Sudan, the world's last surviving male northern white rhino, died last night after months of poor health, according to published reports.
Per the BBC: Sudan, who was 45, lived at the Ol Pejeta Conservancy in Kenya. He was put to sleep on Monday after age-related complications worsened significantly.
Sudan is one of the three rhinos currently memorialized on Astor Place. Last Thursday, Australian artists Gillie and Marc Schattner unveiled their 17-foot bronze sculpture "The Last Three."
The Schattners recreated the world's last three northern white rhinos – Sudan, Najin, and Fatu – "to inspire, educate and mobilize the global community to raise their voices and affect real change against illegal rhino poaching trade."
The artists are hoping to collect 1 million messages worldwide to "put them toward a petition for approaching governments about eliminating the demand for rhino horns through education."
The sculpture will remain here through May. You can read more about the project here.
There might still be some hope for this species: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/mar/20/sudan-northern-white-rhino-dead-species-endangered-species-conservationists
I bet all you art critics feel bad now, huh? A few Rhino's for a few months, on display, hurting no one, and you would have thought the world was ending reading some of the comments here.
@8:20 PM This sculpture's placement was not about the rhinos but the city's plans to turn the blocks from Astor Pl up to Union Square into "midtown south". Corporate funded use of this newly renovated (using tax dollars) public space is now a selling platform for anyone with enough cash. Was this the right place for a sculpture about saving the last 3 white rhinos? Is the EV the home of the kind of people with the political or financial resources or at very least celebrity fame to make a difference?
This sadly was a lost cause considering the advanced age and health of the last male rhino. That is why so many of us believe this sculpture is nothing more than an attempt for the artists to bring attention to themselves by taking on a sympathetic yet futile cause.
@scuba diva Yes I read that too but these animals will only exist in a zoo or other controlled location. The bigger problem is what is happening to land these animals (and other species) live on. Unless there is a political and economic answer someday many other species will only exist in sperm samples.
10 comments:
The poor thing... this poorly executed piece of public art probably pushed him over the edge.
There might still be some hope for this species: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/mar/20/sudan-northern-white-rhino-dead-species-endangered-species-conservationists
Crushing news.
Too soon.
I bet all you art critics feel bad now, huh? A few Rhino's for a few months, on display, hurting no one, and you would have thought the world was ending reading some of the comments here.
NOTORIOUS said:
The poor thing... this poorly executed piece of public art probably pushed him over the edge.
That's likely; also, the negative karma from the hypocritical "artists" in their coyote-trimmed Canada Goose jackets probably didn't help.
@8:20 PM
This sculpture's placement was not about the rhinos but the city's plans to turn the blocks from Astor Pl up to Union Square into "midtown south". Corporate funded use of this newly renovated (using tax dollars) public space is now a selling platform for anyone with enough cash. Was this the right place for a sculpture about saving the last 3 white rhinos? Is the EV the home of the kind of people with the political or financial resources or at very least celebrity fame to make a difference?
This sadly was a lost cause considering the advanced age and health of the last male rhino. That is why so many of us believe this sculpture is nothing more than an attempt for the artists to bring attention to themselves by taking on a sympathetic yet futile cause.
'Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds'.
Actually, I have read on at least one site that there is hope for creating another generation of white rhinos via in-vitro fertilization; there exist samples of Sudan's sperm, and it may be possible to impregnate one or the other of the remaining females. Let's hope.
@scuba diva
Yes I read that too but these animals will only exist in a zoo or other controlled location. The bigger problem is what is happening to land these animals (and other species) live on. Unless there is a political and economic answer someday many other species will only exist in sperm samples.
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