Extinction of White Rhinos and the Effective Measures to Save Them

Ecology
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Extinction of White Rhinos
On June 19th, 2018, the last white male rhino was euthanized in Ol Pejeta Conservancy aged 45. His health had deteriorated drastically in the last few months, and he was unable to walk and suffering from a string of infections due to his advanced age. The veterinary team harvested his sperms and put him to sleep. By the time of his birth 45 years ago, Sudan’s (Name of the last white rhino) species numbered in thousands and roamed wildly in South Sudan, Congo, the Central African Republic CITATION Max18 \l 1033 (Bearak, 2018). Sudan was saved by a team of conservationists from the Czech Republic who believed that the survival of the species depended on extraction from their natural habitat which was marred by unsustainable human activities. Today, only two white female rhinos remain, and the hope to preserve the Ceratotherium simum cottoni species depends on in-vitro fertilization technology using preserved sperms from Sudan. This ecological crisis has culminated from unsustainable human activity such as wars and exploitation of natural resources such in the natural habitat for these species and poaching that has continually threatened rhino population throughout the world in the last few decades.
White rhinos roamed wildly in the present day South Sudan Congo, the Central African Republic and they numbered in thousands in the early 1970s. The Ceratotherium simum cottoni species population dwindled because of their prized horns especially in the middle and far east. Rhino horns fetch up to $100 000 a kilo in Vietnam, and in some places, it can fetch over $300 000 per horn CITATION Gwy13 \l 1033 (Guilford, 2013). Typically, it is used for medicinal purposes or as a decorative component of daggers. Though the prize of their horns has reduced significantly, rhinos’ population has been decimated to around 30 000 worldwide from 5 subspecies. The death of the last male, white rhino shows the brutality and ignorance of our species if an individual can kill an animal to harvest just one of its organs which barely weighs 3 kgs and in the process terminate the life of another sentient being weighing over 2300 kgs. It is the height of ignorance to deny future generations the opportunity to see this largely diverse ecosystem because of the unfounded belief that their organs are a critical component of traditional medicine or just for ornamental purposes.
Humans have also scrambled to exploit natural resources many of them in the natural habitats where some animals live. The white rhino roamed the Sudan wild barely decades ago but since the discovery of oil fields within the area, animal conflicts intensified, and many were killed. Their habitat was further degraded by human activities as they exploited fossil fuels. White rhinos were forced to move further south to present day Uganda and Congo. The new habitat was never conducive to their reproduction, and they were still threatened by poachers. The region has also experienced political instability, and for the decades it has been warring, the rhinos were also victims which led to the brink of their extinction. Politics have also played a role in failing to protect the last remaining rhinos...