud: Last Vietnamese rhino extinct

One of the startling large-mammal discoveries of the recent years was the finding that the critically endangered Javan rhinocerous, long presumed extinct on the Asian mainland, survived in Vietnam. 
Well, not anymore.
The Vietnamese subspecies of the Javan rhino was down to one animal in  Cat Tien National Park in 2009. Someone should have made the decision to take it into captivity: in April 2010, it was shot by a poacher and its horn stolen.
There are maybe three dozen Javan rhinos left in Indonesia.
Sometimes I want to resign from my species.

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