ZIMBABWE’S RHINOS are being wiped out amid a surge in poaching driven by Chinese demand for the animals’ horns, a wildlife conservation group has warned.
About 120 rhinos have been killed since last March to feed the lucrative Chinese black market, said Johnny Rodrigues, chairman of the independent Zimbabwe Conservation Task Force.
Since last year, economic collapse and the breakdown of law and order have contributed to a rapid escalation in poaching by organised gangs.
“In the past 15 months we’ve lost 120 rhinos, and we’re still losing two to four per month,” Mr Rodrigues said. “We used to have 1,000 in this country.”
The exact size of Zimbabwe’s current rhino population is debated. Save the Rhino, a British-based charity, puts the total at more than 700. Mr Rodrigues said it was about 400. Both agree the situation represents a crisis.
Mr Rodrigues said Zimbabwe’s trade links with China, where the rhino horn is highly prized as medicinal, are a driving factor.
“We’re now down to about 400 rhinos, black and white, since the opening of the Chinese market.
“It’s all linked to the top. All those corrupt ministers are trying to cream off as much as possible before the next election. But if the carnage continues over the next two years we’ll have nothing left. The devastation taking place is not sustainable,” he said.
A rhino horn can sell for thousands of euro on the black market. As well as Chinese medicine, the horns are used for ornamental dagger handles in some Middle Eastern countries.
Mr Rodrigues said gangs were now using a Chinese-made version of a tranquillising agent that could be fired noiselessly from a dartgun to avoid drawing attention. The gangs then chop off the horn and leave the animal for dead.
“They don’t reverse the tranquilliser, so the rhino overheats and dies,” Mr Rodrigues said. “The removal of the horn is very harsh. They use an axe and disfigure the rhino’s face. The humane thing to do is put a bullet through its head and burn the carcass.”
Mr Rodrigues is preparing to hand a dossier to Zimbabwean prime minister Morgan Tsvangirai in the hope that the government will take tougher action. – (Guardian service)