There are several kinds of animals that have "eye-watering" things on their heads, such as the horns of giraffes, the teeth of elephants, and the horns of rhinos.
Under the "blessing" of various rumors, these horns or teeth have a unique function and symbolic significance, compared with ivory and giraffe antlers, the misery of the rhinoceros is even worse, because of the shape and hard texture, it is related to the aphrodisiac, and suddenly becomes the object of people's pursuit. It is conceivable that after a violent horn cutting operation, rhinos without horns often end up with tragic endings.
In fact, the rhinoceros is not unfamiliar to us, everyone will recite the "heart has a spirit of the rhinoceros" in the rhinoceros is said to be it, but China's rhinoceros has long disappeared, the reason is closely related to climate change, low fertility and human hunting.
First of all, rhinos like to survive in warm environments, and with the change of climate in china throughout history, the habitat of rhinos has gradually moved south. Second, rhinos have a fairly low breeding rate, they only give birth to one baby rhino every four to five years, and the number of offspring that can be bred is very limited during their 40 to 50 years of life. Again, rhinos are chased by people all over the body, rhinoceros beef, rhino skin, rhino horn do not let go. Therefore, around the 1920s, China's original Chinese Sumen rhinoceros, Chinese large unicorn rhinoceros and Chinese small unicorn rhinoceros have become extinct.
Not only in our country, rhino horn has a miraculous effect of the world are widely spread, in Europe, from the 14th century, until the end of the 18th century, rhino horn has been regarded as a treasure by the nobles, think that it can strengthen the body, make people rejuvenated, its price was once equivalent to gold; in the Middle East, people will use rhino horn for treatment if they have any discomfort in the body; in ancient China, rhino horn is a valuable medicinal material, and it is related to aphrodisiac. Because of this, rhinos have always been difficult to survive, and have always been the target of poachers, and their price was once speculated to $60,000 per kilogram.
Of the 5 extant species of rhinos, two live in Africa and three live in Asia, the "five brothers" are in a precarious situation, so most of the news we hear about rhinos today is not good news.
In Africa, wild northern white rhinos have long since disappeared, and 3 years ago, the last captive northern male white rhino died, leaving only two of the same kind of female, scientists can only hope for artificial breeding, with frozen northern white rhino sperm for the last effort to continue the population; black rhinos were originally all over Europe, Asia and Africa, but now only live in sub-Saharan Africa.
In Asia, because of climate change, Indian rhinos have to face a lack of food during the dry season and the risk of drowning during the rainy season, and as their populations dwindle, inbreeding has also exposed Indian rhinos to genetic defects; Sumatran rhinos have fewer than 300 left due to habitat destruction and human hunting, while Javan rhinos have only 72.
To avoid poaching for the purpose of obtaining rhino horn, animal protection agencies have had to resort to a special measure – voluntarily cutting off rhino horn. Rhino horn and human nails are not only similar in composition, but also have similar growth states, that is, rhino horn will always grow like human nails. The rhino horns of wild rhinos wear and regenerate during use.
Unlike poachers who "uproot" when they cut rhino horns, protectors cut rhino horns to cut only a part, they will first track the rhino to determine the horn to be cut, and then anesthetize, cut only 90% of the horn when cutting the horn, so as not to cause unnecessary harm to the rhino, usually, after this horn cutting, the rhino will regenerate new horns after four to five years.
Even so, in Zimbabwe, horn-cut rhinos were found hunting by poachers, and they dug up only 10 percent of the rhino's horns, leaving only dead rhinos with severe facial defects.
Taking the initiative to cut rhino horn is of course a helpless move, because there will be many uncontrollable situations in this process, such as when playing anesthesia, the rhino may die violently, and the rhinoceros that has been cut off also needs to face some survival problems, rhino horn is a tool for rhinos to dig the ground to find water, a weapon for attack and defense, without horns means that foraging becomes difficult and is at a disadvantage in confrontation. In addition, because rhinos like to be active at night, rhinos also need huge rhino horns to guide rhino cubs in the dark, without rhino horns, even taking care of young pups will have unnecessary trouble.
The horn is not wrong, but because the horn is on the verge of extinction, the rhino should not be a tragedy.