A species on the brink of extinction

[IceWizard]

Http://washingtonpost.com/sf/world/2015/...erly-male/

In just a few decades, a large
population of northern white males has
been reduced to a single 3,500-pound
bull living in a 10-acre enclosure with
round-the-clock guards. There are also
four females left: two in Kenya, and one each in the United States and the
Czech Republic. But none of them are
fertile, meaning the population is on
the verge of extinction.

[atomheartmother]

That is horrid. Any indications why? I know all the usual suspects but what has been established so far as the leading theory?

[IceWizard]

Real bad conservation efforts and extreme poaching ...

Rhino horn is now sold for $65,000 per
kilogram in Southeast Asia, up from
$300 in the 1990s. That’s around
$30,000 a pound — making it a prize
for poachers in Kenya, where the
average yearly income is less than $3,000. Even the three northern
whites at Ol Pejeta are under threat.

[atomheartmother]

What a shame. I hope this does not lead to extinction.

Save the whales!

[Allegory]

Extinction is no worse a fate than the artificial continuance of a species due to captive breeding and rebuilding a species from a cut-down gene pool.

Let the lost causes fade away, and use that funding/awareness to preserve something with a viable chance.

It'll never happen, because it's too hard to misappropriate grant money that way.

Perhaps one day...