Every week I will be posting a new topic titled "Episode Discussion". In this we will discuss an episode, what we liked about it, what we didn't like, etc.


Episode 091 - Black Rhino

MacGyver follows a friend to Africa, and after witnessing the mutilation of a black rhino first hand, joins the activists in rescuing the endangered species from poachers.
(Note:: A $40,000 animatronic rhino was used in this episode.)

Saw this last night in my revisiting the series again (and again, and again). I found the scene with the dying rhino terrible; I remember being deeply impressed the first time I saw it, and I still find it horrible every time I watch it; I have found myself fast-forwarding that part to avoid witnessing the animal's agony.

I thought it was great that the writers of the show made a story about animals on the very edge of extinction. I also liked the way a speechless RDA played this particular scene.

Yeah thats the thing that really stands out for me about that scene, not so much the mechanical Rhino, but MacGyvers reaction after it.

When he talks about it being the most inhuman thing he's ever seen.

But even more memorable was the womens response when he said "for what a couple hundred dollars?"

She replied "thats a whole years wages for them."

I thought that really drove home one of the underlying problems of that situation.

I'm not a fan of the PSA episodes, but htis would probably the best of the bunch I think. (maybe?.. would have to think about it really )

Just watched this episode again tonight and was interested to note RDA's voice over at the end of the episode, saying that if the rhinos were poached at the current rate, they would be extinct by the year 2000 ... I'm pretty sure MacGyver did it, and the black rhino isn't extinct (and it's a few years past 2000!) Yay!

Unfortunately the news actually isn't that good.

Read the full Wikipedia entry (including citation references) here

It's sad news, because they are pretty kewl animals when you see them up close in real life.

didn't like the part where the dying rhino.

I wonder what ever happened to that mechanical Rhino used for that scene?

Do they just pull them apart and re-use the parts in other machines?

Maybe another tv show got a hold of it?

This post has been edited by MacNymph on 21 June 2009 - 08:14 AM

This was a very sad one. It really shows how much of softy RDA is about animals. Too bad we can't stop the jerks that do this to animals.

just watched the episode recently, as im doing all season 5, and its pretty amazing to me at least that it still holds up today emotionally. not only the gruesome rhino scene, but even right after as they drive back to the main house. it comes back from commercial break and the solemn tone really comes through, RDA is brilliant here as he is just in total shock.
if not the best PSA episode, it is definitely one of the rawest, most real scenes they ever did. like when mac lost mike in widowmaker and was in solitude at petes cabin.

unfortunately i looked up rhino populations after watching it and one of the species of black rhino went extinct, while like it was said above, there are only a couple thousand left of other species.
but just another example of how powerful that episode was, to drive you to search online about the rhino.

Could Not watch the rhino part, had to skip it. But rest of the episode was ok. Not a fan of the coltons. Seemed like they worked them in for a big spin off.

I just watched the episode again. Even with one of the most realistic and effective animatronic depictions of an animal I've ever seen and RDA's plea to help save the less than 4,000 of them in 1989, the black rhino has been officially declared extinct in 2011.

What's next? Elephants? Tigers? Whales? Sharks? It's a good case for supporting Sea Shepherd, one of RDA's primary conservation charities. As pointed out in Black Rhino, we make laws to protect endangered species, but then our governments do nothing to enforce them. You may not agree with all of Sea Shepherd's tactics, but at least they are trying to enforce the laws in the Antarctic whale sanctuary before we lose them too.

It's only the sub-species "Western Black Rhinoceros" which is extent. The remainder of the species as a whole is still classified as critically endangered.

In 2008 a survey reported a total of 4240 Black Rhinos. So all hope isn't lost yet.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Rhinoceros

That's good to know. I'm wondering if the MacGyver reference was specifically to this subspecies, however. I'm not sure of the location the story where the story took place. All I remember is Nabo Ranch and the woman in the story said the whole district was called Nabo. I guess a little more research is in order.

I was almost certain I had seen a pretty in depth discussion about where which country this episode was suppose to take place in. But I can't find it at the moment.

I thought there might have been some information about it in our Travel Log but there isn't so I'll try doing a search sometime and see if I can find that discussion.

I do agree. Those 'people' come into Australian waters and kill whales and our government claims they can't do anything. They are in OUR waters illegally, are they not? Unless we give them permission to harpoon those whales.

Funny how the government says we can't do anything about whalers in Australian waters, but as soon as a boatload of aslum seekers enters our waters, they are falling over themselves to do something about it!

I don't agree with the Sea Shepards tactics at times, but at least they are out there and trying to protect those beautiful animals from unnecessary slaughter.

