In another sign that Africa’s poaching crisis has gotten completely out of control, South Africa lost 1,004 rhinos to poachers last year. According to the numbers released today by the South African Department of Environmental Affairs, 2013 was the worst year yet for rhino poaching in the country with nearly 3 rhinos killed every day.
South Africa is home to more rhinos than anywhere else in the world, making it a global target for rhino poachers. Rhinos are shot, their horns sawn off (often while still alive), and then left for dead. The horns are crushed into powder to meet the rising, illicit demand in East Asia for powdered rhino horn. Rhino horn consumers view the high-value powder as medicinal and increasingly a status symbol, however there is no evidence that rhino horn, which is made primarily of keratin, has any curative properties.
Tom Milliken, a rhino expert with TRAFFIC an anti-wildlife trading organization, says that South Africa’s rhinos are largely being decimated by poachers slipping in from Mozambique.
White rhino in South Africa. Photo by: Rhett A. Butler.
“South Africa and Mozambique must decisively up their game if they hope to stop this blatant robbery of southern Africa’s natural heritage,” he said in a statement. “2014 must mark the turning point where the world, collectively says ‘enough is enough’ and brings these criminal networks down. Rhino horn trafficking and consumption are not simply environmental issues, they represent threats to the very fabric of society.”
TRAFFIC says Mozambique must raise penalties for wildlife trade crimes, which is only a misdemeanor currently. The groups also calls on Vietnam, one of the major consuming countries of rhino horn, to make good on pledges to implement a tracking system to make sure rhino horns from trophy hunting don’t enter the black market. In many countries, trophy hunters are still allowed to kill rhinos for large fees and there have been several cases of such hunts being used to obtain and move rhino horn out of South Africa.
Experts say that South Africa’s rhino population is nearing a point where deaths outnumber births.
South Africa is home to two species of rhino, white rhinos (Ceratotherium simum) and black rhinos (Diceros bicornis). Most of those killed by poachers are white rhinos, simply because they are significantly more populous. White rhinos are currently listed as Near Threatened by the IUCN Red List, while the black rhino is considered Critically Endangered.
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