Last Vietnamese rhino poached.

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Job accomplished – last Vietnamese rhino poached – annamiticus subspecies
extinct.

October 25, 2011 by Rolf Schuttenhelm

When we speak of biodiversity decline we usually prefer to zoom out to
get the big picture. Sometimes however reality forces you to stand still
and take time to commemorate an individual case.

Once Rhinoceros sondaicus or the Javan rhinoceros was the most wide-
spread of Asian rhinoceroses, ranging all the way from Indonesia to India
and China.

Today WWF announced the last of the Asian mainland subspecies
(annamiticus) has been poached. That’s one more icon down en route to the
Holocene Mass Extinction.

Hunter over shot Javan rhinoceros, 1895, western Java. Today we’re 116
years further in time – and on that same spot just 40 rhinos remain – the
last standing population.

Let’s hope it did at least solve that Chinese man’s impotence

The last Vietnamese rhinos were deliberately poached. The last single
individual was found dead with a shot wound in the leg and the horn sawn
off. It seems China would do biodiversity a favour if finally it
acknowledged their traditional medicine requirements are fully
unscientific so the Chinese black market will stop paying ridiculous sums
of money for whatever organs or bones of the most endangered species.

According to a Columbia University researcher who in 2003 has written a
book on South East Asian rhino poaching practices Javan rhinoceros horn
would fetch as much as 30,000 dollars per kilogram of ivory. At such
prices poor Vietnamese farmers are willing to shoot anything.

Overpopulation, deforestation, poaching: last Asian rhinos

Now only an estimated 40 Javan rhinoceroses remain at the very western
tip of the Indonesian island of Java. Meanwhile the Indian rhinoceros
(not directly related to the extinct Indian Javan rhino) has been driven
from the overpopulated Ganges plains but clings on to the southern slopes
of the Himalayas. A third Asian species, the Sumatran Rhinoceros, which
is smaller than the Javan rhino, according to the IUCN now number less
than 275 individuals, scattered over 6 isolated and unconnected pockets
on Sumatra and Malaysia.

The number of large, wild animals is inversely related to human
population growth and other human activities. Here we offer an impression
of demographic developments in India and China – and another one for
Indonesia.

Deforestation is of course the main culprit after direct poaching. Here
especially the case of Borneo and Sumatra seems worrisome, which is
partly driven by the demand for first generation biofuels, but there are
many other driving forces.

Let’s first think of a clever way to not important enormous quantities of
palm oil, shall we? After that we should definitely not forget to take a
proper look at these weird rainforest droughts – because forest species
don’t like savanna.

© Rolf Schuttenhelm | www.bitsofscience.org