HELPING ENDANGERED RHINOCEROS: LAWS, HUNTS, REDUCING DEMAND

HELPING BELEAGUERED RHINOS


Christy Williams from the World Wildlife Fund’s Asian Rhino and Elephant Program said that while the international community had paid significant attention to the plight of the black rhinoceros and white rhinoceros in Africa, relatively little focus had been given to Asian species. However, there are proven examples of rhino populations bouncing back from the brink. Committed action by governments has doubled the number of rhinos in West Bengal in India over the last 13 years, for example. Crackdowns on poachers have also given a boost to rhinos in Nepal and India.

In July 2012 the WWF said Chinese authorities should be recognised for their strong and effective efforts to stop the rhino horn trade within their borders. WWF said China banned using rhino horn for traditional medicines in 1993, and authorities had followed through with periodic crackdowns that were effective in stopping it being sold in pharmacies. [Source: AFP, July 23, 2012]

Former Chinese NBA basketball player Yao Ming has become an activist and conservationist intent on weaning the Chinese off their fondness for rhino horn, elephant ivory and shark fin soup. He has visited Kenya to raise awareness about the rhino horn and ivory issues and made a film there called “End of the Wild".

In 2016, authorities in Zimbabwe announced they would remove the horns of 700 adult rhinoceros to dissuade attacks from poachers.

Websites and Resources on Animals: International Rhino Foundation rhinos.org ; Save the Rhino International savetherhino.org; Animal Diversity Web animaldiversity.org ; BBC Earth bbcearth.com; A-Z-Animals.com a-z-animals.com; Live Science Animals livescience.com; Animal Info animalinfo.org ; World Wildlife Fund (WWF) worldwildlife.org the world’s largest independent conservation body; National Geographic National Geographic ; Endangered Animals (IUCN Red List of Threatened Species) iucnredlist.org

Protecting Rhinos in 1990s


Richard Conniff wrote in Smithsonian magazine, “In the 1990s, under strong international pressure, China removed rhino horn from the list of traditional medicine ingredients approved for commercial manufacturing, and Arab countries began to promote synthetic dagger handles. At the same time, African nations bolstered their protective measures, and the combined effort seemed to reduce poaching to a tolerable minimum. [Source: Richard Conniff, Smithsonian magazine, November 2011]

The sale of rhinoceros horn was banned in 1976. In an attempt to deter poachers, some countries deliberately cut off the horn from live rhinos to keep poachers from taking them. In many national park with rhinoceros, rangers were given orders to shoot to kill if they encountered poachers. Poachers didn't dare go near the game lodges and parks. Rhino seems to sense this. The 30 or so rare northern white rhinos in Zaire's Garamba National were protected with the help of radio transmitters in their horns.

Wildlife officials in Zambia, Zimbabwe and Namibia were among those that sawed off the horns of live rhinos. The animals were first sedated with a tranquilizer and then the horns were removed with a chain saw. Between 1989, when the program started, and 1993 around 500 rhinos had their horns removed (horns grow back at a rate of a few inches a year). Few dehorned animals were poached, and the horns themselves were stored under tight security in warehouses. Dehorned rhinos appeared to behave no differently from other rhinos. Two hornless mothers have given birth to calves. [National Geographic Geographica, April 1993].

Laws that Protect Endangered Animals

In 1993, CITES (the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species) warned China and Taiwan, the two countries where the trade in tiger and rhino parts is most prevalent, to take steps to shut down the trade or face trade sanctions. In response, Chinese authorities said they would assign 40,000 people to enforce laws protecting endangered animals. Conservationist say that Taiwan and China would do just enough to stave off sanctions and then allow the market to resume business.

The CITES treaty has been signed by 130 nations. It protects 25,000 species and enforces bans on a number of items including tiger bones, rhinoceros horns, musk glands and bear gall bladders.

Korea had hoped for exemption on seven species — musks, bears, tigers, pangolins, turtles, mink whales and Bryde's whales.