I did some quick research on the areas where the different species of rhino are located in Africa. It looks like the Western Black Rhino was in Camaroon, which is in west central Africa and most of the others are in the South Africa areas. Wikipedia also says the Western Black Rhino was down to about 2,000 in the 90s, so that is probably not the one MacGyver was talking about. I think there was a mention of a South African resort in the episode too, so I'm guessing it took place in that area. In that case, it looks like they did manage to save the black rhinos in that area, so maybe MacGyver did have some positive influence after all. I love that RDA was able to use the show to have a positive influence on a lot of things he believes in.

I've just seen this episode for the first time (on the back of watching Children of Light too, not the most cheerful evening's viewing ever as I remember Tiananmen Square happening...)

Yes, it generated exactly the reaction they were looking for as I'm still a bit shocked now.
The rhino scene was truly horrible, for all they put the on-screen rider up about it not being real. The actors reactions were very, very well done, especially RDA who really did look shocked and sick. It was so powerfully done, in fact, that the rest of the story passed me by and I've probably missed loads of important points in it.
It does throw the plight of endangered species into incredibly sharp relief, and it's tragic to think that this is still where we are some 23 years later.

I didn't enjoy watching it and I won't be watching it again.
But I've still marked it as excellent.

Maybe you might wanna read this article.

http://www.macgyveronline.com/forums/index...?showtopic=7062

Thanks for that MacGyverGod

Looking at the WWF website paints a bleaker picture - although it estimates rhino numbers to be up above 4000 now, all types of black rhino remain endangered or are thought probably extinct.
I really want you to be right, though.

According to the the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species the Black Rhino is Critically Endangered but is very slowly increasing in population with a total of 4,880 in December 2010.

I already figured that twenty thousand was too much as I said in the link. RDA said at the end of Black Rhino there were less than 4000 rhino's left alive in the wild. The magazine said something else. The guy from the programme claims there's 5x more than that.

But I think what Kiwi says is more correct.

This is a solid episode. I've watched the first 3 seasons and a few eps in seasons 4 & 5 now and this is solidly in my top 10 list at the moment. It has very good flow from start to finish which is not a given at all within this tv series .... and what an added surprise to see Cuba Gooding - I had no idea of his MacGyver episode resume. Love the opening scene with Mac arriving at the game preserve to an African beat - it really sets the table and, to tell the truth, had me fooled as to the whereabouts of that on location setting.

The message about this severally endangered species comes across loud and clear and the scene with the dieing rhino is both powerful & tastefully animated. The only slight negative is that I think they should have used vehicles that were orientated for left side driving (re: steering wheel on the right). For those of us accustomed to watching the African safari/wildlife documentaries - this vehicular irregularity seems noticeably out of place.

This episode conveys a scary reality in South Africa. It is a losing battle as the government is not doing much to put a stop to the poaching of these creatures.

There has been an intervention with the Chinese government to request some support in creating awareness but at the rate these animals are being killed, there wont be any left in the next couple of years.

I received an email from the Humane Society today with this horrifying news alert and immediately thought of this episode.

This begs the question of how and why the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service issues an import permit for endangered species?

If you want to add your name to the petition to stop the import license from being issued click this link

The Rhino is in Namibia, isn't it? Therefore the Namibian Government authorizes (or not) the availability of all non-resident licenses. I could care less what happens to the Rhino after it's dead, my major concern is that there are licenses issued at all for a critically endangered species. That's an outrage! What neanderthals do that in this day & age?

On the USA side, I'm disappointed about the auction style sale of this rare license. Does the Namibian government get a percentage of the hammer price? If so what do they do with this extra booty .... rush it directly into poaching defence/control/eradication ? What tax percentage does Uncle Sam take from this sale and where exactly does that chunk of change filter into?

The Irish Times has an article about this which has some information not being reported by other outlets and seems to indicate that this story may have been propagandasized.

In an article published in 2008 for the Society for Conservation Biology written by Joel Berger and Carol Cunningham it is stated that Black rhinos have the highest rates of mortal combat recorded for any mammal: about 50% of males and 30% of females die from combat-related injuries.


Another news article I just found....

Read full article


In this article on CNN they make the below claim, however the fact that they say Nambibia is in South Africa, rather than a nation of southern Africa makes me question their ability to report in a straight line. If they can't even get their facts straight about which country they are talking about you can't really trust anything else.

Here's an interesting bit of trivia.

The lady that played Kate in this episode (Cecelia Hart) is married to James Earl Jones.

Yes, I always like those factoids about where (& with whom) they are now. I remember finding out years later that the savage, medicine woman in Star Trek (TOS) - A Private Little War - wasn't so savage after all - She's married to Zubin Mehta.

As for the Black Rhino, there's alot of truth to that territorial thing with the males and it can get really exasperated when their land and free range become increasingly restricted. The tigers of India are an analogous species example of this. Still no need to make a massive 'dog & pony show' out of the issuance of a single license though.

Nice.