Rhinoceroses are big, charismatic beasts. They are an ancient order of odd-toed ungulates (perissodactyls), having been around since the mid-Eocene. In fact, the largest mammal to ever walk on land was a hornless rhino, the Paraceratherium. At one time, there were dozens of species of rhinos scattered across Asia, Africa, Europe, and North America.
Today, there are five species of rhino still around. In Africa, there are the white and black rhinos, and in Asia, the Indian, Javan, and Sumatran rhinos. All of these last remaining members of one of the planet's largest orders of megafauna are endangered; the African species in particular are listed as critically endangered, mostly due to poaching.
China is partly to blame for this. Here's why.
First, the poachers:
Poachers in South Africa killed more than 100 rhinos in the first three months of this year, most of them inside national parks, highlighting an ongoing battle to protect one of the best-known endangered species.
South African Environment Minister Dion George announced the figures Monday and said that of the 103 rhinos killed between Jan. 1 and March 31, 65 were poached in national parks.
The average of more than one rhino killed a day is in line with last year’s count and “a stark reminder of the relentless threat to our wildlife,” George said.
At least one poaching ring kingpin has been caught, but there are many more like him.
The environment ministry hailed a conviction last year of what it called a poaching “kingpin” from Mozambique. Simon Ernesto Valoi was sentenced to 27 years in prison by a Mozambique court for running an operation poaching rhinos in South Africa’s huge Kruger National Park, which borders Mozambique.
So why are these poaching rings targeting rhinos? It's not because they are hungry. It's not for the meat or the hides. Endangered rhinos are being killed for their horns, which are used in many "traditional" medicines in various parts of Asia, including, most notably, China.
It's not only a wasteful trade, it's massively ignorant. Rhinoceros horn has no medicinal value - none. One study lays out the Chinese market for rhino horn:
Here, we conducted a large-scale online survey to investigate medicinal rhino horn consumption in China's Guangdong province. One in seven respondents reported having used rhino horn in the past year. These individuals tended to be older, male, wealthier and better educated; several healthcare usage variables were also associated with rhino horn consumption.
And another study has confirmed that the use of rhino horn, along with other idiotic "traditional" horse squeeze like tiger penises, bear bile and pangolin scales, is not only useless but may actually be toxic.
“Rhino horns have a long history of being sold as part of TCM [Traditional Chinese Medicine] by doctors who … believe that rhino horns … will dispel heat and clear toxins from the body,” said study lead author Terri Roth, head of the Center for Conservation and Research of Endangered Wildlife (CREW) at Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden in the U.S.
Yet the new research revealed that while beneficial minerals were present in rhino horn, they only occurred in very low concentrations — not enough to impart any kind of benefit.
In simple English, these animals are being driven to the brink of extinction by a practice that is steeped in ignorance and may actually do people more harm than good.
See Also: The Biological Nuts and Bolts of 'De-Extinction'
Look, I'm a great advocate of having policies around the environment and wildlife driven by reason, not emotion. And rhinoceroses are an ancient kind of mammal that, were humans to never have arisen, may well have wandered into extinction in any case, as over 99 percent of every species to have lived on the planet has done. But that doesn't mean we shouldn't protect them from capricious endangerment from criminals, who kill the beasts wastefully for their horns to feed an Asian "traditional" medicine market that is ignorant, foolish, and barbaric.
Many years ago, I rented an apartment from an old retired Army Colonel who had, after his retirement, hunted in Africa several times. He never killed a rhino, although he had seen them in the wild. He did tell me, though, that back in the '60s and '70s, the safari companies had a quiet agreement with the governments in places like Botswana, where he hunted, that if they happened across any poachers, no questions would be asked if the poachers just became shot and were left for the hyenas. I have no idea what effect that may have had on the number of poachers, but you have to think that the prospect of being ventilated by a safari guide's .500 Nitro Express would deter at least some of the less determined goblins.