The politics of the sanctions on endangered animals is tricky. Why, for example, are sanctions imposed for the mistreatment of tigers and not on the torture and imprisonment of Tibetans. There is also the issue of free trade. "Once you impose sanctions," a State department official asked, "then what?"

The U.S. has used a section of the U.S. Fisheries Protective Act known as the Pelly amendment to impose sanctions on nations whose acts hurts endangered species. The amendment was intended to curb the use of drift nets by Korea and Japan.

Come Back of the Rhino the late 1990s and Early 2000s

Rhinoceros populations in some places have made significant comebacks. Rhino populations have tripled in Nepal since 1966 with the help of 500 armed soldiers protecting them. In Assam India their population have doubled.

After the crack down on poaching and the sale of rhino horn in the 1990s black rhinoceros populations in South Africa — where they have a motivated and well-trained rhino management team — grew at a rate of five percent a year and white rhino populations got so large there were worries they might have to be culled.

Black rhinos population, which dropped to fewer than 2,500 animals during the poaching crisis of the 1990s, rebounded to about 4,800 in 2011. At the same time conservation programs produced a steady surplus of white rhinos, some of which were relocated to new locations. White rhinos these days are relatively easy to reproduce and their rather docile cow-like temperament makes them easy to manage.

Richard Conniff wrote in Smithsonian magazine, “Building up the black rhino population today is more challenging, in part, because human populations have boomed, rapidly eating up open space. Ideas about what the animals need have also changed. Not too long ago, said Jacques Flamand of the World Wildlife Fund, conservationists thought an area of about 23 square miles — the size of Manhattan — would be enough for a founding population of a half-dozen black rhinos. But recent research says it takes 20 founders to be genetically viable, and they need about 77 square miles of land. Many rural landowners in South Africa want black rhinos for their game farms and safari lodges. But few of them control that much land, and black rhinos are far more expensive than whites, selling at wildlife auctions for about $70,000 apiece before the practice was suspended. [Source: Richard Conniff, Smithsonian magazine, November 2011]

Protecting Rhinos in the 2000s


poisoning the horn

In April 2012, Yara Bayoumy of Reuters wrote: “Better surveillance and stiffer penalties must be imposed to combat rhino poaching in Africa, regional conservation officials said at a two-day summit hosted by the African Wildlife Foundation, which brought together representatives from Botswana, Kenya, South Africa, Kenya, Zambia, Zimbabwe as well as the United States. The summit called for more advanced communication technology, vehicles and helicopters to help anti-poaching units as poachers resort to more sophisticated methods to kill rhinos. [Source: Yara Bayoumy, Reuters, April 4, 2012]

“Julius Kipng'etich, director of the Kenya Wildlife Service, said prevention was key, but if rhino were killed the poachers must be hunted down and investigations carried out. Kenya killed six poachers in the first three months in 2012 hunting for elephant, buffalo and rhinos, compared to an average of six poachers per year over the past three years.

The conference also recommended harsher penalties be imposed on the illegal trade coupled with improved detection by using sniffer dogs at airports. "And then of course ... the consuming countries must be educated because the myths around rhino horn is just ridiculous," Kipng'etich said. "When you talk about rhino horn, what drives it? It used to be an aphrodisiac. But because Viagra came, that has now been dropped. (Now they say it cures) cancer, you see how the criminals change tune?" Kipng'etich said.

Discussions with traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) practitioners to reduce its use have met with mixed results since some TCM doctors see rhinoceros horn as a life-saving medicine of better quality than substitutes. Conniff wrote in Smithsonian magazine, “Medical experts have repeated debunked the notion that rhino horn has health benefits and a great effort is being made to get the word out in places where rhino horn is consumed, but fighting the rumors of miracle cures is proving to be almost impossible. “If it was a real person, we could find out what happened and maybe demystify it,” Milliken told Smithsonian magazine. For Milliken, the one hopeful sign is that the price for rhino horn seems to have spiked too quickly to be attributable to increased demand alone. That is, the current crisis may be a case of the madness of crowds — an economic bubble inflated by speculative buying in Asia. If so, like other bubbles, it will eventually go bust. [Source: Richard Conniff, Smithsonian magazine, November 2011]

As was the case in the 1990s some parks and reserves took the extreme measure of sawing off the horns of rhinos to take the incentive for killing them. One conservationist in Kenya told AFP, “With the increase of poaching in Kenya, we simply not taking any chances...Without a horn these rhinos are of no value to poachers.”

