Killing Rhinos

Rhinos arrived about 7 million years ago. But the demand for their horns in Asia could force their demise

According to Scientific American, a new World Wildlife Fund report has found that the Asian demand for products made from rhino horns is reaching heights not seen in more than a decade, bringing rhino poaching to a 15-year high.

Rhino horn is an important component of traditional Chinese medicine.

Last year in South Africa, at least 162 rhino were illegally killed. From January to June of this year, an additional 62 have been slaughtered for their horns.

With a dwindling population that currently numbers around 17,000, the southern white rhinoceros (Ceratotherium simum simum) is listed by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as near threatened.

GET INVOLVED

• Support the International Rhino Foundation efforts to stop the crisis in Zimbabwe
• Support Save the Rhino International
• Sign a petition to stop the illegal Chinese trade in black rhino horn
  
• Watch a trailer's for the film Milking the Rhino, "the first major documentary to explore wildlife conservation from the perspective of people who live with wild animals"

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• Dying for Daggers: Zimbabwe's Black Rhinos (May 20, 2009)
• Throwing Some Light on the Dark Continent (April 7, 2009)
• Saving Sumatran Forests, Keepers of Carbon (October 11, 2009)
  
• African Conservation Gets $10 Million Gift (May 1, 2008)

image: Ceratotherium simum, Kruger National Park (credit: Esculaopio)