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Pastimes : The New Qualcomm - write what you like thread. -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Maurice Winn who wrote (1338)	1/4/2000 11:25:00 AM
From: T L Comiskey	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 12236

White Rhino Lives On Rebounds From Brink of Extinction SEE Following Post.....!! M O T S E T S E G A M E R E S E R V E, South Africa, Jan. 3 ? Africa?s southern white rhinoceros is one of the 20th century?s great comeback kids. At the end of the 19th century, the world?s second-largest land mammal was perched precariously on the brink of extinction. In the 1920s there were between just 50 and 100 in southern Africa, virtually all in the Umfolozi Game Reserve in South Africa?s present-day KwaZulu-Natal province. Now, thanks to South Africa?s intense conservation efforts, there are well over 8,000 southern white rhinos and the prospects for survival well into the 21st century look good. Efforts Started Small ?The southern white rhino is one of the most phenomenal conservation success stories in all of Africa, if not the world,? conservationist and author Clive Walker told Reuters. The rise in numbers is startling given their size?male white rhinos can reach 4,850 pounds?and the fact that the gestation period is 16 to 17 months. As Europeans moved into the interior from the Cape in the 17th to 19th centuries, they found rhino to be an easy supply of meat. Some were hunted for trophies in the 19th century while the process of settlement encroached on their habitat. Alarmed at the situation, conservationists made a concerted effort in the early 20th century to save the animal at the neighboring Umfolozi and Hluhluwe parks, which had been declared game reserves in 1897. ?Protection afforded by enlightened individuals is what saved the animal,? said Walker. Umfolozi and Hluhluwe became the animals? premier breeding ground and virtually every southern white rhino in the world today is descended from those reserves. In the 1960s rhinos began to be captured and transferred from the reserves to other parts of Africa as well as zoos around the world. From Cattle to Game Rhino numbers, and those of other large wild southern African mammals, have also been boosted in recent years as cattle farmers have turned ranges over to game, bringing wild animals back to areas where they had not been seen in decades. At the picturesque Motsetse Game Reserve?formerly a cattle farm?two newly introduced bull rhinos sniff around the perimeter of the fence of their new home. From the top of a hill, one can see the rhinos in one direction and off in the distance the downtown Johannesburg skyline in the other. ?We have three bulls now and a female and a calf coming soon,? Motsetse?s warden Neville Hawkey said proudly. The huge Pilanesburg Game Reserve, one of the best breeding grounds for white rhino, was also farmland two decades ago. ?Cattle farming is becoming less viable and so many farmers are finding it more popular to go into game and tourism,? Walker said. Conservationists say ecotourism in its turn creates more jobs than agriculture and gives local communities a vested interest in protecting endangered animals like rhinos. But the 15 to 20 northern white rhino in Garamba National Park in the Democratic Republic of the Congo look doomed to extinction as that country?s brutal civil war lurches on. And the smaller black rhino also has been less fortunate. Despite their names, both types of rhino are gray with two horns. The larger white rhino has a wide mouth and is a grazer; the black rhino has a hooked lip and browses on leaves. The black rhino, which was mostly found in Kenya and Tanzania as well as Uganda, saw its numbers plunge from an estimated 65,000 in 1970 to around 2,000 in the mid-1990s as the animal was ruthlessly poached for its horns. Horn Used to Treat Fever ?It is a myth that rhino horn is used in southeast Asia as an aphrodisiac. It used to treat fever,? Walker said. It is also used for dagger handles in Yemen, where about 154,000 pounds have been imported in the lhe past 30 years. A 1997 survey found that only 192 white rhino and 427 black rhino remained in the world outside southern Africa. Mozambique has the dubious distinction of being the only country where the white rhino has become extinct twice in one century. After being wiped out decades ago, the rhino was reintroduced from South Africa in the 1960s and ?70s but fell victim to the rampant poaching that accompanied Mozambique?s ferocious 16-year civil war. Asia?s rhinos are under even greater threat. According to the World Wide Fund for Nature, the great one-horned rhino, found mainly in India, numbers only around 2,000. The Sumatra rhino, found in Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia, numbers between 100 and 300, while only 75 Java rhinos are known to survive in Vietnam and Indonesia. Walker said it was possible ?that Asia has a stockpile of rhino horn and, when that gets low, Asian merchants involved in the trade may cast their glance at Africa?s rhino population again.? Trade in rhino horn is banned but limited trophy hunting?at about $40,000 a head?is allowed in South Africa. Walker says the example of the white rhino?s comeback holds out hope for the black rhino and as Asia?s struggling rhino populations.

To: Maurice Winn who wrote (1338)	1/4/2000 1:39:00 PM
From: T L Comiskey	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 12236

Mq 01/04/2000, EST Asteroid Task Force to Assess Risks From Space LONDON (Reuters) - Britain turned its gaze from domestic worries towards the distant corners of the galaxy on Tuesday, launching a task force to assess the risk of asteroids hitting planet Earth. Prime Minister Tony Blair's government unveiled a panel of three wise men to examine the threat of collision with what it called Near Earth Objects (NEOs). ``The risk of an asteroid or comet causing substantial damage is extremely remote,' Science Minister Lord Sainsbury said. ``This is not something that people should lie awake at night worrying about.' ``But we cannot ignore the risk, however remote, and a case can be made for monitoring the situation on an international basis,' he said. Sainsbury said the panel of two scientists and a former diplomat would assess the nature of the hazards posed by asteroids and the potential levels of risk. It would also consider how the United Kingdom should best contribute to international efforts to deal with NEOs. The government said none of the NEOs already identified posed a threat to the earth in the foreseeable future. But on a wider time scale of millions of years asteroids had caused serious damage to the planet. ``Last year an object passed between the moon and Earth which, if it had hit us, would have done a lot of damage,' said panel member Sir Crispin Tickell, Britain's former ambassador to the United Nations.