In chapter 11, Kolbert travels to the Cincinnati Zoo to meet Suci, an enormous Sumatran rhinoceros. At the zoo, she meets Dr. Terri Roth, a conservation director of the zoo. She tells Kolbert that Suci is one of only five rhino species left on the planet. Sumatran rhinos used to live in the Himalayas, as well as on Sumatra and Borneo. But, several rhinos were captured in Borneo and died from tetanus and other injuries. Later, zookeepers realized that rhinos couldn’t eat dry hay—they needed fresh leaves to survive.
In addition, after many false beginnings, Emi birthed Suci and a male named Harapan. They seem to be the only Sumatran rhinos born anywhere in the last thirty years. Other large mammals, such as elephants, jaguars, pandas, and cheetahs, now exist mostly or entirely in zoos and are preserved there. At these places, scientists are trying to get them to bear offspring. When Kolbert is faced to faced with Suci, she is struck by the animal’s awesome, “humungous” size.
In the 19th century, fossil-hunters discovered some of the world’s most famous fossils. There are a few good reasons to believe that humans were responsible for the mass extinction of large mammals. First, it’s likely that the extinction of large mammals took place in “pulses”, not as one continuous event. Second, large mammals had survived numerous droughts and other environmental catastrophes before the arrival of human beings.
In conclusion, today, most of the large mammals of the ancient world have died out, and smaller mammals like the rhinoceros are on the verge of extinction.
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