Every day, approximately three rhinos are killed and poached for their horns. Their numbers are in steep decline and it is sad because rhinos have no natural predators except for humans. In the last decade almost 10 thousand of these animals have been killed. There are only about 27,000 rhinos left in the wild, according to the World Wide Fund for Nature.
Over the years, rhinos have been hunted by poachers for their horns and blood, which is used in traditional Asian medicine and believed to contain a cure for cancer, fever, convulsions, and increased male virility. And with the middle class growing in Asian countries so is the apetite for the horns.
1977 - The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) declares the trade of rhinoceros horns illegal.
In 2011, the African black rhino species were declared extinct.
THERE ARE FIVE SPECIES OF RHINO
White and black rhinos in Africa, and the greater one-horned, Javan and Sumatran rhino species in Asia. White rhinos, black rhinos, and Sumatran rhinos have two horns, but Javan rhinos have one. Rhinos’ horns are made of keratin, not bones. Four of these species are threatened with extinction and three are critically endangered which means they could go extinct in our lifetime.
Sources: rhinos.org, nationaltoday.com
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