Rhino Safe House in South Africa

Describing the reserves where white and black rhinos are kept in South Africa, Richard Conniff wrote in Smithsonian magazine, “These new rhino habitats are like safe houses, and because of the renewed threat of poaching, they are high-tech safe houses at that. Caretakers often notch an animal’s ear to make it easier to identify, implant a microchip in its horn for radio frequency identification, camera-trap it, register it in a genetic database and otherwise monitor it by every available means short of a breathalyzer. [Source: Richard Conniff, Smithsonian magazine, November 2011]

In 2011, “Somkhanda Game Reserve installed a system that requires implanting a GPS device the size of D-cell batteries in the horn of every rhino on the property. Receivers mounted on utility poles register not just an animal’s exact location but also every movement of its head, up and down, back and forth, side to side. A movement that deviates suspiciously from the norm causes an alarm to pop up on a screen at a security company, and the company relays the animal’s location to field rangers back at Somkhanda. “It’s a heavy capital outlay,” said Simon Morgan of Wildlife ACT, which works with conservation groups on wildlife monitoring, “but when you look at the cost of rhinos, it’s worth it. We have made it publicly known that these devices are out there. At this stage, that’s enough to make poachers go elsewhere.”

In the meantime, the rhinos continue to die. At Hluhluwe-iMfolozi, poachers killed 3 black rhinos and 12 whites in 2011. “We have estimated that what we are losing would basically overtake the birthrate in the next two years, and populations will start to drop down,” said San-Mari Ras, a district ranger. From the floor of her office, Ras picked up the skull of a black rhino calf with a neat little bullet hole into its brain. “They will take a rhino horn even at this size,” she said, spreading her thumb and index finger. “That’s how greedy the poachers can be.”

Hunting Rhinos to Protecting Them?


dehorning

Richard Conniff wrote in Smithsonian magazine, “Most of the poaching takes place in South Africa, where the very system that helped build up the world’s largest rhino population is now making those same animals more vulnerable. Legal trophy hunting, supposedly under strict environmental limits, has been a key part of rhino management: The hunter pays a fee, which can be $45,000 or more to kill a white rhino. The fees give game farmers an incentive to breed rhinos and keep them on their property. But suddenly the price of rhino horn was so high that the hunting fees became just a minor cost of doing business. Tourists from Asian nations with no history of trophy hunting began showing up for multiple hunts. And wildlife professionals began to cross the line from hunting rhinos to poaching them. [Source: Richard Conniff, Smithsonian magazine, November 2011]

“Most conservationists believe trophy hunting can be a legitimate contributor to the conservation of rhinos. But they have also seen that hunting creates a moral gray zone. The system depends on harvesting a limited number of rhinos under permits issued by the government. But when the price is right, some trophy-hunting operators apparently find they can justify killing any rhino. Obtaining permits becomes a technicality. The South African government is debating a moratorium on rhino hunting.

Reporting from Johannesburg, Gretchen L. Wilson wrote in the Los Angeles Times, Animal rights activists are challenging a decision by South African conservation authorities to auction off a permit to hunt a white rhinoceros, a member of a species increasingly under threat from poachers. Government conservation officials say the deal will actually protect the remaining eight rhinos in the Makhasa Resource Reserve, a game reserve adjacent to an impoverished community whose residents might otherwise be tempted to participate in poachings. [Source: Gretchen L. Wilson, Los Angeles Times, January 8, 2012]

In December 2011, Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife, the government body responsible for conservation in KwaZulu-Natal province, auctioned off a license to shoot a specific male white rhino at the Makhasa Resource Reserve. Ezemvelo, which runs game parks throughout the province and co-manages Makhasa with the local community, sold the permit to a local businessman for about $120,000.

