Black Rhinos and Politics

Politics and saving the black rhino go hand in hand for a number of reasons. The primary reason is simply funding. Funding allows for more protection of the black rhino, habitat loss prevention, and creating jobs in poverty stricken areas. Usually governments that receive lots of money from eco-tourism, such as South Africa, tend to spend more funds on wildlife protection but other countries, such as the Democratic Republic of the Congo, do not receive any tourism and do not allocate funds to protection of wildlife.

The reason why most poachers poach is not because they a greedy sadists but it is because they don’t have jobs and need to feed their family. To eliminate or mitigate this issue governments are attempting to help out local economies so that they will refrain from poaching activities. Poverty is a very difficult thing to fix however more funds are being used to improve the infrastructure of local economies instead of using money for direct rhino protection.

A new issue has appeared regarding whether or not rhino horns should be legalized. This issue that is facing politicians is similar to the issue of whether or not marijuana should be legalized or not. Similarities range from controlled distribution, legalized farming, and a reduction in prices due to the fact that it is illegal. The glaring difference between legalization of rhino horn and legalization of marijuana is that there are a finite numbers of rhinos and they can’t be “grown” as quickly as marijuana.

Politics are an integral part of rhino conservation but people all over the world are still able to help the black rhino. Organizations like the World Wildlife Fund use money donated to them to help save vulnerable, endangered and critically endangered animals all over the world.

  

New Methods For Counter Poaching

An article in the Journal of Applied Ecology came out last month entitled “Real-time anti-poaching tags could help preventimminent species extinctions”. The article opens up with the fact that many large exotic animals are on their way to extinction. For example some researchers believe that the elephant and the black rhino will go extinct by 2020. The article goes on to list an innovative, fast response system that will help catch poachers. This new system is an electronic tag that will be placed in the animal. This tag will give real-time information such as heartbeat, location, and possibly even have a camera and microphone attachment to it. This method will be more effective than previous tags because previous tags just showed the animal’s location on a GPS. The old GPS was rife with problems one of which was sleeping animals were misinterpreted as being dead.

         This new tracking system will be a fantastic poaching deterrent. Most incidents of poaching involve the poachers escaping, but with the new electronic tags it will be almost impossible for the poacher to escape. This is because if the animals heart rate stops there will be an alert to park rangers who will come to investigate and catch the poachers. Many national parks use helicopters so finding poachers will be a breeze if alerted to their presence. The article suggests the use of unmannedaircraft (drones) to investigate an alert before sending in park rangers especially if the park lacks helicopters. This alert will happen in less than ten seconds so poachers will be unable to forcibly remove the device before the alarm is triggered. With a high chance of the apprehension of poachers, poaching should decrease significantly and bringing back the population of will be more likely.

         The issue with this solution is that a considerable amount of black rhinos will need to be tagged in order for this new system to be effective. The issue is mitigated by the fact that the black rhino is critically endangered so there isn’t too many that need to be tagged, but never the less there are at least 4800 of them. This new type of anti-poaching will work better on animals that are critically endangered rather than animals that are just simply endangered. 

O'Donoghue, P., & Rutz, C. (2015). Real‐time anti‐poaching tags could help prevent imminent species extinctions. Journal of Applied Ecology.

Jacques Cousteau- The Modern Conservationist

In this blog we will be leaving the terrestrial world and diving into the world of the great Jacques Cousteau. Born in France 1910, Jacques Cousteau and never became a formally trained scientist but had a fascination with the ocean and marine life. Cousteau was one of the great ocean explorers of his time and created the iconic and groundbreaking documentary series, The Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau. He popularized the sport of scuba diving, co-invented the aqua lung, and is the inspiration for many underwater entertainment series such as the narrator from SpongeBob. 

What makes Jacques Cousteau important to rhinos? Jacques Cousteau was one of the great conservationist, and environmentalist of his age, being one of the first people to protect the ocean. He spent many hours under the waves and realized the beauty and importance of the marine world, which prompted him to become one of its guardians. Because of his popular documentaries he was able to help pass a moratorium on commercial whaling and even stop the dumping of nuclear waste into the ocean.

He along with many conservationists of that time, such as Jane Goodall and Rachel Carson, helped enforce the idea that humans cannot just ignore nature and believe that the actions of man will not affect man. Before the great conservationists wildlife was exploited to near extinction, one may look at the American buffalo, the North Atlantic Right whale and the Black rhinoceros as prime examples of what went on in the pre-conservation era. It may seem that Jacques Cousteau has nothing to do with the Black rhino but without the help Jacques Cousteau and his peers we would likely see a more polluted ocean, and an emptier savannah.

Rhino Bodyguards

           

            The black rhino has a massive price tag on its head, or more accurately on its horn. With a market value of $65,000 dollars on the horn it is no wonder why poachers are willing to go to extreme lengths to acquire these horns. Poachers implement many tactics to attain these horns, the most popular tactic being to use a tranquilizer dart to sedate the rhino. This process is incredibly effective because tranquilizer darts make virtually no sound, this way park rangers are unable to respond to the poaching. After the rhino is sedated, the rhino’s horn is forcibly removed with an ax, which always ends in the rhino’s death. Horns may be removed without killing the rhino however professionals must do it and it leaves a stump. Poachers want the entire horn so they often cleave off a chunk of skin at the base of the horn, which will kill the rhino.

            To counter the threat of poaching, National parks have dramatically increased security. Security has increased to the point where some rhinos have their own personal security details. The Pittsburg-Post Gazette recently released an article entitled “Rhino's hope: A rhinoceros in Kenya has a security detail befitting a rock star”. The article reports that the last living northern white rhino in Kenya is such a prize for poachers that it has its own personal bodyguard. This rhino is critical to the survival of the species because conservationists are attempting to use its sperm to help create test tube rhinos. This is worrisome because if all of the future northern white rhinos are all from the same father, genetic diversity will be small which is deleterious to a population’s survival.
While this post sounds full of doom and gloom there is some hope. The security detail for this rhino was paid for through crowd funding from people across the globe. This shows that there are people willing to spend their earnings on saving these majestic, important creatures.

Introduction

“Poaching is a scourge that could wipe out decades of conservation gains made for black rhinos.”

Matthew Lewis

African Species Expert

The blog and the following blog posts will be about the threats the black rhinoceros faces and the measures taken to mitigate these threats. The Black rhino has been hunted throughout human history but in the past century the rhino populations have been decreasing at an alarming rate. The decreasing population has to do with habitat loss, disease, but mostly has to do with the illegal wildlife trade that is poaching. Theworld wildlife foundation claims that there are only 4,848 Black rhinos leftand that they are critically endangered. 

            Why are rhinos being poached so frequently? The answer to this sad question can be found in South East Asia where the people believe that rhino horn is a sort of “cure all remedy”. The reason why the demand has increased in South East Asia is because of the recent growth of national economies, such as Vietnam, and the growth of global markets. The unfortunate thing is that many people who buy rhino horn don’t believe that it is a “cure all remedy” but rather think of rhino horn as a status symbol akin to a Rolex watch. The demand for rhino horn is so high that the value of a rhino horn is $65,000 per kilogram, which is more expensive than gold.

            The black rhino has practical uses and is a magnificent creature. The black rhino is a megagrazer, which means that it keeps the grass short. Keeping the grass short is important to the ecosystem because the frequency and severity of wildfires are diminished. Black rhinos also contribute to the amount of tourism a country receives. People from all over the world fly to Namibia and other East African countries to see the black rhinos. The black rhino is a magnificent, important creature that conservationists are trying to keep from going extinct.