The road to extinction


Good intentions and half arsed interventions usually end in disaster. In the 1980s the World Wildlife Fund tried to protect rhino populations by suggesting the antlers from the Saiga antelope be used to replace rhino horn in Chinese medicine. All well and good, except they didn’t think of the demand increasing to fit the supply. Most of the male antelopes were killed, leading to a disastrous fertility crash and the possibility of extinction. Full story here