Simon Bloch, of Outraged South African Citizens Against Poaching, one of hundreds of volunteer groups created in recent years to raise awareness about rhino poaching, says the killing of any rhino should be forbidden while white rhinos are under threat. "Our rhino are being poached at an alarming rate that, if unchecked, will see them extinct in the very near future," Bloch said. "They play an important role in our tourism, our economy, as well as the ecology. There is no need to kill rhino other than, it seems, a financial reward."

Ezemvelo spokesperson Musa Mntambo said the provincial parks agency sometimes issues permits to hunt rhinos, but only once a conservation officer confirms a reserve has exceeded the sustainable population size. Permits are required for any rhino killing, whether trophy hunting by tourists or culling by private game farm owners. In 2011, year, Ezemvelo issued 23 licenses to hunt white rhinos in private preserves and one permit was auctioned to raise funds for Makhasa. The latter permit authorized the killing of the specific male white rhino, which is more than 12 years old, Mntambo said. "He has started to breed with his own children and grandchildren," Mntambo said. "He's threatening the population as a whole because of inbreeding."

The Mduku community voluntarily created the 4,200-acre reserve in 1992, after being granted the land as restitution at the end of apartheid. But Mntambo said it remains an impoverished rural community and that funds raised by the hunt will also create an incentive for residents to keep the animals alive. "Right now, if the community around the reserve is hungry, they may start poaching," Mntambo said. "But they will start to protect the reserve if it can generate income."

Members of the Mduku community said some of the money from the hunt will go toward improved security, including repairing damaged fences and hiring rangers. "We will also put aside a fraction of the funds raised to address certain educational and health needs of our community, like improving the conditions of our local schools, clinic, daycare and other facilities," said Inkosi Gumede of the Mduku Tribal Authority.

The Endangered Wildlife Trust said it does not condemn managed hunting for sustainability, especially if it is done to improve conditions in a local community that otherwise might consider indiscriminate poaching. "We will continue to support sustainable use as long as it is legal, ethical and that it is done correctly," said Kirsty Brebner, the trust's spokeswoman. "We are not concerned with one particular animal, but rather with the survival of the species, which right now is under threat of being wiped out."

Rhino Farming?

Robyn Dixon wrote in the Los Angeles Times: “Some support the idea of rhino farming — regularly pruning horns, which grow back — to meet the demand and drive down prices. Others argue that legalizing the trade would only fuel demand, putting the creatures at even more risk.” In South Africa there a number of game ranches with rhinos that raise the animals for tourists and hunter and relocation schemes. A black rhino sells for $40,000 at auction.

Peter Gwin wrote in National Geographic: “John Hume believes no rhinos need to die to supply all the rhino horn the Vietnamese desire. The 69-year-old entrepreneur, who made a fortune in hotels and taxis before turning to game farming, has amassed one of the largest privately owned rhino herds in the world. Currently he has more than 700 white and black rhinos on two farms in South Africa and wants more. "We take wool from sheep, why not horn from rhinos?" he asks one afternoon, sitting in the office of one of his farms as an albino parrot named Sebastian nuzzles his ear. "If you cut the horn about three inches above its base, it will grow back in two years. That means there is a never ending supply of rhino horn if we're smart enough to keep the bloody animals alive."[Source: Peter Gwin, National Geographic, March 2012]

“Nearly once a week Hume's game manager and a veterinarian, observed by a wildlife official, anesthetize one of his rhinos and remove its two horns with a power saw. Twenty minutes later the animal is back grazing, and the horns, implanted with microchips, are on their way to a bank safe. Hume refuses to say how much horn he has accumulated since he began harvesting in 2002, but a conservative estimate would put its value at tens of millions of dollars.

