What is it like to look at the very last of something？ To contemplate the passing of a unique wonder that will soon vanish from the face of the earth？ You are seeing it. Sudan is the last male northern white rhino on the planet. If he does not mate successfully soon with one of two female northern white rhinos at Ol Pejeta conservancy， there will be no more of their kind， male or female， born anywhere. And it seems a slim chance， as Sudan is getting old at 42 and breeding efforts have so far failed. Apart from these three animals there are only two other northern white rhinos in the world， both in zoos， both female.

It seems an image of human tenderness that Sudan is lovingly guarded by armed men who stand 1）vigilantly and caringly with him. But of course it is an image of brutality. Even at this last desperate stage in the fate of the northern white rhino， Sudan is under threat from 2）poachers who kill rhinos and 3）hack off their horns to sell them on the Asian medicine market—despite the fact that he has had his horn cut off to deter them.

Sudan doesn’t know how precious he is. His eye is a sad black dot in his massive wrinkled face as he wanders the reserve with his guards. His head is a marvellous thing. It is a majestic rectangle of strong bone and leathery flesh， a head that expresses pure strength. How terrible that such a mighty head can in reality be so vulnerable. It is lowered 4）melancholically beneath the sinister sky， as if weighed down by fate. This is the noble head of an old warrior， his armour battered， his appetite for struggle fading.

Under his immense looming shoulder， his legs protrude like 5）squat columns from the tough tank of his body. The way his foreleg emerges from his thick coat of skin reminds us how long human beings have been wondering at the natural spectacle that is the rhino. For Sudan does not look so different from the rhinoceros that Albrecht Dürer portrayed in 1515. They have the same little legs stuck out of a majestic body and they even lower their heads in the same contemplative way. Dürer was a Renaissance artist picturing an exotic beast from the exotic lands that Europe was starting to see more and more of. In 1515 a live Indian rhinoceros was sent by the ruler of 6）Gujarat to the king of Portugal： he in turn sent it to the Pope， but it died along the way in a shipwreck.

Human beings—we always kill the things we love.

We have been doing so since the Ice Age. There are beautiful pictures of European woolly rhinos in caves in France， that were painted up to 30，000 years ago. These ancient relatives of Sudan share his heroic 7）bulk， mighty power and paradoxical air of gentleness. A woolly rhino in Chauvet cave seems 8）agile and young， a creature full of life. But the same people who painted such sensitive portraits of ice age rhinos helped to kill them off. As climate turned against the woolly 9）megafauna with the end of the last ice age， human spears probably delivered the 10）coup de grace.

Today， immense love is invested in rhinos， yet they are being slaughtered in ever greater numbers. The northern white rhino is the rarest species of African rhino. There are far greater numbers of southern white rhinos and black rhinos. But the demand in Asian countries such as Vietnam for rhino horn as a traditional medicine believed to cure everything from the flu to cancer is fuelling a boom in poaching. From 2007， when just 13 rhinos were killed by poachers in South Africa， the killings have grown horrifically. Last year 1，215 rhinos were slaughtered for their horns in South Africa. And this year already looks certain to beat that dreadful record.

This is a photograph from the front line of a crisis. The vulnerable northern white rhino has been hunted virtually to extinction—in spite of every precaution， in spite of these guards and their guns—and other varieties of African rhino are under a sustained attack from poachers that is totally out of control. The Javan rhinoceros is also on the verge of extinction. India has successfully protected the Indian rhinoceros after it was almost wiped out by British hunters in colonial times， but here too poaching is a menace. What a majestic creature this picture records， and what 11）futile human destructiveness. Have we learned nothing since the Ice Age？ Can the better angels of our nature not defeat the impulse to kill？

看著世上最后僅存的某樣?xùn)|西是什么感覺？想到某樣獨(dú)一無二的珍寶很快就會(huì)從地球上消失是什么感覺？你正在目睹這樣的事情?！疤K丹”是世上最后一頭雄性北白犀。如果它不能與奧佩杰塔自然保護(hù)區(qū)的兩頭雌性北白犀中的任何一頭交配成功的話，那么世上將不會(huì)再有任何一頭北白犀降生，無論是雄性還是雌性。但是成功的機(jī)率似乎很小，因?yàn)樘K丹已經(jīng)42歲高齡，而此前的交配繁殖都失敗了。除了這三頭北白犀，世界上僅剩下的另外兩頭都在動(dòng)物園里，都是雌性。

這似乎是一個(gè)展現(xiàn)出人類柔情的畫面——手?jǐn)y武器的男子正警惕而充滿關(guān)懷地站在蘇丹旁邊守衛(wèi)著它。然而事實(shí)上，這個(gè)畫面展現(xiàn)出的是人類的殘忍無情。盡管北白犀的命運(yùn)已經(jīng)到了生死存亡的關(guān)頭，蘇丹依然受到來自偷盜者的威脅，他們會(huì)把犀牛殺死，然后把它們的角砍下來賣到亞洲的藥品市場(chǎng)——即便為了阻止他們，蘇丹的角已經(jīng)被砍掉了。

