Going….going…..gone extinct. The fate of the worlds Rhinos hangs by a thin thread
- Staci-lee Sherwood
- 8 hours ago
- 7 min read
By Staci-lee Sherwood
The first Rhinoceros is thought to have been living on earth about 50 million years ago but that long reign is close to going extinct. Rhino’s are herbivores, like horses and deer, and belong to the hoofed class of mammals called Perissodactyls. They appeared before elephants and were once the largest land mammal to roam earth. Dozens of species of rhino’s have come and gone including the wooly rhino, much like the wooly mammoth was covered in hair. Today’s modern rhino started to make their appearance between 2 and 10 million years ago. Of the 5 species still living today they’re all critically endangered. The Javan, Sumatran, Greater One Horn, White and Black rhinos are all that’s left and they all struggle to make it to the next century.
In 2025 at the CITES (Convention International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) meeting pro ivory trade Namibia requested a re-opening of trade from their stockpiles, supported by Botswana, South Africa and Zimbabwe. Most other countries rejected the proposal. We know from past years this also increases illegal trade. Human nature is such that no amount of monitoring, of which there is scat little with wildlife trade, will stop this inevitable domino effect. Time will tell if conservation holds or if greed and ego win out again.
Poaching the rhino to extinction
The word poaching is a polite way of saying killing without a permit but it’s the act of killing that people should question, not whether or not a license was issued. Chinese demand for horns to be used as trinkets, trophies or in medicine lead the drive to massacre the rhinos. Vietnam is a close second and often a hub for illegal trade in rhino horn. Trophy hunters from the USA and Europe make up the third tier driving their numbers down. The world’s current total rhino population is approximately 27,000 with 1-2 rhinos killed every day. That’s not sustainable. Only a heavily enforced global ban on all rhino parts with severe punishment for anyone killing, selling, transporting or manufacturing any part of a rhino will help turn the tide away from extinction. As we have seen before greed is tough to give up for most people and empathy is nearly impossible to teach to adults.
Estimated populations are as follows: the Sumatran rhino is critically endangered and thought to only number 35 – 40, the Javan rhino also critically endangered numbers less than 50, the Greater one-horned rhino has about 4000 due to conservation efforts, the White rhino number about 15,000 and the Black rhino number maybe 6,000. However when looking at population statistics it’s important to know it’s impossible to get an exact number unless the numbers are so low you can count each animal. Population estimates are almost always over estimated and yes politics plays a big part in claiming things aren’t as bad as they are. South Africa is a hotspot for killing rhinos. Even in protected parks like Kruger National Park they estimate their rhino population has dropped by 60% due to poaching.
Click here to read more about the two species likely to go extinction
There was a huge spike in deaths between 2013 – 2019 but if things don’t change soon for the better that spike could return.
If Botswana, South Africa, Zimbabwe and Namibia plan to reopen the elephant ivory and rhino horn trade.....the world must boycott these countries. No aide, no buying their consumer goods, no tourism. Greed and cruelty should NEVER be rewarded.
Rhino horns removed from their rightful owners. Photo credit: Getty images
THIS is what killing a rhino for their horn looks like. Photo credit: Getty images
Are poisoned or painted horns the way to stop poaching?
There has been talk for years about effective methods to deter killing rhinos for their horns. Removing the horn has been done. This requires skilled surgery and anesthesia which itself brings dangers. A rhino’s horn is used as protection, so removal to keep them safe from human predators leaves them vulnerable to nonhuman predators.
Namibia first tried this in 1989 and their data showed it did curb poaching as no dehorned rhino was killed the following year. Other countries had less positive results. Dehorning removes about 90% of the horn and with high demand poachers still killed dehorned rhinos for the tiny remaining bit. The horns grow back so this procedure would have to be done every two years. This means each rhino would endure the stress of being trapped, darted, put under anesthesia and then recover every two years. Long term this doesn’t seem to be the magic bullet conservationists hoped for. This could work on a small sanctuary but not a vast open area of free roaming rhinos.
