Only 3 northern white rhinos left on Earth

[onion2k]

The fact that these animals have been hunted to extinction should be evidence that their horn has no medicine value. If it worked we'd have rhinoceros farms.

[thaumasiotes]

I'm sure people are happy to operate rhinoceros farms solely for the monetary value, which we know the horn does have. The problem is elsewhere.

[astrodust]

You massively underestimate the complexity of animal husbandry in some species.

[Angostura]

Next week: How I can show that the dodo had no nutritional value.

[mengjiang]

The problem is also more than just "medical value". There are collectors who would prize a trophy on their desk/wall.

[zimbatm]

I wonder why. Lion farms for the sole benefit of hunters exist, why not other species.

[danieltillett]

Not necessarily. Rhinos would only be farmed if they could be patented. Of course rhino horn has no medical value, but it could still be hunted to extinction even if it did.

On this topic silphium went extinct despite being highly useful medically [1].

1. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silphium

[reidrac]

Why the proxy?

This is the direct link: http://www.rawstory.com/2015/11/only-3-northern-white-rhinos...

EDIT: actually I found the proxy more interesting than the story itself.

[mengjiang]

Personally, I found many comments useful and entertaining, but the way HN and Reddit are designed makes it difficult to read the comments while reading the story.

I also use the Parle browser extension, which does this for all articles without the proxy.

[ziahamza]

The proxy can be generated from the Parle Browser extension which overlays HN and Reddit discussions directly on the page. You read more about it at https://www.parle.co

[nailer]

dang can you fix the link?

[Camillo]

With Chinese quackery behind the demand for rhino horn, and with China's increasing presence in Africa, I am really surprised that the Chinese government is not doing more to save the rhinos. If I were a high-ranking communist bureaucrat, I would see this as an easy chance to score points for national (and personal) prestige, yet there seems to be zero interest. Why?

[ziahamza]

I don't think its just China. Horns used to be one of the ingredients in classic chinese medicine, but its drastically reduced next to none after horns were banned a couple of decades ago. India itself is a big importer of horns and I think much bigger then China

[logingone]

There is also use by Somalis / Yemenis for dagger hilts and handles.

[DrScump]

Story from BBC: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-34897767

[roflchoppa]

Are there not issues of running into genetic defects from having such a small population to breed from?

[haser_au]

Humans suck sometimes

[gd1]

Uh-huh. We're probably the only species to ever even give a fuck that we drove another species to extinction.

[mengjiang]

especially this week, when combined with all the crazy events going on all around the world.

[saiya-jin]

back in 2008 when I visited Chitwan national park in Nepal, we were shown what locals claimed white rhinos (mother and calf). riding on the back of elephant, rhinos were calm and didn't notice us.

either things went much worse, or those were not white ones. anyway, 3 rhinos left means species is extinct, unless mighty genetics step in in near future.

[juriansluiman]

There are two species of white rhinos: southern and northern.

The southern [0] has one horn and there are an estimate of 20,400+ alive in the wild. Although they are still quite rare, they are considered the most common and widespread rhino.

The northern [1] white rhino is the one mentioned in this article and is much, much more rare. There are now only three individuals alive. I haven't found any confirmation, but I thought the northern was more popular by poachers because of the two large sized horns, instead of a large and small one from the southern rhino.

All in all, very sad we came to the point human beings have (almost, for now) killed yet another species.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_white_rhinoceros

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northern_white_rhinoceros

[jlebrech]

we should at least keep backups of the DNA.