Rhinoceros Poaching

by Grace Young

There are five species of rhinoceros throughout the world: white rhino, black rhino, Javan rhino, Sumatran Rhino and the greater one horned rhino. Rhinos are mostly solitary animals except when with a calf. Rhinos breed throughout the whole year but typically only calve every two to three years. Rhino's gestation period is  around fourteen months, depending on the species.

Rhinoceros poaching is the act of illegally killing rhinos for their horns. Their horns are believed to have medicinal or magical purposes.  The rhino horns are turned into powder then sold through the black market to individuals, most commonly from China or Vietnam. Rhino horns are made of keratin, the same thing our hair and nails are made of. One kilogram of the rhino horn powder can sell between 20 and 400 thousand US dollars.

Last year the census showed that 549  rhinos were killed. But it's a decrease since  2013 through 2017 when more than one-thousand rhinos were killed per year. Poaching is done at night. The most common time of month the poachers kill is the full moon since poachers do their job at night and flashlights are easy to see. Therefore, during full moon the poachers don't need easily detectable lights and instead they can just use natural light. Poachers commonly pretend to be tourists and go out on safari during the day to spot the location of a rhino. Then at night as a group of three will climb over or sneak through holes made by animals in the fence surrounding the park. They’re putting their lives at risk given that lions, leopards and many other predators live in the park and preferably hunt at night. Once they spot a rhino the hunter will shoot it, then the cutter will saw off the horn. After they cut it they pass the horn on to the runner who will then run (another word for run here (sprint)) out of the park with the horn while the hunter and the cutter run in other directions. It's everyone for themselves.

Poaching has a series of hierarchies to prevent knowledge leaking in case a poacher is caught. Poaching is a military-level operation with insane amounts of precise  planning and scheming. Many people are helping to stop poaching but that means that the anti-poachers have to be just as, or even more clever than the poachers themselves. National parks with rhinos usually have cameras and shot detectors and a full anti-poaching squads to catch poachers. Without significant success from the anti-poaching efforts, our planet’s rhinoceros species are at risk of extinction.