http://news.yahoo.com/expert-rhinos-extinct-mozambique-133833659.html
QuoteMozambique's rhinoceros population was wiped out more than a century ago by big game hunters. Reconstituted several years ago, it has again been driven to extinction, or to the brink of extinction, by poachers seeking their horns for sale in Asia.
A leading rhino expert told The Associated Press that the last rhino in the southern African nation has been killed. The warden in charge of the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park — the only place where the horned behemoths lived in Mozambique — also says poachers have wiped out the last of the rhinos. Mozambique's conservation director believes a few may remain.
Elephants also could become extinct in Mozambique soon, the warden of the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park, Antonio Abacar, told AP. He said game rangers have been aiding poachers, and 30 of the park's 100 rangers will appear in court soon.
"We caught some of them red-handed while directing poachers to a rhino area," Abacar said.
A game ranger arrested for helping poachers in Mozambique's northern Niassa Game Reserve said on Mozambican Television TVM last week that he was paid 2,500 meticais (about $80) to direct poachers to areas with elephants and rhinos. Game rangers are paid between 2,000 and 3,000 meticais ($64 to $96) a month.
While guilty rangers will lose their jobs, the courts serve as little deterrent to the poachers: killing wildlife and trading in illegal rhino horn and elephant tusks are only misdemeanors in Mozambique.
"Their legal system is far from adequate and an individual found guilty is given a slap on the wrist and then they say 'OK. Give me my horn back,'" said Michael H. Knight, chairman of the African Rhino Specialist Group of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature's Species Survival Commission.
A meeting of the group in February reported there might, possibly, be one white rhino left in Mozambique and no black rhinos at all, Knight said.
According to Abacar: "We have already announced the extinction of the rhino population in Limpopo National Park."
But Bartolomeu Soto, director of Mozambique's transfrontier conservation unit, told the AP "We believe we still have rhinos, though we don't know how many."
Mozambican news reports have said the last 15 rhinos in the park were slaughtered in the past month, but park officials said those reports were wrong. Soto said the misunderstanding had arisen over Abacar's statement to journalists that he had not seen a rhino in the three months since he was put in charge of the large park.
The only official figure available for rhino deaths is that 17 rhino carcasses were found in the park in 2010, Soto said. He said officials believe poaching must be taking place because rhino horn and elephant tusks carried by Asian smugglers are regularly seized at Mozambique's ports, although at least some of the contraband could be from animals killed by Mozambican poachers in neighboring South Africa. This week a person was arrested at the airport of the capital, Maputo, in possession of nine rhino horns, Soto said.
The price of rhino horn has overtaken the price of gold as demand has burgeoned in Asian countries, mainly China and Vietnam, where consumers wrongly believe that the horn — made of the same substance as fingernails — has powerful healing properties. Chinese traditional medicine prescribes it for everything from typhoid, infant convulsions and fever to an antidote for poison and to relieve arthritis and cure possessions by the devil. Syndicates from Vietnam, China, South Korea and Thailand have been identified as being involved in the trafficking.
Knight said rhinos first became extinct in Mozambique around the turn of the last century, in the age of the big white hunters, when the animals also nearly disappeared in South Africa, which is now home to 90 percent of Africa's estimated 20,000 white rhinos and 4,880 black rhinos.
In 2002, leaders of Mozambique, South Africa and Zimbabwe agreed to establish a transfrontier park straddling their borders and covering some 35,000 square kilometers (13,514 square miles) of the best established wildlife areas in southern Africa with South Africa's famed Kruger National Park and Zimbabwe's Gonarezhou National Park. It is funded by several international wildlife organizations and the European Union.
Soto said some 5,000 animals of various species were translocated from South Africa to Mozambique, including the first 12 rhinos to roam in Mozambique in a century.
In 2006, South Africa removed some 50 kilometers (30 miles) of fence between Kruger and Limpopo National Park. Soto said the entire 200 kilometers (125 miles) of fence was not removed because Mozambique still is working to resettle some 6,000 people living in the park.
A second phase was to include two other Mozambican parks, allowing the transfrontier park to extend over 100,000 square kilometers (39,000 sq. miles) that would make it "the world's largest animal kingdom," according to the South African Peace Parks Foundation.
Those plans now are in danger, as is the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park. Knight said South African officials are even discussing rebuilding their fence with Mozambique.
