Agree. Unfortunately the media report major extinctions on page 5. I remember this immense despair overcoming me around 2007 when the Yangtzee river dolphin was declared extinct. It was only in part because of the dolphins extinction (i'd been coming to terms with this for years). The biggest reason was that there was such little fuss about it. Here was an animal right up there on the public charisma list (a dolphin) and in my adult life the first time a large mammal species was declared extinct. When nobody cared I remember thinking "well if the world doesn't give a **** when a dolphin goes extinct, then nothing else much has a chance".
I am am eternally frustrated how (and this was mentioned by yourself earlier) little attention IRF and other conservation organisations speak the facts on the situation regarding sumatrans. Yes they post a lot of pictures of the Ratu and her calves but there is total lack of detail year after year regarding their operations and what they are doing. To me this is totally counter productive and makes zero sense. There is no need for secrecy. If I was on the board of the IRF (or any other NGO working with the rhinos) I would be making press releases monthly about their attempts to breed the species at the sanctuary, about long term plans, about the animals in the wild... everything. Give us micro updates. How is it the Northern white rhino gets more news that the Sumatrans? Because they talk about it. I would be doing everything possible to make people around the world realise there is such a thing as a sumatran rhino and how perilous the situation is. Because people the public don't care about something they don't know exists or are told they should care about. And Indonesia isn't going to feel any shame unless we make the Sumatran rhino the next giant panda.
Lastly, just on a personal note: Sponsor a Sumatran rhino! Trust me, it's helps with the despair late at night and they give you a nice photo to stick on your fridge. We have Rosa.
Actually , I am glad you mentioned the baiji as it often crosses my mind in terms of the situation facing the Sumatran rhino and I agree with you , what a tragedy that it went extinct. I also remember reading a brief article at the time about the species being declared extinct and feeling mystified and unnerved that more had not been done to mitigate this. I later read the book about the species by Samuel Turvey too and felt an even stronger sense of nausea about the whole thing.
On the one hand the situation of the rhino is made more complex by the fact that it is now two Nation states that must act decisively to conserve the species whereas the baiji was contingent on a single Centralized communist authority ( but also regional party comitees etc.). But sadly the parallel is that in both situations there was and is a long bureaucratic chain which stymies and impedes progress combined with a historic lack of interest and political will to save the species.
In regards to the media bias towards covering the plight of the African rhinos , I just do not understand it whatsoever, and frankly I've always thought that the whole African bias present in conservation is totally absurd. For example , there has been a ridiculous amount of articles , news reports and documentaries about the demise of the Northern White rhino which are merely a subspecies. Then all the advertisements , campaigns , and endless talk of the rhino horn crisis of black and white rhinos in Africa and all that macho footage of special forces , ex marines and "black mamba" rangers running around with guns like some kind of cringeworthy bad and cheesy B movie.
** Sorry to anyone offended , I dont mean to denigrate efforts to conserve rhinos in Africa. But a while back when I had a facebook page and had subscribed to a number of conservation sites that is all I would see in terms of conservation news , tattooed babes who looked like Suicide girl models and tough guy ex marines decked out in fatigues and waving guns around and stating that it was their gung-ho mission to "save the rhino"**
I couldn't help but think WTF "is this even conservation?" because it all seemed to be about THEM and their embarking on some kind of glamorous ego trip in Africa , just looking at themselves in the mirror. Meanwhile there is a quietly desperate situation of another rhino species just fading out that was an equally noble cause on the other side of the world , undereported , underfunded and underappreciated.
To be honest , throughout it all my thoughts have continually returned to the Sumatran and Javan rhinos and a recurring thought of mine has been "why on earth is no one talking about what is going on with rhinos in Asia?". The Sumatran is the only extant species of an entire genus which will vanish from the earth once it is gone. To me , there is no question as to which is the greater tragedy yet how many people out there even know that the Sumatran rhino exists ?
