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Lakewood Times

    Najin And Fatuwill: The Last Two Northern White Rhinos

    Armed+troops+standing+guard+to+protect+the+last+two+Northern+White+Rhinos.+
    The Times
    Armed troops standing guard to protect the last two Northern White Rhinos.

    Ever since the idea that ground-up rhino horn can be ingested as a cure to erectile dysfunction, the rhino populations have been steadily in decline. Poachers seek out and kill around three rhinos every day to turn their horns into collectible black market jewelry and medicine to cure an issue that can already be treated with Viagra.

    Due to this unstoppable fad of poaching, the Northern White Rhino species is two females away from extinction. Scientists have taken the reproductive necessities from past female and male rhinos in order to take on the process of artificial insemination, but they have been unsuccessful thus far. The remaining female Northern White Rhinos, who are descendants of the Northern White Rhino male, Sudan, who recently passed away, are mother and daughter.

    The mother, Najin, and her daughter, Fatuwill are victims of functional extinction, which means that they can no longer play a part in their ecosystem because there are not enough of them left, and they are unable to reproduce to continue their species.  Najin and Fatuwill’s eggs have been frozen, so the scientists can attempt to create a new generation of Nothern White Rhino’s with the sperm they have collected from Sudan in a Jurassic Park-like scenario.

    The unfortunate ineffectiveness of social and political attempts to end poaching have forced us to watch as the Nothern White Rhino population goes extinct, but hopefully, the pain we endure as we bask in the journey of the end of a species will allow us to realize that drastic measure need to be taken to save this earth we so wrongfully wrecked.

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