“Hume's idea to farm rhino horn on a large scale would appear to be another in a string of innovative wildlife management practices to come from South Africa. In 1961 officials in Natal Province pioneered the transfer of wild rhinos to private land to increase breeding and genetic diversity. In 1986 the Natal Parks Board allowed excess rhinos from the province's reserves to be auctioned off at fair market value, which brought millions of dollars to local conservation efforts and raised the animals' value among game farmers and hunters. Hume suggests harvesting rhino horn is the next sensible step in preserving and valuing the animals.

“As our conversation continues, Hume becomes increasingly agitated. A Vietnamese hunter would happily dart the animal, take the horns, and let it live, he thunders. "But South African law requires the hunter to kill the rhino to export the horn as a trophy." He shakes his head at the illogic.

“Among the misconceptions, Hume says, is that ivory and horn are the same. Ivory is an elephant's tooth, while rhino horn is keratin, similar to a horse's hoof. When an elephant's tusk is severed, the nerve inside can become infected, killing the animal. Also, darting an elephant is much more dangerous than darting a rhino, because of its greater size and the protectiveness of its herd.

“Conservationists argue that legalizing rhino horn won't change the essential economics of poaching: Poached horn is always going to be cheaper than farmed horn. Hume disagrees: As buyers become confident in the availability of legal horn, prices will fall, which will prompt crime syndicates to leave the business. "The fundamental difference is that poachers go after rhino horn for easy short-term profit. Farmers are in it for years of steady returns."

“Some of the resistance, he fears, is a cultural disconnect. "We basically are telling the Vietnamese that it is fine to kill an animal because our tradition of cutting a rhino's head off and putting it on a wall as a decoration is acceptable, but your tradition of cutting off its horn to use for medicine is abominable."

Catching Rhino Horn Smugglers in South Africa

Richard Conniff wrote in Smithsonian magazine, “Johannesburg’s bustling O. R. Tambo International Airport is an easy place to get lost in a crowd, and that’s just what a 29-year-old Vietnamese man named Xuan Hoang was hoping to do one day in March last year — just lie low until he could board his flight home. The police dog sniffing the line of passengers didn’t worry him; he’d checked his baggage through to Ho Chi Minh City. But behind the scenes, police were also using X-ray scanners on luggage checked to Vietnam, believed to be the epicenter of a new war on rhinos. And when Hoang’s bag appeared on the screen, they saw the unmistakable shape of rhinoceros horns—six of them, weighing more than 35 pounds and worth up to $500,000 on the black market. [Source: Richard Conniff, Smithsonian magazine, November 2011]

“Investigators suspected the contraband might be linked to a poaching incident a few days earlier on a game farm in Limpopo Province, on South Africa’s northern border. “We have learned over time, as soon as a rhino goes down, in the next two or three days the horns will leave the country,”Col. Johan Jooste of South Africa’s national priority crime unit told Smithsonian magazine. The Limpopo rhinos had been killed in a “chemical poaching,” meaning that hunters, probably in a helicopter, had shot them using darts loaded with an overdose of veterinary tranquilizers. South African courts often require police to connect the horns to a specific poaching incident. “In the past,” said Jooste, “we needed to physically fit a horn on a skull to see if we had a match. But that was not always possible, because we didn’t have the skull, or it was cut too cleanly.”

Police sent the horns confiscated at the airport to Cindy Harper, head of the Veterinary Genetics Laboratory at the University of Pretoria. Getting a match with DNA profiling had never worked in the past. Rhino horn consists of a substance like a horse’s hoof, and conventional wisdom said it did not contain the type of DNA needed for individual identifications. But Harper had recently proved otherwise. In her lab a technician applied a drill to each horn to obtain tissue samples, which were then pulverized, liquefied and analyzed in what looked like a battery of fax machines. Two of the horns turned out to match the animals poached on the Limpopo game farm. The odds of another rhino having the same DNA sequence were one in millions, according to Harper. On a continent with only about 25,000 rhinos, that constituted foolproof evidence. A few months later, a judge sentenced Hoang to ten years in prison — the first criminal conviction using DNA fingerprinting of rhino horn. It was a rare victory in a rapidly escalating fight to save the rhinoceros.

