Monday, 27 April 2015

When It's Gone, It's Gone!


A sad little story about further collapsing of the populations of endangered sub-species of rhinoceros, largely due to poaching (http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/apr/27/ol-pejeta-kenya-sudan-worlds-last-male-northern-white-rhinoceros). This includes an account of a 'pampered', 42-year old male from a Czech zoo who is the last surviving member of his sex among the Northern white rhinos. I do think that, when one gets down to this level in populations of such animals, that extinction is inevitable. Even if breeding is possible, the amount of genetic diversity in any resulting populations is likely to be too low for viability. It might be better to put resources into animals with better chances of avoiding the grim reaper's scythe.

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