The rhinoceros is a beautiful, large and strong animal that lives in Africa and Asia. Very earlier also in Europe. It is one of the five large wild animals called the Big Five in Africa. The animal is threatened by poachers, who kill it not for the meat but for the horn. There is a lively trade in horn, which is ground to dust in drugs used in traditional medicine. Without scientific evidence, many believe that horn has healing powers. It kills the rhino; the species has been decimated for its commercial value.
The horn that disappears in medicines
- Rhino
- Horn of the rhinoceros
- Two horns
- Defense
- Traditional medicine
- Nosebleed and cancer
- Poachers
- Legalize?
- Zoo
Rhino
The rhinoceros were previously found all over the world and have been around since prehistoric times. Today they only walk Africa and Asia. There are five species (white rhinoceros, black rhinoceros, Javan, Indian and Sumatran rhinoceros). In 1977 there were still 100,000 rhinos and in 2017 there are about 25,000 left.
Big Five
A rhinoceros can weigh up to 1700 kilos and belongs to the Big Five, the five great animals of Africa (elephant, lion, buffalo, leopard and rhinoceros). They are large, wild and dangerous animals that are the most difficult to hunt on foot. Hunters turned it into a sport Big Game the Big Five to score. Today it is the photographers who are looking for the big five for the camera.
Horn of the rhinoceros
The rhinoceros is skinned around its horn, a skin outgrowth on the nose of its head. The horn consists of horn dust, keratin, and can be compared to the material that nails and hair consist of. The horn grows about seven inches each year. Yet it does not grow above the rhino’s head, because the horn also wears out with use. After wear or breakage, the horn grows back, even if it is sawn off.
Two horns
The white and black rhinoceros live in Africa. They, like the Asian Sumatran rhinoceros, have two horns on the nose, a small and a large one. The Indian and Javan rhinos have one horn that usually does not exceed 12 inches. That’s how big the horn of the Sumatran rhinoceros gets. In the white rhinoceros the front and largest horn can grow up to 90 centimeters in length and that of the black one can get even bigger, up to 1.5 meters. The small horn of the black rhino can reach 50 centimeters in length.
Defense
The pointed horn is the rhino’s defense weapon. They use it to defend their territory, their young and themselves. An attacking rhino can reach speeds of up to 50 kilometers per hour and, for example, if it has anticipated a car pushing into its territory, it can easily hit through the door. The horn is also the pride of the rhinoceros being used as an outward trait to impress females and deter potential competitors in the partner market.
Traditional medicine
In Asia, horn is a popular remedy in traditional medicine. More animals are victims because of the (super) belief that the exotic parts have a good effect on health. California porpoises, among others, are indirect victims of poachers who hunt for fish for the Chinese pharmaceutical market. When it comes to the rhinoceros, there is a deep-rooted belief that horn can cure cancer. This healing effect has never been scientifically proven, but as long as there is faith and demand for the ingredient, there is reason for poachers to hunt the animals. On the black market, a kilogram of horn costs tens of thousands of euros (in 2017 prices are quoted between 30,000 and 50,000 per kilo). That market value encourages poachers to score rhino horns wherever they can.
Nosebleed and cancer
In Asia, horn is ground into medicines that are also used for high fever, dizziness and nosebleeds. Because of the price of the drug, it is mainly the rich who use it for diseases such as cancer. The horn trade is big business and the demand for the drugs is perpetuating poaching.
Aphrodisiac
Ground rhinoceros is also processed in agents, of which they are attributed aphrodisiac qualities. The Chinese, in particular, strongly believe in rhinoceros as an aphrodisiac.
Poachers
Poachers even steal stuffed rhino heads from museums and horns from rhinos living in a zoo. When the poachers hunt in the wild, they usually kill the rhino. This is not really necessary to obtain the handset, but it is motivated by speed and convenience. A sawn-off horn grows back and then the rhino can live on and produce offspring. The poachers don’t care about that. Poaching kills more than a thousand rhinos every year.
Legalize?
One way to combat poaching is to legalize the horn trade. Then the price of the horn falls and poaching becomes more risky and less lucrative. Legalization breaks the poachers’ monopoly. In Africa there are landowners where more than a thousand rhinos live. If the horns of those rhinoceroses are sawn off (harvested), the animals live. The horns are almost completely sawn off, just above the bone and grow back in a year. Sawing off the horn can be compared to cutting the nails. After a year, it can be harvested again. Opponents of legalization are afraid that there will be more hunt for legalization.
Zoo
A rhinoceros was slaughtered for its horn at the zoo in Thoiry in France on February 7, 2017. It concerns the rhino with the name Vince, which in the Netherlands in Burgers ?? Zoo Arnhem was born in captivity. The animal was shot in the head and robbed of its horn with a chainsaw. It is the first horn robbery in a European zoo. In January in South Africa, two animals were stripped of their horns in a zoo. They also did not survive the robbery.
Museum
In 2011, a horn was even stolen from a museum. The Natural History Museum in Rotterdam received a nightly visit on 26 August 2011 that forced its way in with brute force. The crooks took two rhino horns.
At the beginning of August 2011, two horns disappeared from Namur’s African Museum. Earlier, the Museum of Natural Sciences in Brussels and the zoological institute in Liège were victims of the thieves’ guild. Thefts of horns have also been committed in Germany, France, Portugal, the Czech Republic and Sweden.