South African officials say their country has lost 273 rhinos to poachers so far this year. They say most have been killed by Mozambicans who cross into Kruger Park. Poachers killed 668 rhinos in South Africa last year.
The slaughter continues with the number of deaths increasing even though South Africa has declared war on rhino poachers and for two years has deployed soldiers and police in Kruger, a vast park which is the size of Israel.
Soto said Mozambique's government has been working since 2009 on a comprehensive reform of environmental laws involving consultations with all stakeholders. He said he expects the draft legislation to be presented to parliament soon. It includes criminalizing the shooting of wildlife and would impose mandatory prison sentences on offenders.
But it will come too late to save the last of the rhinos in Mozambique.
QuoteThe price of rhino horn has overtaken the price of gold as demand has burgeoned in Asian countries, mainly China and Vietnam, where consumers wrongly believe that the horn — made of the same substance as fingernails — has powerful healing properties. Chinese traditional medicine prescribes it for everything from typhoid, infant convulsions and fever to an antidote for poison and to relieve arthritis and cure possessions by the devil. Syndicates from Vietnam, China, South Korea and Thailand have been identified as being involved in the trafficking.
Bunch of ass clowns. They need to start using all the multitudes of medications that exist and probably work better, rather than rely the vagaries of the poacher's market for an item that probably isn't medically valid.
Quote from: KRonn on May 02, 2013, 10:03:32 AM
QuoteThe price of rhino horn has overtaken the price of gold as demand has burgeoned in Asian countries, mainly China and Vietnam, where consumers wrongly believe that the horn — made of the same substance as fingernails — has powerful healing properties. Chinese traditional medicine prescribes it for everything from typhoid, infant convulsions and fever to an antidote for poison and to relieve arthritis and cure possessions by the devil. Syndicates from Vietnam, China, South Korea and Thailand have been identified as being involved in the trafficking.
Bunch of ass clowns. They need to start using all the multitudes of medications that exist and probably work better, rather than rely the vagaries of the poacher's market for an item that probably isn't medically valid.
"Probably"? :D
Anyway, I blame Mono.
Sad. Seeing rhinos in the wild is quite impressive. I hope that conservation efforts based on tourism can save the wild rhinos elsewhere. But it isn't looking good. Same for other awesome species, such as Mountain Gorillas. :(
Well, this is the world we wanted. It'll be alright. Large mammals will come back within ten million years after we're gone.
China evil, destroying world. News at 11.
Quote from: Neil on May 02, 2013, 11:11:22 AM
Well, this is the world we wanted. It'll be alright. Large mammals will come back within ten million years after we're gone.
:yes:
Quote from: Neil on May 02, 2013, 11:11:22 AM
Well, this is the world we wanted. It'll be alright. Large mammals will come back within ten million years after we're gone.
Don't worry, we'll always have cows, pigs, and horses. :)
Quote from: Neil on May 02, 2013, 11:11:22 AM
Well, this is the world we wanted. It'll be alright. Large mammals will come back within ten million years after we're gone.
Yeah, but then they'll be rats the size of cows. :(
Quote from: Zanza on May 02, 2013, 10:42:17 AM
I hope that conservation efforts based on tourism can save the wild rhinos elsewhere. But it isn't looking good. Same for other awesome species, such as Mountain Gorillas. :(
You cannot save animals that are worth more dead than alive with current conservation efforts.
Quote from: KRonn on May 02, 2013, 10:03:32 AM
QuoteThe price of rhino horn has overtaken the price of gold as demand has burgeoned in Asian countries, mainly China and Vietnam, where consumers wrongly believe that the horn — made of the same substance as fingernails — has powerful healing properties. Chinese traditional medicine prescribes it for everything from typhoid, infant convulsions and fever to an antidote for poison and to relieve arthritis and cure possessions by the devil. Syndicates from Vietnam, China, South Korea and Thailand have been identified as being involved in the trafficking.
Bunch of ass clowns. They need to start using all the multitudes of medications that exist and probably work better, rather than rely the vagaries of the poacher's market for an item that probably isn't medically valid.
Pretty ironic, how they're also the world's leader in counterfeit pharmaceuticals.
I guess that makes the Chinese "complex" or something Xiacob would call them.
