The Grim tide of extinction rolls on

Baron de Robeck · 08-12-2011 10:07pm

The death toll in South Africa for 2011 is now nearly 450 after this outrage at the Lowveldt. We thought last year was bad and that it couldn't get worse and now it has. The authorities in South Africa are still not treating this mass-murder seriously, poachers are still not being brought to justice in the numbers that they should be and when they do they get bail. Even when convicted sentences are generally lenient. Corruption has reached the politicians, judiciary and even some so called conservationists. High level criminal gangs are behind all of this, with their money and sophisticated equipment they are gaining the edge on those trying valiantly to protect their rhinos. At the other end in the far east people are being duped into paying vast sums of money for what they believe will cure them of all ills where in reality rhino horn has no medicinal properties at all, you might just as well chew your own finger nails!

Mickeroo · 10-12-2011 2:50pm

Birdnuts wrote: »

A particularly despicable act:mad:

http://safaritalk.net/topic/7701-4-rhinos-killed-last-night-in-the-lowveldt/

Thats horrid, some truly disturbing images there. All caused by the gullibility of people who think Rhino horn has medicinal properties.

Yitzhak Rabin · 10-12-2011 7:55pm

HugoBradyBrown wrote: »

No, I accept that humans are part of evolution; the final stage in their line, and nothing as sophisticated has yet arisen. It is possible, though highly unlikely, that some other line could evolve into something different but of equivalent sophistication. I am keeping a watchful eye on the octopus, myself.

Good Lord! Its begun.... :eek:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FjQr3lRACPI

Adam Khor · 11-12-2011 10:38pm

yekahS wrote: »

Good Lord! Its begun.... :eek:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FjQr3lRACPI

Nothing new, they've been taking walks on the beach since always, I've seen them

Birdnuts · 12-12-2011 7:21pm

People don't realise that many of the lesser Apes like Gibbons are in even bigger trouble then the likes of Chimps and Orang-utans:(

http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/hoolock-gibbon.html

Mickeroo · 22-12-2011 4:53pm

Some good news for a change, Gray Wolves are off the endangered species list in the Amercian mid-west thanks to a recovering population. Unfortunately it seens this will give people license to shoot them though.

Birdnuts · 19-01-2012 3:37am

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-14765186

I think the above may be the only hope for an increasing number of species:(

Galvasean · 19-01-2012 3:41am

So, it's come to sci-fi esque techniques? It's sad that conservation has more or less failed them.

Stinicker · 21-01-2012 11:02pm

Coming back to the Rhino massacres, I wonder would it be possible to take a non-threatened species of Rhino and breed them and surgically harvest their Horns without killing the animal and sell them legally as ethical rhino horn to raise funds for conservation. Also the more rarer Rhinos should have their horns surgically removed to give the poachers no reason to shoot them.

Birdnuts · 22-01-2012 1:32am

Stinicker wrote: »

Coming back to the Rhino massacres, I wonder would it be possible to take a non-threatened species of Rhino and breed them and surgically harvest their Horns without killing the animal and sell them legally as ethical rhino horn to raise funds for conservation. Also the more rarer Rhinos should have their horns surgically removed to give the poachers no reason to shoot them.

Poachers will kill a de-horned rhino so as to drive up the price and to save themselves time tracking the same rhino again by mistake. These people are utterly ruthless and have even taken to using vetinary drugs to knock Rhinos out and then hacking open their faces to get at the horn. In this way they don't give away their location via gunshots. There is some real horrific images out there of Rhinos injuring prolonged agonising deaths this way

PS: As for farming Rhinos - Managed sales of stuff like Ivory stockbiles and bear gall bladders have unfortunatly not stopped the ongoing escalation of Elephant poaching across both Africa and Asia while species like Sloth and Sun bears are on the verge of extinciton over most their range:(

loveisdivine · 25-01-2012 4:53pm

^^Not only are the wild animals still being poached, but the farmed animals are usually kept in appauling conditions e.g bear farms! Seeing a bear with a permanent tap srewed into its stomach isnt pleasant.

Chinese medicine needs to be made illegal (in my dream world I know!)

Why continue to encourage people's ridiculous "need" for these items by creating an ethical version?

Birdnuts · 14-02-2012 9:02pm

http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/rainforest-tissue.html

This odious corporate entity continues to plough its way through some of the richest rainforests on the planet that are home to whole host of iconic species on the brink:mad:

Birdnuts · 22-02-2012 8:01pm

http://www.wildlifeextra.com/#cr

Elephant populations across West Africa and the Sahel are on their last legs.:(

They are also geneitcally distinct compared to their better known cousins in East and South Africa which further compounds the loss.

