Rhino Dehorning to Deflect Poaching in Dire Situation

worldanimalnews.com/breaking-sanparks-announces-dehorning-of-rhinos-in-kruger-national-park-as-a-tool-to-combat-poaching/

SANPark employees in Kruger National Park have made the desperate decision to begin selectively dehorning rhinos in an effort to prevent illegal poaching. Rhinos are one of the most endangered land animals on the planet and illegal poaching continues to be the biggest threat to their existence with the black market ivory trade still rampant.

As the article suggests, this demonstrates just how dire the situation really is when it comes to rhino conservation. Along with extremely stiff penalties for anyone caught trespassing with rifles or with the intention to poach these rhinos, there is the realization that losing the rhino bulls comes with a slew of problems relating to future populations. Poaching of rhino bulls will immediately lead to lower populations of rhinos but also often leaves baby rhinos destitute without parents to protect them. Ultimately, this leaves the babies in danger of death as well and will lead to future reproduction suffering.

As I mentioned, rhinos are one of the most endangered land animals on the planet. In the past several years, there have been at least two species of rhino that have gone extinct because of wildlife poaching and the illegal ivory trade. Although there have been great efforts to protect rhinos from illegal poachers, the problem still exists and there just simply aren't enough other options to protect them than to remove their horns in an effort to deter potential poachers. Without their ivory, there will be no reason for poachers to kill these beautiful creatures. The hope here is that this will deter more poaching which will ultimately lead to more reproduction and improved conservation.

There are approximately 30, 000 wild rhinos left in the entire world with two species being listed as critically endangered. When you consider how many people there are on the planet and then think about how few rhinos there are scattered across the globe, it's evident just how desperate this situation truly is.

Along with rhinos, elephants, lions, giraffes, tigers, and leopards all face serious dangers in the wild and these dangers will ultimately lead to extinction if wildlife poaching is not stopped and quickly. Africa's wildlife is crucial to its ecosystem and their wildlife are also the most poached in the world. Trophy hunting continues to be permitted despite these animals suffering in the wild along with illegal poaching. We are making great strides when it comes to illegal poaching but we need also to address trophy hunting and call it out for the hypocrisy that it is. Trophy hunting acts under the guise of conservation because these arseholes pay tens of thousands of dollars to shoot one of these animals and the money supposedly goes towards conservation efforts which sounds fine on paper but the fact is there simply aren't enough of these animals left in the wild for this to be effective. These people should simply donate their money to REAL conservation efforts and trophy hunting of endangered species should be banned across the globe.

Here's to hoping the dehorning of selected rhinos will be the much needed solution to a serious poaching problem and we will see the number of rhino kills decrease.

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