Quote from: Queequeg on May 02, 2013, 03:54:37 PM
Yeah, but then they'll be rats the size of cows. :(
:hmm:
Bears will survive us, I think. And obviously dogs, who can grow into large wolves.
Actually strike that. If we go, it's because we've made the world unlivable. So no bears, no wolves, no giant rats.
Quote from: Peter Wiggin on May 02, 2013, 05:37:38 PM
Actually strike that. If we go, it's because we've made the world unlivable. So no bears, no wolves, no giant rats.
I think rats could outlive us. Given the current level of technology we'd have a hell of hard time living through something like the Permian-Triassic extinction event, but our gopher-like Dicynodont cousins evolved to become one of the most successful genera of all time, lystrosaurus.
Unlivable for people might be livable for smaller animals. And it's not like people can really damage the habitability of the Earth in the long term.
Don't you think some smart cookie would go into the rhino farming business?
Quote from: Admiral Yi on May 02, 2013, 06:23:34 PM
Don't you think some smart cookie would go into the rhino farming business?
No kidding, right? If the simpleton fucktards in the East and the ME want to maintain an ivory supply to sprinkle on their morning oatmeal for better hard-ons or to make their goofy trinkets, you'd think somebody would've come up with a plan for the controlled harvesting of ivory producers, like tree replacement programs. Because once it's gone, it's gone.
That might be possible if there was enough courage in the civilized world to recolonize Africa.
Quote from: Neil on May 02, 2013, 06:11:01 PM
Unlivable for people might be livable for smaller animals. And it's not like people can really damage the habitability of the Earth in the long term.
Aren't you the one always going on about how some jihadist is going to eventually crash a space ship into the earth at high velocity? Couldn't a strong enough collision make the earth lose its atmosphere? That's what the meteor crash simulators say.
Quote from: Peter Wiggin on May 02, 2013, 06:57:44 PM
Quote from: Neil on May 02, 2013, 06:11:01 PM
Unlivable for people might be livable for smaller animals. And it's not like people can really damage the habitability of the Earth in the long term.
Aren't you the one always going on about how some jihadist is going to eventually crash a space ship into the earth at high velocity? Couldn't a strong enough collision make the earth lose its atmosphere? That's what the meteor crash simulators say.
That's beyond current technology.
Quote from: Neil on May 02, 2013, 06:32:59 PM
That might be possible if there was enough courage in the civilized world to recolonize Africa.
The problem with Africa is that it's full of Africans?
Quote from: Neil on May 02, 2013, 07:02:10 PM
That's beyond current technology.
Sure, but the death of humanity is not imminent.
Quote from: Tonitrus on May 02, 2013, 07:04:26 PM
Quote from: Neil on May 02, 2013, 06:32:59 PM
That might be possible if there was enough courage in the civilized world to recolonize Africa.
The problem with Africa is that it's full of Africans?
I'll pass on the Prima Nocta.
Quote from: Tonitrus on May 02, 2013, 07:04:26 PM
Quote from: Neil on May 02, 2013, 06:32:59 PM
That might be possible if there was enough courage in the civilized world to recolonize Africa.
The problem with Africa is that it's full of Africans?
To some degree. The real problem is the lack of government control. If Africa were either still colonized or allowed to develop into nation-states, things would probably be better.
The real problem with Africa is that it's tough place to live. Bad climate, bad soil, full of diseases. Africa never developed strong states because there just wasn't enough excess wealth to really subjugate tribal leaders (not to mention enemy tribes).
Don't overgeneralize, west Africa had several strong states.
Quote from: Razgovory on May 02, 2013, 08:24:35 PM
The real problem with Africa is that it's tough place to live. Bad climate, bad soil, full of diseases. Africa never developed strong states because there just wasn't enough excess wealth to really subjugate tribal leaders (not to mention enemy tribes).
The fact that humans evolved there and are best adapted to its climate makes me doubt this hypothesis.
Quote from: jimmy olsen on May 03, 2013, 07:26:38 AM
Quote from: Razgovory on May 02, 2013, 08:24:35 PM
The real problem with Africa is that it's tough place to live. Bad climate, bad soil, full of diseases. Africa never developed strong states because there just wasn't enough excess wealth to really subjugate tribal leaders (not to mention enemy tribes).
