Goodbye, northern white rhinos; hello, Nosey’s Law

                                     Sudan                                        Nova pic 

This is, or rather, this was Sudan, a male northern white rhinoceros, who died on March 22.  At 45 years of age, Sudan was the last male white rhino alive.  He is survived by Najin, his daughter, and Fatu, his granddaughter.

Wild to begin with, Sudan died in captivity at the Ol Pejeta Conservancy in Kenya.  His rare and endangered status required him to live there for 24/7 protection from poachers, the infamous killers-for-profit of elephants and rhinos for their tusks or horns.

“Rhinoceros”: It’s a funny word that can be hard to spell, referring to a most unusual-looking, even prehistoric-seeming animal.  Once there were more than 30 species of rhino, today’s remaining five (in Africa and Asia) are all endangered.   

After the elephant, the white rhinoceros is the second largest land mammal in the world.  Of the two subspecies, northern and southern, the southern is larger, sometimes weighing over two tons and standing six feet tall.  In spite of their name, both black and white rhinos have gray skin.

False ideas about the medicinal value of their two horns -- made of keratin, like fingernail material -- attract poachers.  Together with war and habitat loss, they have accounted for the extinction of northern white rhinos in the wild.  In 1960 there were some 2,000 of them in east and central African grasslands; by 2008, there were none.  All that remained were zoo animals, including Sudan, captured in 1975.  

  

The Last Three

Around the time Sudan died, an imposing 17-foot tall sculpture was unveiled in NYC.  “The Last Three” represents Sudan and his family, the last surviving northern white rhinos.  In 2017, the sculpture team of Gillie and Marc had vowed to create a work in homage to the white rhinos they had seen at Ol Pejeta Conservancy, in Kenya.  It was installed at Astor Place in the East Village in mid-March this year, and just a few days later, Sudan died.  

And now there are two.  

https://gillieandmarc.com/shop/projects/goodbye-rhinos/ 

Symbolic rhinos

Decades ago, before their status became endangered, rhinos were ostensibly the subject of a Broadway play, Rhinoceros, starring Zero Mostel.  And what a play: timely then; timely now for sure.  

One by one, characters in the show turn into rhinoceroses. On stage, while their appearance stays the same, they become part of a conformist mass movement marked by “mob-think.”

One “Everyman” character looks on with horror as those around him turn into monsters. Although he begins to question himself, he ultimately decides to fight “rhinoceritis,” crying “I’m not capitulating!”

This 1959 “absurdist” play by Eugene Ionesco doesn’t seem at all absurd today, does it?

Here’s hoping for Nosey’s Law

Monday at noon, NJ Assembly members will vote on "Nosey's Law" (A1923), the bill that prevents circuses and traveling shows from using exotic species in this state.  Countless advocates and animal protection organizations hope for a decisive “YES” vote. Named for the African elephant who was abused for decades, Nosey was finally seized by authorities in Alabama and sent to the Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee. There, despite fragile  health, she’s finally living in peace with other African elephants, free from exploitation.  (For Nosey's sad life history, visit http://savenoseynow.org/ )

The bill’s name may sound familiar because both the NJ Senate and Assembly passed it during the last legislative session, but Governor Chris Christie pocket-vetoed it.  Then in June ’18, the Senate voted unanimously for  S1093.  Assuming the Assembly passes the bill, it will land on Governor Phil Murphy’s desk for -- we hope -- signing into law: a boon for elephants, tigers, lions, bears, and other animals forced to perform in traveling circuses.

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