This Saturday, September 22, is World Rhino Day, but there’s nothing much to celebrate. There are five species of rhino worldwide: two in Africa, the white (divided into two sub-species, the North and the South), and the black, and three in Asia, the Indian, the Javan and the Sumatran.
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The three Asian species are all critically endangered, with the Javan and the Sumatran species down to fewer than 80 individuals each. The African black rhino population is down from 65 000 in the 70s to about 5 000 today, and the last male of the Northern white rhino sub-species died in Kenya in March this year, virtually sealing the fate of the species.
Today there are fewer than 30 000 rhinos left in the wild in Africa and Asia.* By far the biggest threat to rhinos is poaching, driven mainly by the seemingly insatiable demand by China and the countries of South East Asia, particularly Vietnam, for the horn for use in traditional medicine.
It is thought to cure everything from headaches and impotency to cancer and the wealthier the populations of those countries become, the higher the demand.
It’s a depressing situation, but on the upside, there are some excellent rhino conservation projects in progress in both Africa and Asia, so we must just hope for the best.
A report by the United States Agency for International Development says that specially designed vests are increasingly being used for smuggling, including the movement of elephant ivory. The vests (jerkins or gilets), like those usually associated with hunters or game rangers, but now very much a man’s fashion item, are clearly also festooned with pockets and zips in which the goods being smuggled can be hidden. The main route being used in this latest smuggling venture is from Harare in Zimbabwe, via Dubai to Hong Kong.** I’ve often pondered those useless pockets and zips, now I know.
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And finally some good news. We’ve missed International Dog Day, but here are a couple of doggie stories to cheer us up. Sniffer dogs are now being trained and used in the Kenyan port of Mombasa to find illegal wildlife products, including rhino horn and ivory, in shipping containers. Apparently the dogs’ sense of smell is so good that they can pick up those smells by just sniffing around a sealed container.**
And saving the best until last, a faithful pet dog in the Indian state of Mysore has saved its master from being killed by a wild elephant. The farmer had gone out in the night to investigate why the dogs were barking in his fields. He disturbed an elephant from the adjoining Nagarahole Forest Reserve, which attacked him and was ‘tusking’ him when his dog attacked the elephant. The dog’s counter-attack was so persistent that the elephant left his master alone and disappeared into the night.** Definitely, every dog gets its day.
*New Encyclopaedia of Mammals, editor: David MacDonald, Oxford University Press, 2001, and Wikipedia.
**Save the Elephant News Service.
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