The fact that humans evolved there and are best adapted to its climate makes me doubt this hypothesis.
Lots of things are well adapted to live there. That's why we got the fuck out.
Mind you, Africa did form up some strong but primitive states.
Quote from: jimmy olsen on May 03, 2013, 07:26:38 AM
Quote from: Razgovory on May 02, 2013, 08:24:35 PM
The real problem with Africa is that it's tough place to live. Bad climate, bad soil, full of diseases. Africa never developed strong states because there just wasn't enough excess wealth to really subjugate tribal leaders (not to mention enemy tribes).
The fact that humans evolved there and are best adapted to its climate makes me doubt this hypothesis.
Why? Most of Eurasian history is strong ethnicities trying to get the fuck out of the steppe. Pressures of living in Africa might have given us some advantages.
A better example would be the colonization of South America by Eurasian-North American animals after the continents collided.
Quote from: jimmy olsen on May 03, 2013, 07:26:38 AM
Quote from: Razgovory on May 02, 2013, 08:24:35 PM
The real problem with Africa is that it's tough place to live. Bad climate, bad soil, full of diseases. Africa never developed strong states because there just wasn't enough excess wealth to really subjugate tribal leaders (not to mention enemy tribes).
The fact that humans evolved there and are best adapted to its climate makes me doubt this hypothesis.
Humans might have evolved there, but clearly other regions of Earth were more suitable to create high density human civilizations, so I doubt that humans are best adapted to Africa's climate.
Quote from: Peter Wiggin on May 02, 2013, 09:16:04 PM
Don't overgeneralize, west Africa had several strong states.
When?
Quote from: jimmy olsen on May 03, 2013, 07:26:38 AM
Quote from: Razgovory on May 02, 2013, 08:24:35 PM
The real problem with Africa is that it's tough place to live. Bad climate, bad soil, full of diseases. Africa never developed strong states because there just wasn't enough excess wealth to really subjugate tribal leaders (not to mention enemy tribes).
The fact that humans evolved there and are best adapted to its climate makes me doubt this hypothesis.
Why do you suppose Europeans weren't able to colonize Africa in the same way they colonized the Americas.
Quote from: Peter Wiggin on May 02, 2013, 05:34:09 PM
Bears will survive us, I think.
Not so long as there continues to be an asian market for their body parts to put the lead in some old chinese guys pecker.
Quote from: crazy canuck on May 03, 2013, 02:20:23 PM
Quote from: Peter Wiggin on May 02, 2013, 05:34:09 PM
Bears will survive us, I think.
Not so long as there continues to be an asian market for their body parts to put the lead in some old chinese guys pecker.
That's bad news for bears native to Asia (and Africa if there are any), but we have reasonably good wildlife and customs control in North America.
Quote from: Peter Wiggin on May 03, 2013, 03:49:34 PM
Quote from: crazy canuck on May 03, 2013, 02:20:23 PM
Quote from: Peter Wiggin on May 02, 2013, 05:34:09 PM
Bears will survive us, I think.
Not so long as there continues to be an asian market for their body parts to put the lead in some old chinese guys pecker.
That's bad news for bears native to Asia (and Africa if there are any), but we have reasonably good wildlife and customs control in North America.
Not nearly good enough.
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/08/090811-bear-parts-trade_2.html
If you read that article, you'd see that most of the black bears are getting killed legally and that their population is not in jeopardy. :contract:
Quote from: Peter Wiggin on May 03, 2013, 04:03:29 PM
If you read that article, you'd see that most of the black bears are getting killed legally and that their population is not in jeopardy. :contract:
Quote"States like Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Mississippi have small bear populations," he said. "If a poaching operation were to be set up in one of those states, the entire populations could literally be wiped out."
And then we could reintroduce them from elsewhere, if having bears in those particular states were deemed important.
My point was that the species as a whole is thriving. Until Canada is as densely populated as Tennessee, they will probably continue to do so.
Quote from: Peter Wiggin on May 03, 2013, 05:50:32 PM
And then we could reintroduce them from elsewhere, if having bears in those particular states were deemed important.
My point was that the species as a whole is thriving. Until Canada is as densely populated as Tennessee, they will probably continue to do so.
Canada also has a serious problem with poachers taking parts for the asian market. The point of the article is that populations are currently ok but more needs to be done to keep it that way.