A few months after the Vietnamese courier went to prison, police conducted a series of raids in Limpopo Province. Frightened by continued rhino poaching on their land, angry farmers had tipped off investigators to a helicopter they had seen flying low over their properties. Police traced the chopper and arrested Dawie Groenewald, a former police officer, and his wife, Sariette, who operated trophy hunting safaris and ran a game farm in the area. They were charged with being kingpins in a criminal ring that profited from contraband rhino horns and also with poaching rhinos on their neighbors’ game farms. But what shocked the community was the allegation that two local veterinarians, people they had trusted to care for their animals, had been helping to kill them instead. Rising prices for rhino horn, and the prospect of instant wealth, had apparently shattered a lifetime of ethical constraints.

“Conservationists were shocked, too. One of the veterinarians had been a go-between for the Groenewalds when they purchased 36 rhinos from Kruger National Park in 2009. Investigators later turned up a mass grave with 20 rhino carcasses on the Groenewald farm. Hundreds of rhinos were allegedly killed by the conspirators. Thirteen people have been charged in the case so far, and the trial is scheduled for spring of 2012. In the meantime, Groenewald has received several new permits for hunting white rhinos.

South African game rancher Pelham Jones told the Los Angeles Times the police are little help. In one case, they arrived four days after a group of rhinos was killed. In another, a police officer picked up an ax abandoned by the poachers, destroying any fingerprints. The South African government disbanded the police force's endangered-species unit in 2003. The government last year promised to bring back a special-investigations unit -- but critics believe it's not enough to make a difference. [Source: Robyn Dixon, Los Angeles Times, March 16, 2010]

Restriction on the Sale of Rhino Horn Art in Europe

Rhino horns are excellent for carving and were crafted into delicate cups, plates and bowls carved from rhinoceros horn by master Chinese craftsmen during the Ming (1368-1644) and Ching (1644-1912) dynasties. Some of these works are among the marque pieces at Chinese art museum in Taiwan and China. Others were bought from collectors and businessmen. made their way to the storerooms of Chinese drug factories, where they were later to be pulverized into medicine. The current record for a rhino horn works of art is the so-called Hoqua gift rhino horn lotus bowl, a carved masterpiece of the 15th century, sold for a premium-inclusive $15 million at Sotheby's Hong Kong in October 2010. [National Geographic Earth Almanac, April 1991].

In March 2011 a new “emergency guidance” banning the export of worked rhinoceros horn was announced that expands restriction on the export of rhino horn from countries within the European Union to all items, whether or not they have been 'worked'. In practice this means that, while it is still legal to sell rhino horn works of art in the UK, they will no longer be granted licences to be sent overseas to the increasingly affluent nations where such things are most highly prized. [Source: Roland Arkell, Antiques Trade Gazette, March 26, 2012]

In its latest and strongest measures designed to stem the black market trade in powdered rhino horn, the European Commission now advises that: "No export or re-export permits are delivered for worked items of rhino horn, except in cases where it is amply clear that the permit will be used for legitimate purposes, such as cases where: the item is part of a genuine exchange of cultural or artistic goods between reputable institutions (i.e. museums); the item has not been sold and is an heirloom moving as part of a family relocation or as part of a bequest; or the item is part of a bona fide research project."

Roland Arkell wrote in the Antiques Trade Gazette, “The UK's Wildlife Licensing and Registration Service (WLRS) say that, regardless of merit, they will now refuse any application to export rhino horn objects to mainland China.The new measures reverse previous WLRS policy, which provided an exemption for antique works of art made of rhino horn, where the artistic value was far greater than the intrinsic value of the horn when sold into the illegal medicine trade in China.

While previous restrictions surrounding the export of rhino horn have been discussed with trade bodies such as the British Art Market Federation prior to implementation, this measure was deliberately issued without consultation or warning to avoid the need for any 'grace period'.

