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From 1988 to 2001 black rhino numbers
continued to plummet with estimates as low as 3,100
left in the wild. Mainly this was due to a lack of funds
to pay for conservation efforts. However in 2004
CITES voted to allow the annual hunting of ten black
rhino. Since then current estimates have climbed back
up to roughly 4,900.
The main reason these hunting based
conservation strategies were so successful is money.
Revenues from rhino hunts help to fund future
conservation programs (including anti-poaching efforts)
as well as putting cash into the pockets of locals and
politicians, this in turn gives them a reason to want to
keep rhino around. Along with generating much needed
funding rhino hunts remove excess males from the
population which although past breeding age may still
prevent younger males from breeding. Based off the
success of rhino hunting in Africa it would be
reasonable to hope for similar results in Asia. This is
assuming the Indian rhino reaches a level at which it is
deemed stable enough to allow the harvest of a few
individuals and that there will be a market for such
hunts. However if these criteria are met the revenue
generated could be used not only for the conservation
of Indian rhinos but for the other two Asian species as
well.
(Taken by SCI Member in South Africa, 2009)
So is the story of the world’s rhinos going to
play out as a triumph or tragedy? Poaching of rhino for
their horn is still a major threat, especially with the
constantly rising value of rhino horn on the Asian black
market. Also the outlook remains bleak for two species
and one day they may disappear forever. But there is
hope. With the success of white rhino and the current
recovery of black and Indian rhino one finds reason to
believe these magnificent creatures can be saved.
UPDATE Oct 25
th
, 2011
Vietnam's rare Javan rhinoceros was
declared extinct in that area after poachers killed the
last remaining animal in the country for its horns, the
World Wildlife Fund said.
“Vietnam must see this loss as another warning
sign of its looming wave of species extinctions,” Dr.
Barney Long, WWF’s Asian species expert, said in a
statement. “The single most important action that is
needed to save remaining threatened species like tigers
and elephants is protection.”
The country had been struggling to keep the
population alive amid widespread poaching that the
WWF said was the cause of many Asian rhino species
being brought to the "brink of extinction."
The WWF said people in certain parts of Asia believe the
horns, when ground down and dissolved in boiling water,
help treat typhoid fever or even cancer, the WWF said,
noting that there has been no scientific proof of that.
The group said trying to bring the species back
into the area won't work.
“Reintroduction of the rhinoceros to Vietnam is
not economically or practically feasible," WWF’s Asian
Elephant and Rhino Program Coordinator Dr. Christy
Williams said. "It is gone from Vietnam forever."
So now, the Javan rhino only exists in one area in the
world, according to the WWF.
The group reported that there is one population of
less than 50 animals in the Ujung Kulon National Park in
Java, Indonesia. Now, workers will turn their attention
there, working with anti-poaching patrols to hopefully
keep the species from going extinct.
“For the Javan rhino, we now have to focus entirely on
one site in Indonesia where strengthened protection is
needed along with fast-tracking the proposed
translocation and habitat management,” Long said.
Post by:
CNN news blog editor Mallory Simon
rhinoceros-in-vietnam-killed-by-poacher-group-says/