QuoteBut five states—Maine, Vermont, Idaho, Wyoming, and New York—allow such trade freely.
The rest have a tangled web of statues that sometimes allows the trade of parts taken from bears legally killed elsewhere.
"The majority of states have already banned the trade because they realized that commercialization of wildlife parts leads to poaching," Roberts said.
"The handful that allow the trade serve as laundering points for bear gallbladders taken elsewhere."
I think our governments are powerful enough and have the desire to preserve wild black bears(as a species, not necessarily individuals). They're not endangered now, if they were, we'd stop letting hunters kill them legally and do more to crack down on poachers.
Also, this:
QuoteBlack bear poaching in North America is simply not a significant threat to the species, said Chris Servheen, who coordinates the USFWS's Grizzly Bear Recovery program at the University of Montana.
"There may be isolated areas that it may occur, and the bill could be a benefit to that," said Servheen, who has worked extensively on the Asian bear-parts trade with conservation groups WWF and TRAFFIC.
"But the big story is that the future of Asian bears is really being threatened by the trade in bear parts, and there are almost no conservation efforts going on [in Asia]—no organizational structure, and no funding."
Since the Chinese refuse to believe science I wonder if we might be able to genetically engineer rhino horn for their market...
Quote
A game ranger arrested for helping poachers in Mozambique's northern Niassa Game Reserve said on Mozambican Television TVM last week that he was paid 2,500 meticais (about $80) to direct poachers to areas with elephants and rhinos. Game rangers are paid between 2,000 and 3,000 meticais ($64 to $96) a month.
Wow.
If they were paying him big money I could understand it but a month's salary? For something that not only directly risks him losing his job if he is found out but also stands to eliminate the need for his job anyway? What a moron.
A month's salary is a pretty big incentive when you are poor and don't expect to be caught.
Quote from: crazy canuck on May 03, 2013, 05:00:41 PM
Quote from: Peter Wiggin on May 03, 2013, 04:03:29 PM
If you read that article, you'd see that most of the black bears are getting killed legally and that their population is not in jeopardy. :contract:
Quote"States like Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Mississippi have small bear populations," he said. "If a poaching operation were to be set up in one of those states, the entire populations could literally be wiped out."
I poached an egg once, does that count?
Quote from: Neil on May 02, 2013, 06:32:59 PM
That might be possible if there was enough courage in the civilized world to recolonize Africa.
China is doing that, too. Buying up all the transport and telecom infrastructure, and buying farmland as well. :contract:
Fear the Brave New Super Happy Dragon #47 World.
Quote from: AnchorClanker on May 07, 2013, 03:46:26 PM
Quote from: Neil on May 02, 2013, 06:32:59 PM
That might be possible if there was enough courage in the civilized world to recolonize Africa.
China is doing that, too. Buying up all the transport and telecom infrastructure, and buying farmland as well. :contract:
Fear the Brave New Super Happy Dragon #47 World.
It only counts if they put men with Maxim guns and pith helmets on the ground, and put some natives in the ground.
Patience, patience. China plays the long game.
Quote from: AnchorClanker on May 07, 2013, 05:23:49 PM
Patience, patience. China plays the long game.
Nonsense. When it comes to exploiting the penises of rare animals, China goes by the Brain rule: 'Now now now!'
Quote from: Neil on May 07, 2013, 05:25:23 PM
Quote from: AnchorClanker on May 07, 2013, 05:23:49 PM
Patience, patience. China plays the long game.
Nonsense. When it comes to exploiting the penises of rare animals, China goes by the Brain rule: 'Now now now!'
That's market demand, not strategic foreign policy. ;)
Quote from: Neil on May 07, 2013, 04:53:04 PM
Quote from: AnchorClanker on May 07, 2013, 03:46:26 PM
Quote from: Neil on May 02, 2013, 06:32:59 PM
That might be possible if there was enough courage in the civilized world to recolonize Africa.
China is doing that, too. Buying up all the transport and telecom infrastructure, and buying farmland as well. :contract:
Fear the Brave New Super Happy Dragon #47 World.
It only counts if they put men with Maxim guns and pith helmets on the ground, and put some natives in the ground.
They don't need to. No competition and there's already local governments who play by international rules in most of the continent.
Apparently this particular subscepcies of rhino has been officially extinct since 2011.