Environment minister Richard Benyon used highly emotive language in an official statement when he said: "These magnificent animals are on the brink of extinction, suffering horrific deaths at the hands of greedy poachers. We've been pushing for firmer restrictions to put an end to this cruel trade in the UK, and so I am really pleased to see this important step being taken." He described the measures as a victory for the ongoing pressure from the UK for tougher controls to tackle the illegal trade in rhino horn but appeared to confuse the issue with elephant ivory when he added: "Evidence suggests that criminal groups are targeting rhino horns in all their forms, including 'artistic items', such as carved ivory, and re-selling it on the black market."

Rhino Horn Crafts Continue to Be Sold After Restrictions

Roland Arkell wrote in the Antiques Trade Gazette, “The new “emergency guidance” banning the export of worked rhinoceros horn appeared to have a limited effect at the first sale since it was introduced. On March 21, Gorringes of Lewes offered a fine 17th or 18th century example with archaistic decoration, a 'Shang Ming' seal mark and a deep caramel colour. Prior to the sale the auctioneers announced they were unable to accept live internet bids on this lot or any bids, written or on the telephone, from mainland China. As has become common practice for premium Chinese works of art, the auctioneer asked that potential bidders register specifically for this lot and pay a deposit by bank transfer. [Source: Roland Arkell, Antiques Trade Gazette, March 26, 2012

The assembled Chinese and Hong Kong agents in the room watched while a UK-based private buyer outpaced a London dealer at £74,000 (estimate £40,000-60,000). It was not the six-figure sum the vessel might have commanded prior to the legislation but nor did this 'test case' suggest the EU measures (effective until at least the end of the year) will easily extinguish the vibrant European auction market for rhinoceros horn works of arts. There are fears that the tighter measures may drive the wider market underground.

Bidding was more equivocal at Tennants of Leyburn on March 22 when another 17th century example with some damage sold below hopes at £33,000 (estimate £35,000-45,000) and a 19th century rhino horn carving estimated at a very punchy £65,000-75,000 failed to sell.

In London the three major auction houses chose to respond toATG's questions regarding the consignment and sale of rhino horn material for the May Asian series, with official statements unequivocally condemning all poaching and promises to scrupulously observe all local and international laws regulating the sale of endangered species.

Can Lab-Grown Rhino Horns Help Save the Rhino

Laura Krantz wrote in Smithsonian magazine: “Pembient, a Seattle-based bioengineering firm, is using advances in genomic sequencing and DNA synthesis to make knock-off rhino horn in the lab. “If there was ever a time to try something, this would be it,” says Matthew Markus, the company’s co-founder. The start-up’s strategy is based on his observation that pirated software can ruin a tech company that made the original product. [Source: Laura Krantz, Smithsonian magazine, November 2015]

Pembient uses yeast engineered with genes that produce rhino keratin, the major protein in horn (also in human hair and nails). After extracting the keratin from the yeast, the technicians mix it with rhino DNA, so the final product has a genetic signature similar to that of actual rhino horn. Markus says he foresees the day when illicit buyers will use genetic tests to authenticate their loot, and he wants his counterfeits to pass muster. In time he hopes to grow — or 3-D print — entire horns and flood the black market with them, eliminating the incentive to kill the two-ton animals for the sake of their three- or four-pound horns.

“Another high-tech remedy is underway there. Members of the Rhino Rescue Project capture a live animal and painlessly inject an antiparasitic drug and a dye into the horn; the chemicals, though harmless to the animal’s health, disfigure the horn, rendering it useless as an ornament or, ground up, as traditional medicine, since the injected drug can cause nausea, vomiting and convulsions in people. “We’ve lost only seven animals over a five-year period,” says Lorinda Hern, a co-founder of the organization. “This is a triumph by any standard, especially when you consider that South Africa is losing four animals to poaching a day.”

