North Australian FISH FINDER forums

There is a news story today about the death of the last male white rhino ... https://www.theguardian.com/environment ... ion-crisis

It leaves two surviving females (and some sperm, one assumes from the story), but the future of the species is obvious with such a limited gene pool.

What wasn't reported is the other rhino species that are already extinct.

LONG GONE: Woolly rhinoceros.
GONE: Vietnamese Javan rhinoceros - Went extinct around 2010.
GONE: Northern Sumatran rhinoceros - Extinction date unknown.
GONE: Southern black rhinoceros – Extinct from excessive hunting and habitat destruction around 1850.
GONE: North-eastern black rhinoceros – Disappeared in the early 20th century.
GONE: Chobe black rhinoceros – Possibly a single surviving specimen in Botswana.
GONE: Western black rhinoceros – Extinct. In 2006 a survey failed to find any.
ALMOST GONE: Uganda black rhinoceros – Extinct across most of its former area. Probably surviving in Kenyan reserves.
ALMOST GONE: South-western black rhinoceros – Restricted to wildlife reserves in Namibia, with sporadic sightings in Angola.
A FEW LEFT: Eastern black rhinoceros – Lived in Sudan, Uganda, Ethiopia, Kenya and into north-central Tanzania. Today, is limited to Kenya and Tanzania.
A FEW LEFT: South-central black rhinoceros – Most widely distributed subspecies. Preserved in reserves but extinct in other areas. Reintroduced in Malawi, Botswana, and Zambia.

The losses are a result of the anthropocene era of mass extinctions that scientists started describing decades ago.

And it's not just an African/Asian problem, Australia has its own list of animals lost since 1788 ... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_e ... _Australia

The world list here makes it clear how far the planet has declined ... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_extinct_animals

Interestingly, unicorns did once exist ... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elasmotherium

Tack on fast climate change, pollution and further habitat destruction and the future is obvious, the list will get longer. What species next?

Hard to understand how "green" came to be a dirty word in politics!

Hard to understand how "green" came to be considered a dirty word in politics!

Same as climate change, I guess.

People genuinely concerned about the subject have had the topic hijacked by alarmists and straightout activists who want to push their views down everybody else's throat.

Who wouldn't be concerned about the number of species either gone already or endangered?

I am.

The earth was populated by animals and along came mankind who saw them as a resource to be used. In addition, they (the bigger ones) were seen of more recent times as competition for dwindling ecological space.

There's nothing wrong with ecologically based concerns. Nothing at all.

The green movement used to be a collection of people with concerns about ecological topics and some dabbled in politics.

Now, the green movement IS politics and some of the participants happen to care about ecology.

I listen to the senate on FM radio a bit. DiNatale isn't interested in mainstream green issues. They're is just a means to a political end.

Keep plugging away, Matt.

Vast drop in European and British bird numbers ... https://www.theguardian.com/environment ... opulations

So true ronje
I've got mates who poop bag me calling me a greenie, like it’s a bad thing. I remind them just how many things would be no longer if true greenies didn’t take some action.
‘who cares if they build a dam across a river?’, we need water they say
I shake my head when I look around at the water we waste just trying to keep lawns growing.
Many people have never run of of water – like the saying goes ‘you never miss your water until the well runs dry’
It will be interesting to see if those in Cape Town will change their ways when the rains return
I went to Canada last year to see bears and the polar bear numbers are dropping at an amazing rate in Canada. They are going strong in Alaska
I know a lot of people who think that extension is a normal thing for the world, but they don’t realise that its us causing the problem
A couple of people think that its actually funny that animals are being wiped out and ‘that’s what zoos are for’


Remember that Oz has wiped out more species than any other place

Well said Nomad and ronje!

People genuinely concerned about the subject have had the topic hijacked by alarmists and straightout activists who want to push their views down everybody else's throat.

Who wouldn't be concerned about the number of species either gone already or endangered?

A great many people just don't give a sh.t Ron, it wouldn't matter who is running the Green side of politics.

The demise of the freckled warbler is meaningless, but jobs are meaningful.

Hence we have a perfect storm upon nature.

Scientists are saying that in the past 20 years the decline has sped up, partly because of neonicotinoids.

Even if you do give a poop, whaddya do? Only people in the top tier, like Trump, can make a difference, and he is not interested.