“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.
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ReplyDeleteThe poor rhinos. They are important animals. It's horrible that they kill them just for their horns. If they didn't kill them would the horns grow back?
ReplyDeleteI never knew animals like black rhinos were illegally traded for personal show-off items and ‘$65,000 per kilogram’ sounds really absurd. The value of black rhinos is priceless since they sustains the ecosystem and contributes immensely for the tourism. Also I’m very surprised about how some people actually believe that rhino horns could be used as ‘cure-all remedy’. Is it possible for the rhinos to survive without their horns? I think I heard it from somewhere that poachers usually use chainsaws to cut the horn and most rhinos die because of severely blood loss. I hope with your blog post, more people become aware of this illegal rhino poaching and prevent black rhinos from the extinction. Because once the rhinos become extinct, it is irreversible.
ReplyDeleteI think that this is a great topic to have a blog on. I never knew the importance that rhinos play in the ecosystem. I think that it is terrible that such an important contributor to the environment is being killed for its horn.
ReplyDeleteIt is truly sad how people have forgotten that all animals are just as important as a human being. Unfortunately like you stated it, money has changed people’s thinking in a bad way. I really hope that the Rhinos’ horns are able to grow back and that the process of cutting them off is not painful to them, because that would just be really sad.
ReplyDeleteIt is truly sad to see how much of an impact a culture can have on a species has a whole. The worst part about this topic is that poachers kill the rhino to harvest its horn rather than remove some of it and allow the rhino to grow it back. This is a very interesting topic especially since rhino's have passed the critically endangered point.
ReplyDelete