Sumatran Rhino news thread

RRC: Ungulate Taxonomy

 

Talk to anyone among your family, friends etc. and see how many will struggle with the most basic concept of zoological taxonomy, especially in regard to the terms "species", "subspecies", "genus" etc. And then throw in the term "race" to make it extra tricky for them. Unless you happen to have a family and a circle of friends full of zoology "geeks & nerds", you will see that this isn't much of an exaggeration, if at all.

For a day or maybe a week, there will be the usual moral and emotional mourning, moaning and misanthrophic condemnation of humanity. Then another topic, most likely a sporting event or the naked rear of an "actress" will soon demand public attention. The pressure on the rhinos will continue, most likely increase.

Higher numbers of specimens do not necessarily mean greater success, especially when many of them are overaged, infertile, unwilling to reproduce or not accessible. The numbers of breeding success are higher-but only relatively. Just because a tortoise is faster than a snail, it's still not a hare.

 

Considering the example of the Northern White rhino, sometimes it's a matter of opinion...
PLOS ONE: The Sixth Rhino: A Taxonomic Re-Assessment of the Critically Endangered Northern White Rhinoceros

 

And a similar question:What's the difference between race and sub species?

 

I'm not going to post the "Let me Google that for you" link, as this might be considered unnecessarily offensive. Instead, I'll point you to the definitions of race as

a) Informal taxonomic rank
b) Social concept used in human classification
c) =^= breed in regard to domestic animals/plants (at least in some
languages)

 

Thanks Batto!

And I did look on google, not so much help.

 

What are peoples opinions about cloning?

People always talk about after the northern white rhino goes extinct they might be able to clone it with all the tissue and stuff from ones in san diego zoo's frozen zoo.

Could this work for sumatran rhinos too?

By the way, just because I am saying this, it does not mean I think we should just stop everything and let people kill them all, I just think that hope might not all be lost.

 

As far as I know the IWZ (the Leibniz institue for zoo and wild animals) is working really hard to get some females pregnant sadly it isn't really working. Last year a korean cloner company was asking them for help because they wanted to bring a mamooth back to life. As far as I know the IWZ said that they could help them, but only if this company could help them cloning some sumatran rhinos.
I think at the moment that's the last hope for the borean, sumatran and nothern white rhino. And hopefully they can get some new sumatrans from the wild.

 

Another article about saving the Sumatran rhino :
Wildlife Extra News - Last attempt to save wild Sumatran rhinoceros from extinction

 

This IS terrific news! Lets hope that the rhino will make it to adulthood and maybe even pass on it's genes...

 

Some Sumatran rhino news from Indonesia :
Sumatran rhino sighted in Indonesian Borneo for first time in 40 years | Environment | The Guardian

 

Another article on the same topic: New hope for Sumatran rhino in Borneo | WWF

 

Fantastic news. Truly it is

 

I'm pretty interested in the possibility of cloning animals for conservation purposes. Everyone talks about cloning extinct animals, but I wonder if cloning technology could be used to help out struggling extant species. Especially if DNA could be extracted from preserved specimens, they could bring back genes that no longer exist in the current population, thus improving genetic diversity. (a major issue for many endangered species) Though that kind of technology is a long way off, cloning is still so expensive and impractical.

 

It would definately make more sense than trying to clone extinct species, but if you cannot safeguard the species habitat and it's safety against poaching in that habitat, it is still a waste of money.

 

You get good news, and then you get bad news....

The only good thing to come from this is that she has at least proved there are still some Rhinos in Kalimantan, and, provided it was indeed from an older injury rather than from the capture, that she didn't just die unknown in a forest somewhere.

 

I've personally encountered cloned specimens of wild species. It kinda robbed me of the confidence in the merits of this procedure for conservation that Colin Tudge instilled in me in Last Animals at the Zoo ...

 

Too many health problems?