Hearing/reading about rhino poaching or experiencing it are two very different things as I discovered in Kruger Park, South Africa.
It was our last day in the park
and our visit had been absolutely magical. The amount and variety of animals
was astounding and we had had a good view of The Big 5. You can’t really miss
elephants and buffalos, there are huge quantities of them throughout the park.
But we were also lucky enough to see 5 ( yes, 5!) leopards, one with an impala up the
tree. And a female lion decided to cross the road right in front of us and a rhino
was grazing not too far from that same road.
This time, when we saw a lot of
cars parked on a bridge, we knew something major was going on. But the
excitement turned into confusion when I realised that most of the cars belonged
to rangers. I could see a body lying in a river bed close to where we stopped.
To start with I thought it was a hippo killed by lions but, of course, lions
don’t kill by ripping half the face off. Then the penny dropped and I realised
what I’m looking at – a poached rhino. The horror that washed over me is
indescribable. When you hear about these things, it always feels distant and
unreal. But facing it in reality is like a curtain falling down.
Rhino poaching is driven by
demand for the horn in Asian countries where it is used in traditional Chinese
medicine to treat fever, rheumatism, cure snake bites, headaches, food poisoning
etc. It is not, however, used as an aphrodisiac as it is commonly believed (although some people have started
to use it as such due to the myth created by the West). Of course, this belief is
completely unfounded, rhino horn has no medicinal benefit whatsoever. Nowadays,
however rhino horn is more commonly used as a symbol of wealth.
Last year there were 1004 rhinos
poached in South Africa alone. This number has been steadily increasing year by
year. In the early 1900s there were 500,000 rhinos across Africa and Asia. Now
there are less than 30,000 left. What’s worse is the way the rhino horns are
obtained. Rhino is shot by a tranquilizer gun which puts it to sleep while
poachers cut the horn off, when rhino wakes up it slowly and very painfully
bleeds to death.
It is easy to get angry with the poachers and to want to shoot them (as
some people have told me). However, you have to be extremely desperate (or stupid) to
decide to poach. In 2014 there were 50 poachers fatally shot in South Africa, 343
– arrested. So they take on a lot of risk and not for a lot of money (poachers
get about £5000 or $8500 for a rhino horn with most of the profit going to the
criminal networks organizing poaching).
A rhino horn now is worth up to £180,000 or $300,000 as opposed to the
early 1990s when it was worth up to £ 900 or $1500. The trade and increase in
price is driven by Vietnam where people use it as an anti-cancer drug (of
course, it DOES NOT cure cancer), as a very expensive drug in parties because
it is supposed to help the liver, letting Vietnamese party harder for longer (as
if!) and as the previously mentioned status symbol where even politicians and
police officers are rumored to use rhino horn without any fear of consequences.
So what is done to stop poaching? Unfortunately, there is no single
solution to solve the problem. Instead, it is approached from many sides. Anti-poaching
rangers are essential to protect the rhinos under threat. But it is an
extremely difficult and dangerous job with dozens of rangers killed in Africa
in recent years. Training and arming the rangers is also very expensive.
Monitoring each animal is also essential for keeping track of their
movement patterns, population and to determine if a rhino has been poached.
But to stop the problem at its root, we have to educate people; local children
who will grow up to protect the rhinos and make a choice to not become a
poacher, and educating Vietnamese. 'Education for Nature Vietnam (ENV) is a
Vietnamese non governmental organisation working on reducing the demand for
rhino horn within Vietnam. They do this through a variety of awareness raising
campaigns, they run a wildlife crime unit tracking and collating wildlife
crimes and working with local enforcement agencies and they work with members
of the government.’
Translocation of rhinos is needed to prevent inbreeding as rhino
populations are small and spread far apart.
And, of course, the controversial captive breeding. Zoos are seen by many
as ‘prisons for animals’. However they are vital in ensuring that species don’t
go completely extinct as well as raising awareness in general public of issues
that animals face in the wild and what every person can do to protect them.
So what can you do?
The easiest way to get involved is by donating to organizations such as Save
the Rhino, Education for Nature Vietnam and International Rhino Foundation.
For more information and to get involved, please visit:
Great article. Very informative about rhinos.
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