ニューヨーク・タイムズさんのインスタグラム写真 - (ニューヨーク・タイムズInstagram)「These are the last two northern white rhinos on earth. When the last male of the species, Sudan, died in 2018, his daughter and granddaughter, Najin and Fatu, became the only two of their kind left. They now live out their days in a strange existential twilight — a state of limbo that scientists call, with heartbreaking dryness, “functional extinction.” Their subspecies is no longer viable. Two females, all by themselves, would not be able to save it. In May 2019, just over a year after the death of Sudan, a global celebrity and conservation icon, the United Nations issued an apocalyptic report about mass extinction. One million plant and animal species, it warned, were at risk of annihilation. The evolutionary story of the rhinoceros stretches back roughly 55 million years, and they flourished across Asia and North America, Africa and Europe. Humans put an end to that with hunting. Their large size made rhinos easy targets. Horns were coveted around the world for all kinds of reasons: as trophies, as tools reputed to detect poison and ease childbirth, as the raw material for decorative dagger handles, as a medicinal ingredient. And alongside the acute violence of hunting, there is the chronic violence of habitat loss that affects all species. In the face of all this gloom, and against very steep odds, there is still a last-ditch effort to save the northern white rhino. “It’s delicate,” James Mwenda, a rhino caretaker said. “It’s demanding. It’s difficult for the animals. Maybe it’s not always succeeding. Anything we are leaving room for. But it’s the only way out. We have to try.” Tap the link in our bio to read more from @nytmag about the last two white rhinos in the world. Photos by @jackdavisonphoto」1月11日 0時00分