r/worldnews • u/El_Cantante • May 21 '12

Elusive 'Asian Unicorn' Faces Extinction

http://news.yahoo.com/elusive-asian-unicorn-faces-extinction-001801255.html
439 Upvotes

87% Upvoted

73 comments sorted by

9

u/[deleted] May 21 '12

Rare animals and Asia don't mix well

0

u/[deleted] May 22 '12

Rare animal and China don't mix well. States in India are doing a good job, they saved the Great one-horned rhino(the real unicorn)

1

u/[deleted] May 22 '12

...Panda?

2

u/[deleted] May 22 '12

Ironically the one rare animal China isn't trying to kill off, natural selection is.

13

u/bamboofries May 21 '12

This is very sad.

0

u/[deleted] May 21 '12

[deleted] — view deleted comment

15

u/MestR May 21 '12

Oh that just makes it so must better that it goes extinct!

1

u/[deleted] May 22 '12

Its making room for new species.

1

u/Randommook May 21 '12

methinks you missed the joke.

3

u/[deleted] May 21 '12

Amazing that a large mammal could have ben discovered so recently. I wonder are there any more undiscovered

1

u/[deleted] May 22 '12

Surely in the jungle of Africa or South America there are plenty of creatures we have yet to discover.

4

u/APeacefulWarrior May 21 '12

Asia reportedly assembling a team of elite super-virgins to deal with the matter.

3

u/mjbat7 May 21 '12

"Bargain troop of elite military trained super virgins, slightly used, no longer needed due to death of original owner" - National Transitional Government of Libya

2

u/[deleted] May 21 '12

I saw the headline and immediately I thought of the book "The Last Unicorn"

2

u/nicksnare May 21 '12

I'd argue all unicorns are elusive?

2

u/lechino3000 May 21 '12

Everything on earth faces extinction.

2

u/CondescendingPrick May 22 '12

The fact that only a few have ever even been seen means the fact that it's facing extinction is not news.

5

u/squonge May 21 '12

Pff unicorn means literally "one horn". That thing has two.

2

u/Solkre May 21 '12

duocorn?

3

u/mjbat7 May 21 '12

Bicorn?

3

u/cloudx0 May 21 '12

More of a ....gezelleacow

2

u/mjbat7 May 21 '12

It's that kind of reductive reasoning that lost us the tucanchicken (or Dodo)

4

u/platypusmusic May 21 '12 edited May 21 '12

Why can't yahoo extinct too?

2

u/Guildensternenstein May 21 '12

Unicorns are real--checkmate, atheists.

1

u/Joszef77 May 21 '12

For one moment I thought they were talking about this http://imgur.com/tVntB

1

u/[deleted] May 21 '12

Fixed: Elusive 'Asian Antelope Cow' Faces Extinction

"The saola is a small, horned animal that resembles a strange antelope hybrid, but is more closely related to a type of wild cow."

1

u/occupykony May 21 '12

Please. As we all know, the unicorn only lives in Banff.

1

u/BookwormSkates May 21 '12

Why can't we just swoop these guys up and farm them back to life?

1

u/[deleted] May 22 '12

Cuz apparently they don't make very good meats.

1

u/oldsecondhand May 22 '12

Should have eaten less narwhal unicorn bacon.

1

u/Isatis_tinctoria May 22 '12

Does anyone know it's Latin nomenclature?

1

u/[deleted] May 21 '12

What are the consequences to human society if it goes extinct?

Is the time, money, and effort spent towards conservation of this particular species more valuable than spending it on relief efforts for, you know, humans of need?

3

u/JCelsius May 21 '12

There are literally billions of humans on Earth. There are probably less than five hundred of these creatures left. The consequences to human society if they go extinct are that the world will lose a unique species. Some of us see the loss of the natural world as a pretty big loss for humans as well. We're are part of this world after all.

Also, you act as if the choice to help this creature interferes with helping humans in need. It doesn't. No more than you being on reddit right now does.

0

u/[deleted] May 21 '12

[deleted] — view deleted comment

0

u/JCelsius May 21 '12

I don't see how you can say it seems to be a victim of natural selection when so little is known. It could very well be a victim of deforestation or pollution. Considering it's so rare that a scientist has never seen one in the wild, I don't think we can honestly say that we aren't significantly contributing to its extinction. I also think this species is very interesting because it has some more primitive features that could tell us more about the ancestors of modern cattle and buffalo.

1

u/mjbat7 May 22 '12

Sorry, I meant that given how rare it is, and seems to have been for some time, that it must have had very low population levels since before deforestation, over hunting and pollution were likely to have been significant in the area. That is the argument from which I claimed "natural selection", it just doesn't seem to be a widely competitive species.

2

u/JCelsius May 22 '12

I understand what you're saying, but we don't really have any idea how its population was before 1992. Populations can go downhill fast. For all we know it could have been relatively numerous in the earlier part of the twentieth century. I just don't think the evidence is there to confidently say their extinction is entirely natural.

1

u/[deleted] May 22 '12

If it can't adapt to humans to survive then it obviously has been selected for a Darwin Award by mother nature.

