According to statistics, about 1,000 rhinos are poached worldwide every year, and this number is rising.
Rhino at sunset
In 2020, a rhino poached in South Africa's national parks and its horns were cut off, allegedly worth up to 3 million.
In 2019, a black rhino in a national park in southern Kenya was poached and its horns were stolen. Local police arrested two suspects suspected of poaching.
In 2018, a rhinoceros on the Indonesian island of Sumatra was poached and its horns were stolen. This is the first time the species has been poached on the island.
In 2017, five rhinos were poached at a wildlife sanctuary in South Africa's Eastern Cape province and their horns cut off. This protected area is one of the most poaching problems in South Africa.
In 2016, a white rhino in a national park in southern Kenya was poached and its horns were stolen. This is one of the largest poaching incidents in the country's wildlife sanctuary.
History is full of examples of poaching of rhino horn, so why are people flocking to rhino horn!?
The main reason poachers steal rhino horn is to obtain the high value of rhino horn.
Rhino horn is considered medicinal in some countries, especially as a panacea for cancer and other diseases, so it is used to make health products, while some crafts of rhino horn are known as a symbol of fame and status, highlighting their sense of dignity.
However, wild rhinos are very few and the demand for rhino horn in the market is very large, resulting in rhino horn becoming a very scarce commodity with extremely high prices.
So poachers often kill entire rhinos in order to get more horns, cut off the horns and sell them.
Poachers kill rhinos to prevent them from resisting or sounding the alarm during poaching, exposing poachers to danger.
Killing rhinos also allows poachers to gain access to rhino horns more quickly.
So much so that rhinos have become an endangered species, so let's take a look at these poached rhinos.
There are only 5 species of rhinos left in the world.
White rhinoceros, black rhinoceros, Indian rhinoceros, Javan rhinoceros, Sumatran rhinoceros.
African white rhinoceros
The African white rhinoceros, also known as the square-billed rhinoceros, is the largest rhinoceros in Africa with two horns and is very strong.
African white rhinoceros
The English name is (Ceratotherium simum), which is derived from the Dutch word "weit" ("wide mouth"), not "white" ("white"). Later, it was widely accepted by the English-speaking world and directly translated as "white rhinoceros", which is a misrepresentation and does not mean that they are white.
African black rhinoceros
The African black rhinoceros, also known as the round-billed rhinoceros, is slightly smaller than the African white rhinoceros, also has two horns, and lives in the grasslands and scrublands of southern Africa.
The black rhinoceros, black rhino or hook-lipped rhinoceros (Diceros bicornis) is a species of rhino native to eastern and southern Africa, including Angola, Botswana, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Eswatini, Tanzania, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.
Although the species is known as black, its color varies from brown to gray. It is the only living species in the genus Diesel Ross.
The species is classified as critically endangered overall and is threatened by a variety of factors, including poaching and habitat loss.
Three subspecies have been declared extinct
These include the western black rhinoceros, which was declared extinct by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) in 2011.
Indian rhinoceros
The Indian rhinoceros, also known as the one-horned rhinoceros, lives in the rivers and forests of India and Nepal.
Indian rhinos have only one horn, usually between 20-60 cm in length, which is used to protect itself from predators.
Nearly 85% of India's rhino population is concentrated in Assam, and Qaziranga National Park is home to 70% of its rhino population.
Indian rhino species are inherently at risk.
The reason is simple, as 70% of rhinos are concentrated in one place, and any catastrophic event, such as disease, civil unrest, poaching or habitat loss, can have a devastating impact on the Indian rhino status. And a small number of rhinos may be prone to inbreeding depression.
So other protected areas need to be expanded and rhinos introduced in more areas.
Otherwise, sooner or later it will perish too!
Sumatran rhinoceros
The Sumatran rhinoceros (Dicerorhinus sumatrensis), also known as the Sumatran rhinoceros, hairy rhinoceros, or Asian two-horned rhinoceros, is a rare member of the rhinoceros family and one of the five living rhino species.
The Sumatran rhinoceros once inhabited India, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia and southwestern China
Especially in Sichuan's tropical rainforests, swamps and cloud forests.
In 2015, researchers declared the Borneo rhino extinct in northern Sabah, Malaysia.
Javan rhinoceros
The Javan rhinoceros (Rhinoceros sondaicus), also known as the Javan rhinoceros, is a Sunda rhinoceros or a small unicorn rhinoceros.
The Javan rhino was once the most prevalent rhino in Asia, with its presence in all of Java and Sumatra to all of Southeast Asia to India and China.
But now it is almost extinct.
Extremely rare!
Critically endangered!
With only one known population in the wild, no captive individuals, it is probably the rarest large mammal on Earth!
In the Chinese Song Dynasty, rhino horns were recorded, plus the economic and medicinal value of rhino horns on their heads was extremely high!
They have been hunted by humans since ancient times, and the number of killings is getting closer and closer to modern times!
In this way, they finally disappeared from China at the beginning of the 20th century, and disappeared completely in China in 1922.
These are the only 5 rhino species left in the world today.
And if not protected.
Rhinos must be extinct!
And what can we do to avoid the extinction of rhinos?
- Actively chop off rhino horn:
Actively cut off rhino horn, which requires professional personnel to deal with it, actively cut off the rhino horn and treat the wound, so as to avoid being poached.
- Poisoning in rhino horn:
The rhino's rescue team adds red dye to the rhino horn and adds acaricide.
Although this acaricide does not cause fatal toxicity to humans, it will cause a series of side effects such as abdominal pain and diarrhea in humans.
I have to say that this is a relatively smart approach.
Rhino horn bought through poaching will never know if it has been added with acaricide.
The rhino horn, which could have been used to cure people and save people, was artificially poisoned, so they did not dare to do whatever they wanted.
But is this approach really fully effective?
Not necessarily.
Those buyers don't understand this kind of stuff, and even if the poaching sellers do, they don't care if these people live or die.
Just sell it to them, and sell it to them quite happy at a high price, just make your own good profit.
epilogue
In this article, we will not debate whether rhino horn is a useful supreme medicinal herb or a simple nail.
We are not going to argue about that.
Let's look at this from an absolutely high standpoint.
Assuming that rhino horn is really the treasure that these people flock to, it can save people's lives and treat various diseases, and it can make people immortal.
But really wait until the rhino is completely extinct.
Where did the rhino horn come from?!
Can rhinoceros horns still fall from the sky?!
So any sane adult, and a slightly intelligent adult, would not expect rhino horn to save the whole world.
A sane person should do everything in his power to find a substitute for rhino horn.
It is also a scientific and modern scientific perspective to try to explain what is so precious about rhino horn? Can it be synthesized artificially?
Sustainable development is what we should all face in the true sense.
Not to mention such a high rhino horn, does it have any benefit to ordinary people? Does excessive praise of these rhino horns have anything to do with us ordinary people? Even if these expensive rhino horns can cure diseases and save people, can we afford them?
Just like Mr. Tu Youyou, he discovered artemisinin.
Know it, and know why.
Isn't this a normal thinking logic for modern people?
Thank you for your patience here.
I don't know what you think about the act of snatching rhino horns from rhinos, making huge profits, and breaking the law?
Of course.
Let's not discuss whether the rhino horn itself is useful or not.
It is pointless in itself to get caught up in the position of useful and useless and to engage in constant debate.
Never wake up someone who pretends to be asleep.
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