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Roberto Schmidt / AFP - Getty Images
Two male Rhinoceros lock horns playfully while pasturing in the savanah at the Lewa Wildlife Conservancy on Dec. 10.
Roberto Schmidt / AFP - Getty Images
Three park rangers look through their binoculars while sitting in the shade of a tree at the Lewa Wildlife Conservancy in central Kenya on Dec.9.
Roberto Schmidt / AFP - Getty Images
The carcass of a Rhino shot dead by poachers and later scavanged by wild animals lies on the ground at the Lewa Wildlife Conservancy in central Kenya on Dec. 9.
Roberto Schmidt / AFP - Getty Images
John Pameri, head of the security at the Lewa Wildlife Conservancy in central Kenya, holds a Rhino tusk his team took from a Rhino that was shot dead by poachers earlier in the week, at the security headquarters on Dec. 9.
Roberto Schmidt / AFP - Getty Images
John Pameri, head of the security at the Lewa Wildlife Conservancy in central Kenya, speaks in front of board showing digital images of dead rhinoceros at the security headquarters on Dec 9.
According to AFP, two rhinos were killed by poachers at the conservancy during 2010 and two in the last two months. Conservancy officials are alarmed by a sharp increase in the poaching activity which they say is fueled by a high demand for Rhino horns in Asia and especially China. Poachers can sell the horns to the first intermediary for about 8,000 USD per kilo as the two horns of an adult Rhino weight more or less 10 kilos. Spanning 62,000 acres, Lewa is home to more than 10 percent of Kenya s black rhino population and over 14 percent of Kenya’s white rhino population.
Also, Reuters reporting, poachers kill rare black rhino at Serengeti park, see full story from here.
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For almost every year that I taught sixth grade, our mascot was the Rhino. My classes knew all five species,(black, white, Indian, Sumatra, Java) where they lived, what they ate, and their levels of endangerment. They also learned about the threat of poaching animals...probably for the first time in their lives. It is hoped that they learned their lessons well, and that as adults they are vitally concerned about the protection of this precious beast.
For almost every year that I taught sixth grade, our class mascot was the Rhino. My students learned all 5 species (black, white, India, Java, Sumatra), their level of endangerment, what they ate, and where they lived. They also learned about the crime of poaching, probably for the first time. Now that these "alums" are all responsible adults, it is hoped that they learned their lessons well, and that they are concerned about the survival of this precious beast.
The Chinese public are real schmucks because of their demands for rhino horns, shark fins, and bear organs. They may be the most superstitious people on earth.
Not to mention tigers. It's really sickening.
I went to Africa in the 80's on a safari. Even then, we ran across a trap set for rhinos in a national park in Kenya, and a baby rhino who's mother had been killed. (THe baby was going to die as it was much too young to survive on its own.) Nothing was done in either case and yet there were gaurds at the park gates, etc. Africa is not equipped to handle the poaching problem and we don't help. It's a travesty. And all for a sex potion for the Chinese. The Chinese are the leading cause of all large animal extinction. Don't believe me? Check it out.