Threats
Excessive hunting for horn and other parts, habitat loss
STATUS:
ESA -- ENDANGERED
IUCN -- CRITICALLY ENDANGERED
SIZE:
Weight:
2,000-3,000 pounds
(909-1,363 kg)
Shoulder Height:
60-65 inches
(152-165 cm)
HABITAT:
Open dry scrub,
mountain forest, thickets
CONSERVATION:
International moratorium on horn and animal products;
captive-breeding programs;
Species Survival Plan;
CITES trade restrictions
To save remaining
black rhinos from poachers, parks departments in several African countries tried removing their horns -- a disfiguring operation which does not harm the animal.
They were slaughtered by poachers anyway. In Zimbabwe, for example,
a population of 100 animals (80 of them dehorned), was reduced to 5 individuals in a span of 18 months by poachers.
It's estimated that 90 percent of all adult rhino deaths are caused by poaching to obtain
the horn.
Dagger
handles made of rhino horn are given as gifts to boys who come of age in Yemen.
In 1920, fewer than
100 white rhinos remained alive. An early captive-conservation program was organized
in the Republic of South Africa to save the species, and today it is the one success story
in the "rhinoceros book."
There are now about 7,500 white rhinos living on reserves. If we can save the white rhino,
can we save the others?
Rhino horn has been clinically tested and proven to be effective in reducing fever. Readily available water buffalo horn has the same effect.
|
Horn of Distinction...Or Extinction?
Rhinoceros means "horn nosed." For millions of years, black rhinos have used their magnificent horns for protection against lions and other predators, as weapons in territorial disputes with other rhinos, and as tools to dig for mineral salt. For a very small portion of the rhinos' history as a species, we humans have been using their horns, too -- for medicines and dagger handles. But in that relatively brief time, our insatiable appetite for the horns has turned the rhinos' most striking asset into the impetus for their destruction. Black rhinos are disappearing faster than any large animal on earth.
In 1977, CITES imposed a ban on international trade in rhino products, but the slaughter has continued. About 3,000 black rhinos are still alive -- a drop of 97 percent since 1970. At the current rate of destruction, they will be extinct by the end of this decade. Then we will know them, not as two-ton giants of the African plains, but as vials of powder and decorations on knives.
Last Stand...Last Hope
Black rhinos once ranged across many habitats in sub-Saharan Africa. Today they are found only in small pockets in southern and eastern Africa.
There are four other species of rhinoceros worldwide. About 500 Sumatran rhinos remain in dense forest areas of Burma, Malaysia, Thailand and Sumatra. Their habitat is rapidly disappearing as human populations increase. Javan rhinos are probably already extinct in the wild; fewer than 100 are still alive on a game reserve in western Java. The Indian rhino, once found throughout India, survives on only eight reserves in India and Nepal. The other surviving African rhino-ceros, the white rhino, is doing better than it was previously thanks to captive-conservation measures.
In several Asian countries, it is now illegal to import or sell rhino horn. Governments are putting pressure on drug companies and pharmacies, and international challenges to the illegal trade in rhino products may be finally having an effect. Will these efforts save the rhinos? We'll know soon enough.
Wanted...Dead or Alive?
Rhinoceros survival boils down to a question of economics. If they're worth more alive (for their ecotourism potential) than they are dead (as a source of knife handles and medicines), then there will be motivation to save them.
A pound of African rhino horn was recently selling for $2,300 in Taiwan. Asian rhino horn brought much more -- over $11,000 per pound for rare Sumatran rhino horn! The horns are ground into powder and used to treat a wide variety of human maladies, from fevers to impotence. The skin, blood, and urine of rhinos are also trade commodities.
Exact figures on the amount of tourist dollars brought in by rhinos are difficult to obtain, but it is surely now in the millions every year. The Rhino and Tiger Conservation Act passed by the U.S. Congress in 1994 provides assistance for the development of conservation measures for rhinos and tigers. This includes encouraging ecotourism.
|
