The diceros bicornis longipes,or better known as the West African Black rhinoceros or just the Western Black rhinoceros, were a species which lived not long ago. It was black and had 2 horns. It was herbivorous and ate plants,branches,and fruit. They would rather eat food which is better than eat more food which is worse. They were a subspecies of the black rhinoceros,and went extinct with 2 other species,which were the Southern Central Black rhino and the East African Black rhino. It once lived in Southern Africa and its last remaining habitat was in Cameroon where it was last seen 12 years ago in 2006. It was declared extinct in 2011.
Like many animals it may have become extinct due to poaching. Their horns which were used in Yemen and Oman for dagger handles,and in some parts of Asia for medicines,and are believed to contain properties that have anti-cancer. Their horns fetched high prices and as a result poaching became common. In Chinese medicine rhino horns are widely used and are used for lots of medicines. In the 1950s the leader of China told people to use traditional Chinese medicine instead of Western medicine,which increased the demand of rhino horns. The West African Black rhinos were targeted the most and it was clear. Between 1960 and 1995,an astonishing number of 98 percent of black rhinos were killed by poachers. By 1980 there were only 135 western black rhinos left in 2 countries; 25 in Chad and 110 in Cameroon. Farming destroyed many habitats of the West African Black rhinoceros,as farmers and ranchers saw them as pests due to them being such large herbivores. People also destroyed some habitats to build homes,and lots people killed large numbers of them just for entertainment.
People did try to increase the populations of the rhinos therefore to help decrease the risk of them going extinct. In 1999 WWF recommended in a report to move all the remaining surviving West African Black rhinos to Cameroon which would allow people to monitor them and reduce the chances of poachers trying to attack drastically. However this experiment was not attempted as it required mammoth sums of money,and there was a huge probability that it would result in failure. It would have been simply too hard to catch all the West African Black rhinoceros and move them to Cameroon. Also,it would take experts to handle the rhinoceros and not make them try to fight.
The extinction of West African Black rhinos only affected the environment a little but if more species of rhinos go extinct it could be catastrophic and seriously affect the environment. If the entire rhino species went extinct,an entire community could be thrown apart. Though scientists do not know much how rhinos fit in the food chain,they do know that rhinos help maintain grasslands.
However,the West African Black rhinoceros was not the only species to go extinct in 2011. The Javan rhino subspecies in Vietnam was also declared extinct in that same year the Western Black rhinoceros was declared extinct in. The Northern white rhino was down to its last seven non-breeding adults. Other black rhinos have made comebacks. Even though they have larger numbers,than before they are still considered endangered. Some other subspecies of rhinos have better populations but may be in danger because of poaching and not be able to live for a few more years. Only one good thing happened because of their extinction. When they went extinct it brought much needed attention to other related species which hopefully will now live.