Painting /using poison on the horns is another idea that has been floated since 2013 but there are too many concerns with this method. Would the paint be toxic to rhinos? Could it be removed or shaved off? Seemed like a simple idea. According to the nonprofit Save the Rhino back in 2013 a website called takepart.com reported that 100 rhinos from the Sabi Sands Game Reserve, which is part of Kruger National Park in South Africa, had their horns dyed with a poison mix by the Rhino Rescue Project. The hope was to make the horns less valuable. Poison on or in the horn brings the most controversy. The use of any toxin on a living creature is fraught with peril under the best circumstance. Since then, it’s been reported that rhinos from several reserves in South Africa have been treated with this painted poison cocktail; Dinokeng Game Reserve, Plumari Private Game Reserve, Ndumo Game Reserve, Tembe Elephant Park and Kapama Private Game Reserve.
Many elephant experts disagree with this anti-poaching strategy. Among the concerns raised is the fact that, like the dehorning process, this would have to be done every couple of years when the horns/tusks grew out. The concern about anesthesia and use of a toxin could endanger the animal not just the poacher. Unfortunately none of these methods will permanently eradicate poaching until we address the selfish desire to have the horns and tusks of animals as people justify their killing.
Click here to read more about the poison dye process https://www.savetherhino.org/thorny-issues/dyeing-rhino-horn-and-elephant-ivory/
Click here to read the effects on poachers
Why we are losing large land mammals
Human population is out of control and far beyond sustainable. With over 8 billion and growing we no longer have enough fresh water or healthy land to grow food. With the boom in building mega mansions and AI data centers, people owning multiple homes and the sprawl of malls the open land available is being gobbled up and forever contaminated. We have exploited and used up nature’s natural resources leaving little to none for the billions of other species that also live here.
‘Humans aren’t the only species living on Earth but we sure do act like it.’
Non human mammals, excluding farm animals, account for a mere 4% of the worlds biomass. As the human population keeps exploding we squeeze out every other species leaving them little room. Large mammals roamed Earth for tens of millions of years until humans showed up. For thousands of years most species were able to maintain a sustainable population alongside humans, but once humans modernized weapons, their fate was sealed. With the invention of rifles, traps, crossbows and poison the population of most species drastically and quickly decreased while our own species increased. The balance of nature no longer exists and the sole reason is us.
A white rhino and her calf. Photo credit: Unsplash
How to help before it’s too late
As with any issue of animal abuse the root cause starts with lack of compassion and empathy for a species other than our own. Studies show that humans who abuse and kill animals, regardless of the reason, lack the ability to see the errors of their ways. People like this can’t be rehabilitated but they can be jailed. If we ended the payoffs of officials who look the other way, from park rangers to border officials and private/public people at every level along the way of the rhino horn trade, that would be start. That’s corruption and laws must be pushed to be enforced. Crime thrives when no one is accountable.
Once we the public have finally had enough of this slaughter and get serious about punishment for the crimes against nature we can start to slowly end this insidious industry. Interpol must be more vigilant is tracking down poachers and putting them behind bars forever. The global community must band together to end this starting with educational programs in grade school about why we should not be killing animals. Courts must revamp their laws and punishment to truly fit the crime, meager fines and little jail time does nothing to stem these violent crimes.
Education and laws alone won’t end this but hurting the economies of countries that trade in rhino horn will. A full boycott on their goods and tourism will send the strongest message as most humans operate through a lens of personal economic gain not empathy. Rhinos belong to ALL of us. It’s time we all got serious about ridding the planet of their killers. Or we will lose rhinos forever.
In Zimbabwe there is a nonprofit group mostly made up of fearless female warriors trying to save our rhinos called Akashinga. They were founded in 2009 as the International Anti-Poaching Foundation (IAPF) by Damien Mander and counted Jane Goodall as one of their patrons. Their focus is on building communities invested in nature and partnerships with government to stem poaching. They also work to obtain and protect open land and needed wildlife corridors while addressing the poaching crisis. ‘To date, in collaboration with local communities, we safeguard more than 13 million acres of invaluable wilderness, nurturing a planet protected for generations.’ This group does great work but so much more needs to be done and the world needs to get involved.
Click here to watch the short documentary ‘Akashinga: The Brave Ones’ | National Geographic
Click here to learn more about Akashinga
Click here to learn more about the Rhino Rescue Project
Be a savvy educated consumer and don’t purchase anything made from rhinos, or from countries that trade in them. You’re small act multiplied by the world can save them.
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