Save the rainforest: The Bloody and Barbaric Truth of Rhino Poaching

South Africa is in the middle of a rhino poaching epidemic. Last year the country lost 1,215 rhino to poachers. This year already, 239 rhinos have been killed. At this pace, South Africa is losing more than two rhinos a day on average.

Rhino poaching is shockingly cruel and brutal. In 2013, this young female white rhino was poached in the Kruger National Park. When the rangers found her, she was still alive. The poacher’s bullets had ripped through her body breaking her back and leaving her unable to move or breathe properly. She was still conscious when the poachers hacked her horn out of her face.

Sadly, it is not only the Southern White Rhinoceros that is on the verge of extinction, the other four remaining species suffer the same fate. In the case of the Northern Rhino, there are now only six left in the wild; they are protected under armed guard, 24 hours a day.

The Black Rhinoceros, which is found predominately in South West Africa, number slightly better with around 4,800 remaining, and there are around 2,500 Indian Rhino left. The Javan Rhino is one of the world’s most critically endangered species with only a few dozen still in existence. The Sumatran Rhino which is the smallest of the remaining rhino species is also critically endangered, with around 80 animals left in the wild today.

You may ask why this happening?

The answer is human greed and ignorance.

Greed

Rhinos are killed by criminals for their horns. The horn, made of keratin (the same substance in our hair and nails), can sell for $35,000 per pound, on the black market in Asia. The demand makes rhino horn as much worth as cocaine or gold for traffickers. The illegal wildlife trade is now the fourth most profitable criminal activity in the world, after drug smuggling, financial counterfeiting and human trafficking.

The demand has created “highly profitable and organised international poaching criminal syndicates” that deploy advanced technologies “ranging from night vision scopes, silenced weapons, darting equipment and helicopters to carry out the missions”. Poaching techniques have become ever more sophisticated and harder to enforce. Rangers are losing the battle to save the Rhino.

Ignorance

Rhino horn has also been an important feature of Chinese pharmacopoeia for at least 2000 years, where it is thought to have medicinal powers. Although there is no scientific proof of its medical value, rhino horn is sought after for a variety of uses such as relieving signs and symptoms of infection, and increasing sexual performance.

There is also a huge lack of awareness about the crisis in Asia. In November 2012, WildAid, interviewed 963 residents in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou to better understand awareness of rhino conservation status. Over 69.9% of participants did not know that horns came from poached rhinos and 47.3% thought that Rhino Horn improved sexual competence.

Overall, the battle to save the rhino from extinction is not being won. Poachers have become to sophisticated, governments to corrupt, individuals to greedy and rangers to underfunded. Unless something dramatically changes within the next ten years, the future for this magnificent species could be lost forever.

In the words of the late Steve Irwin “if we can touch people about wildlife then they want to save it, because humans want to save things they love”. Unfortunately for Steve, many people do not care and time is now running out for the entire rhino species.