A rising rhino poaching menace for their high-value horns has pushed conservationists in South Africa to the extreme, employing what was once considered vigilante methods to protect a species under threat of extinction.
After pulling all the possible stops they had like cutting off the horns, hiring armed security and selling the animals to private ranchers to ensure they are well protected, the South Africa government and private game reserves are now poisoning rhino horns to make them useless on the black market says Voice of America.
There have also been efforts by conversations’ for African governments to use drones in protecting rhinos, elephants and other endangered species from prowling poachers.
South Africa is the home for over 70 percent of rhino population in the world, but increased poaching this year has reduced the population by more than 3 percent with an estimated three rhinos killed daily. Growing demand for rhino horns has pushed up the price to $60,000 per kilo higher than the same amount of gold hence the term “white gold”.
It is estimated that nearly 800 rhinos have been poached in South Africa so far this year, compared to 668 in 2012 and 448 in 2011, according to a report in DigitalJournal.
Several hundred rhino horns have already been injected with poison so far this year, in the hopes that it will make some difference in the fight to save the animal from extinction. The rhino is injected with an anesthetic, so that it’s paralyzed but conscious. Then a hole is drilled into its horn, which is injected with a poison that’s dyed red.
Conservationist Lorinda Hern told Voice of America the substance is safe for rhinos, but harmful to humans who ingest it. Symptoms include nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, nerve damage and even death in extreme cases. The procedure leaves the rhino groggy when it wakes up but unharmed she said.
“If you buy a horn and it’s [a red] kind of color, you obviously know that it’s been tampered with and that it’s not safe for human consumption. So, yeah, 60,000 U.S. dollars per kilo versus zero,” said Hern, showing how the poison changes the horn’s hue.
Rhinos are normally target for their horns which are used in traditional Chinese medicines, while their eyes and tails are used in witchcraft.
“They hacked off her horn… gouged out her eyes… and they cut off her tail. All for two kilograms of horn,” said Graham Shipway, the general manager of a lodge in the Plumari Africa Game Reserve near Johannesburg, South Africa, adding that he has found at least two dead rhinos in recent weeks.
Most reports identify China and Vietnam as major new markets due to a growing middle class in those countries.
Rhino horn is also considered partially effective in showing the presence of poisons. The reason for this, according to PBS, is that rhino horn, unlike many other horns, is not part bone and part keratin, but all keratin.