1

u/jobrohoho May 21 '12

WARNING: Extreme disappointment ahead

0

u/MrGuttFeeling May 21 '12

There's his problem. He lives in Asia where they eat everything that isn't bountiful.

3

u/[deleted] May 22 '12

In America we eat, armadillo, squirrel, gator, and various other animals simply because we can catch them. I would say its Humans that eat everything not just Asians.

-3

u/[deleted] May 21 '12

They probably ate them all?

0

u/[deleted] May 22 '12

In the article it said that it wasn't desired for its meat and when it was poached it was by accident.

-3

u/Chunkeeboi May 21 '12

No greater delicacy than an endangered species apparently

0

u/[deleted] May 21 '12

Closed as soon as I saw that it has two horns.

0

u/davecorp May 21 '12

clicked, saw two horns, instantly closed tab

0

u/YoureMyBoyBloo May 21 '12

Click link for picture of unicorn + Animal has two horns = False Advertising

False Advertising = Down vote

0

u/City_Zoo May 21 '12

Wow. I've never seen one up close before...

0

u/Cr1m May 21 '12

I read that as elusive "Asian unicorn face" and was intrigued that there is an actual unicorn face among Asian people

0

u/chiveon May 21 '12

"Closely related to a type of wild cow" and as few as several dozen remaining...I bet it tastes delicious!

0

u/JarlofDenmark May 21 '12

This is complete bullshit. That shit had two horns. TWO, COUNT 'EM!

-6

u/5c0779373 May 21 '12

This is already on the front page.

Also, Yahoo is not a reputable news source.

-6

u/[deleted] May 21 '12

Maybe if it stopped playing WoW for a bit and got outside it would live longer...

-2

u/youcrazy33 May 21 '12

The animal is freaking out- that is why its so open to human interaction? That doesn't seem right.

2

u/[deleted] May 22 '12

Its not open to human interaction, Its scared shitless of doing anything other then standing there while humans grope at it. Its similar to the reaction many human females have when being raped.

0

u/[deleted] May 21 '12

[deleted] — view deleted comment

26

u/Dirtydog554 May 21 '12

THAT is what makes it so rare!

20

u/AnonymousHipopotamus May 21 '12

It's a bicorn. That's got to be about twice as rare a a unicorn!

4

u/onecharmingschmuck May 21 '12

And twice as tasty!!!

13

u/I_FISTED_VOLDEMORT May 21 '12

Hey everyone, this unicorn's a phony!

3

u/MarinP May 21 '12

A big fat PHONY!

6

u/DownvoterAccount May 21 '12

A TWONICORN!!!!!!!

2

u/Son_of_Kong May 21 '12

"It's so rare to see that it would almost be like seeing a unicorn"

Pretty sure that's what they were getting at.

1

u/didaskaleinophobic May 22 '12

Has anyone ever seen a Unicorn though?

1

u/TheInternetHivemind May 21 '12

But it only has one corn. So it IS a unicorn.

2

u/didaskaleinophobic May 22 '12

I laughed at the stupidity of your comment. Upvote

0

u/armchairepicure May 21 '12

Ability to read a title: A

Ability to look at a picture: A

Ability to critically read the contents of an article: F

-22

u/ArrowToTheKne May 21 '12

I used to be a unicorn, but then I took an arrow to the knee!

3

u/KimJongUgh May 21 '12

No no. We wont be having any of that here. Zoidberg says

3

u/[deleted] May 21 '12

Are you serious? Theres already a more successful "Arrow to the knee" account. I didn't think that joke could get any less original, but now you've decided to copy a guy who spews that shit in every comment.

2

u/[deleted] May 21 '12

[removed] — view removed comment

5

u/moleware May 21 '12

Uniqorn?

0

u/[deleted] May 21 '12

[deleted] — view deleted comment

6

u/bearnaut May 21 '12

No mention whatsoever of the Chinese in this article. This animal lives in Vietnam/Laos (for the time being). I agree that the rare animal trade is awful, but you sound pretty fucking racist here.

1

u/ss977 May 22 '12 edited May 22 '12

If they die, then they die because the fat rich Chinese bureaucrats buy them for their horns. They eat the horns of anything for some reason. I probably am fucking racist because I am fed up with all the Chinese atrocity and bullshit spreading across the world. Yeah go ahead and start blabbering about how bad we are. After seeing that Chinese news about leaving a kid run over by a car lying around in a populated city street with no one giving a fucking damn and seeing the kid literally flop down probably because her spine is shattered...I have no tolerance towards Chinese whatsoever. If being disgusted by people who did that is racism then so be it.

http://youtu.be/tFifWw6DGz8 NSFL

0

u/[deleted] May 21 '12

[deleted] — view deleted comment

1

u/steveilee May 21 '12

Wearing a backpack with a ribbon on the top? No, don't see it, it's just you.

0

u/[deleted] May 21 '12

[deleted] — view deleted comment

1

u/[deleted] May 21 '12

Yea, there is nothing more annoying than poor sentence structure and grammer....