On the Horns of a Dilemma: Let the Northern White Rhino Vanish or Intervene?

ABSTRACT

Two females, Nadine and Fatu, are the sole surviving Northern White Rhinos (NWR). The subspecies is functionally extinct. Hope for NWR now lies in emerging reproductive and genetic technologies, which could potentially produce NWR from induced pluripotent stem cells. What is the rationale for this project? This question raises almost every philosophical issue facing conservation science today. I argue that NWR recovery is hard to justify via many traditional paths (e.g., historical fidelity, ecosystem health, biodiversity), but if we shift focus to white rhinos in general or even mammals then clear benefits emerge.

KEYWORDS:

• rhino
• conservation
• biodiversity
• historical fidelity
• de-extinction

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. Department of Philosophy and Institute for Practical Ethics, UC San Diego

2. For example: ‘Relying on history to justify the proposed end state of a restoration project is problematic because of climate change, knowledge gaps, and the fact that ecosystems are dynamic and have no single historical state’ (Rohwer & Marris, 2016). See also (Sandler, 2012)’s discussion of natural historical value in section 2.4.1.

3. My point is not far from Ogada’s, quoted in the introduction. I am not claiming that the functional extinction of NWR is a hoax. But I am saying that although SWR and NWR may or may not be different species, they are so similar that they don’t differ (much) in what we value about white rhinos.

4. For this reason I think we should heed with urgency the 1992 Convention on Biological Diversity’s recommendation that we freeze more animal tissue. It would be tragic if we develop the ability to save endangered mammal populations but lack the tissue diversity necessary to do so effectively.

5. Thanks to students in both graduate and undergraduate philosophy seminars at UC San Diego and to members of a lunchtime talk at the Institute for Practical Ethics for discussion. For written comments, I thank Jonathan Cohen, Yasha Rohwer, Ronald Sandler, Elliott Sober, Eric Winsberg, and two anonymous referees. These discussions and comments were all amazingly helpful.