Birdnuts · 13-03-2012 10:30pm

http://www.panthera.org/sites/default/files/Nyanganji_et_al_2012_Nigeria_lion_survey_report.pdf

Makes for grim reading with the situation in many neighbouring countries nearly as dire:(

PS: In other news the Rhino situation in SA continues to go from bad to worse despite the deployment of the army into areas like Kruger. Close to 100 rhinos have already been killed this year with at least half that total dieing in Kruger NP. A number of arrests of Park staff and police officers suggest widespread corruption is accelerating the ongoing losses:mad:

Mickeroo · 14-04-2012 4:46pm

Seems there's only 55 Maui's Deolphins left: http://www.celsias.co.nz/article/mauis-dolphins-55-left-world/?utm_source=CelsiasWeekly&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=20120410

Too late to make a submission now unfortunately. Would be an absolute travesty if this species disappeared and a real tarnish on New Zealand, a country who generally takes pride in it's natural heritage, though it's no stranger to extinctions in the past.

Birdnuts · 17-04-2012 4:27pm

For people concerned with conservation it often seems that bad news is the order of the day(which is understandible if you follow news relating to Rhinos, Orang Utans etc.) . So below are 2 more positive stories that help keep hope alive. The Oryx story is particualry interesting in that I know Fota in cork is breeding this species

http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/scimtar-oryx-reintroduction.html

http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/russian-leopards.html

Hollzy · 20-04-2012 10:15am

Yeah, Fota are involved in oryx re-introductions. A bull from Fota is now head of a herd :') That's in Tunisia though I think.

Birdnuts · 02-05-2012 7:46pm

http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/yangtse-porpoise.html

Its looking ever more likely that this species will follow the Baji Dolphin into extinction:(

http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/tiger-trap.html

I really hope they catch the vermin responsible for the above horror:mad:

loveisdivine · 15-05-2012 9:58am

Thought this was quite relevant.

http://news.sky.com/home/world-news/article/16228107

Earth is a planet in crisis with wildlife populations declining by more than 30% in the past four decades, conservationists claim.

I imagine most people that read this on Sky will forget about it by lunch.

Why isnt this taken more seriously? Financial crisis will mean d*ck all when we have no resources left to even feed ourselves.

I can only assume its because it doesnt directly effect peoples day to day lives at the minute.

Yitzhak Rabin · 16-05-2012 1:49am

loveisdivine wrote: »

Thought this was quite relevant.

http://news.sky.com/home/world-news/article/16228107

Earth is a planet in crisis with wildlife populations declining by more than 30% in the past four decades, conservationists claim.

I imagine most people that read this on Sky will forget about it by lunch.

Why isnt this taken more seriously? Financial crisis will mean d*ck all when we have no resources left to even feed ourselves.

I can only assume its because it doesnt directly effect peoples day to day lives at the minute.

Well not exactly, the species that are becoming extinct are not ones we eat. Bovines and chickens have never been more populous.

Unfortunately it seems the best way to ensure a species continues to exist is to make it appealing to humans. Like some of the large African game animals which have began to flourish again purely because rich americans want to fly halfway around the world to shoot them.

loveisdivine · 17-05-2012 11:42am

Well not exactly, the species that are becoming extinct are not ones we eat. Bovines and chickens have never been more populous.

I agree with this, but what I originally meant was that with all the wild species dying out and us messing up the planet in general then in the end there probably wont be much fertile land left to grow on or for animals to graze on. I would imagine once a certain number of animals are gone, it will have an impact on the way the entire eco system works.

The same way that we dont eat sharks (except for some countries eating only the fin) but when they are all killed off the marine system will collapse which will inevitably effect our marine resources.

Birdnuts · 21-05-2012 8:43pm

This part of the world continues to provide endless grim headlines:

http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/saola-extinction.html

http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/bangkok-tiger.html

insanity50 · 26-05-2012 1:39pm

I had shark meat before in the orient it was delicious!!!!

all of the species can't survive all of the time lads, it's messing with natural selection to think we can keep them all around forever.

loveisdivine · 26-05-2012 5:17pm

insanity50 wrote: »

I had shark meat before in the orient it was delicious!!!!

all of the species can't survive all of the time lads, it's messing with natural selection to think we can keep them all around forever.

I think you're missing the point entirely. This isn't natural selection, this is extinction purely because of our actions. There's nothing natural about it.

The Grim tide of extinction rolls on

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