Combating Demand for Rhino Horn in Southeast Asia

Karl Ammann wrote in Natural History magazine, “During a recent tiger conservation meeting in Bangkok, sponsored by the World Bank and with Interpol, CITES, and the World Customs Organization in attendance, I asked the chair why the Laotian delegate could not be confronted with some of the evidence of illegal wildlife trade in his country (including the open display of ivory in many stores). The answer was: “Some of these officials attending here are as frustrated as you and I are.” The question I did not ask but should have is: Why do we spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on such meetings in five-star hotels if the attendees are not decision makers and have no way to help create the political will to mount some real enforcement campaigns? [Source: Karl Ammann, Natural History magazine, September/ October 2012 ***]

“With Western diplomats and conservationists based in Vietnam, I discussed possible approaches to reducing demand. Exhortations about conservation do not seem to do the trick. One strategy is to attack the validity and effectiveness of the Traditional Chinese Medicine industry and its products. The feeling was and is, however, that the viewpoint of the West on such issues would not prove persuasive and might be counterproductive. ***

What about a campaign on local TV stations publicizing the techniques used by dealers to present “rhino horn” as real when in fact most of it is just pieces of water buffalo horn or some other imitation? The embarrassment at being deceived in the past and the desire to avoid falling for a scam might be a much more powerful and effective deterrent than another study questioning the medicinal properties and value of rhino horn. On the other hand, it might lead to a crackdown by authorities on the trading in fakes. That could be a good clue that they themselves are consumers of rhino horn.

In December 2012, Vietnam and South Africa signed an agreement aimed at bolstering law enforcement and tackling illegal wildlife trade including rhino horn trafficking. The agreement paves the way for improved intelligence information sharing and joint efforts by the two nations to crack down on the criminal syndicates behind the smuggling networks. [Source: WWF]

Yao Ming Says Takes Aim Rhino Horn Demand in China

In April 2013, the Wall Street Journal reported: “Former NBA star and Chinese icon, Yao Ming, launched a major public awareness campaign targeting consumption of ivory and rhino horn in China in partnership with WildAid, Save the Elephants, African Wildlife Foundation, and the Yao Ming Foundation. [Source: The Wall Street Journal, April 16, 2013]

In August 2012, Yao spent 12 days on a fact-finding mission in Kenya and South Africa filming a documentary to be aired in partnership with NHNZ later this year. Yao met wild elephants before encountering the bodies of five poached elephants in Kenya and a poached rhino in South Africa. He also visited local school children, whose education is funded through wildlife tourism revenue, and conservationists and government officials working to protect elephants and rhinos. Footage and stills from his trip were released together with a series of public service announcements informing consumers, "When the buying stops, the killing can too." WildAid thanks Ol Pejeta Conservancy and Virgin Atlantic for their support of Yao's Africa trip.

The attitudinal ivory and rhino horn surveys highlight the importance of Yao's involvement in this campaign and the urgent need for him to continue to positively influence his fellow countrymen. Similar public awareness campaigns are planned for Vietnam.

Yao stated, "Poaching threatens livelihoods, education, and development in parts of Africa due to the insecurity it brings and loss of tourism revenue. No one who sees the results firsthand, as I did, would buy ivory or rhino horn. I believe when people in China know what's happening they will do the right thing and say no to these products."

WildAid is the only organization to focus on reducing the demand for wildlife products with the strong and simple message: when the buying stops, the killing can too. WildAid works with Asian and Western celebrities and business leaders to dissuade people from purchasing wildlife products via public service announcements and educational initiatives, reaching up to one billion people per week in China alone. For more information: www.wildaid.org.

Image Sources: Wikimedia Commons

Text Sources: Animal Diversity Web animaldiversity.org ; National Geographic, Live Science, Natural History magazine, David Attenborough books, New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Smithsonian magazine, Discover magazine, The New Yorker, Time, Reuters, Associated Press, AFP, Lonely Planet Guides, Wikipedia, The Guardian, Top Secret Animal Attack Files website and various books and other publications.

Last updated January 2025


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