蘇丹并不知道自己有多珍貴。它與其守衛(wèi)在保護(hù)區(qū)里漫步，它的眼睛是它那滿布皺紋的臉上一個(gè)悲傷的小黑點(diǎn)。它的頭看上去奇妙而不可思議，一個(gè)神圣的矩形，由堅(jiān)硬的骨頭以及皮革似的皮肉所組成，是一顆表現(xiàn)出絕對(duì)力量的頭。這樣強(qiáng)大的頭實(shí)際上卻如此容易受到傷害，這是多么可怕的一件事。在無情的天空下，它憂傷地低著頭，仿佛被命運(yùn)壓倒了一般。這是年邁的戰(zhàn)士那高貴的頭顱，他的盔甲破破爛爛的，他的斗志也已消失。

在巨大而下沉的肩膀下，它的四肢像圓短小柱子一樣從那如堅(jiān)缸的身軀下伸出。它的前腿從厚厚的表皮下伸出，這讓我們想到人類對(duì)犀牛這類自然界奇觀物種長(zhǎng)久的驚嘆。因?yàn)樘K丹的樣子與阿爾布雷特·丟勒在1515年所描繪的犀牛并沒有很大的區(qū)別。它們雄偉的身軀下長(zhǎng)著同樣的小短腿，甚至它們低頭沉思的方式也一模一樣。丟勒是一位文藝復(fù)興時(shí)期的畫家，擅長(zhǎng)描繪異國(guó)大陸的奇珍異獸，從他的畫筆下，歐洲大陸開始看到越來越多的異國(guó)珍獸。1515年，古吉拉特的統(tǒng)治者給葡萄牙的國(guó)王贈(zèng)送了一頭活印度犀，葡萄牙國(guó)王隨后把它轉(zhuǎn)送給教皇，但在運(yùn)送的過程中遇到船難，印度犀死了。

我們?nèi)祟惪偸窃跉缱约合矏鄣臇|西。從冰河時(shí)期起，我們就已開始這么做。法國(guó)的山洞里發(fā)現(xiàn)了描繪歐洲毛犀牛的美麗繪畫，繪畫時(shí)間可追溯到3萬年以前。蘇丹的這些古代親戚同樣有著雄壯的身軀，強(qiáng)大的力量，以及看似矛盾的溫和氣質(zhì)。肖維巖洞里的一頭毛犀?？雌饋砟贻p敏捷，充滿生命力。但同樣地，冰河時(shí)期的人們描繪出如此精妙的圖畫是為了捕殺它們。當(dāng)冰河時(shí)期的最后階段來臨，氣候變得不利于毛犀牛生存之時(shí)，人類的長(zhǎng)矛可能給了它們致命的一擊。

今天，人類對(duì)犀牛傾注了許多愛，但它們卻遭到大量屠殺。北白犀是非洲犀牛中最珍稀的一種，南白犀和黑犀牛的數(shù)量還有不少。但許多亞洲國(guó)家，如越南，對(duì)犀牛角的需求正在刺激偷獵行為的增長(zhǎng)，這些國(guó)家把犀牛角視為能治百病（從流感到癌癥）的傳統(tǒng)藥物。2007年，南非被偷獵者殺害的犀牛僅有13頭，此后，被獵殺的犀牛數(shù)目的增長(zhǎng)達(dá)到了令人恐怖的程度。去年，南非有1215頭犀牛因頭角被覬覦而遭受屠殺?，F(xiàn)在看來，今年肯定會(huì)打破那個(gè)可怕的記錄。

這是一張來自危機(jī)前線的照片。盡管做了所有的預(yù)防措施，盡管有這些守衛(wèi)和他們槍支的保護(hù)，脆弱的北白犀似乎已經(jīng)免不了滅絕的命運(yùn)，而其他種類的非洲犀牛也正在不斷地受到偷獵者的瘋狂攻擊。爪哇犀也同樣面臨著瀕臨滅絕的困境。殖民時(shí)期，英國(guó)獵人幾乎把所有的印度犀殺光了，后來，印度成功地保護(hù)了它們，但現(xiàn)在印度也同樣面臨著偷獵的威脅。這張照片記錄的生物是多么神圣，人類的破壞是多么無益。難道自冰河時(shí)期起，我們就一直沒有長(zhǎng)進(jìn)嗎？我們?nèi)诵灾械纳屏继焓闺y道就無法讓我們克制殺戮的沖動(dòng)嗎？