Posted on 05/01/2013 5:46:16 AM PDT by kimtom
The 15 threatened animals were shot dead for their horns last month in the Mozambican part of Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park, which also covers South Africa and Zimbabwe.
They were thought to be the last of an estimated 300 that roamed through the special conservation area when it was established as "the world's greatest animal kingdom" in a treaty signed by the three countries' then presidents in 2002.
The latest deaths, and Mozambique's failure to tackle poaching, has prompted threats by South Africa to re-erect fences between their reserves.
Wildlife authorities believe the poachers were able to track the rhinoceroses with the help of game rangers working in the Limpopo National Park, as the Mozambican side of the reserve is known.
A total of 30 rangers are due in court in the coming weeks, charged with collusion in the creatures' deaths, according to the park's administrators.
Related Articles Woman gored by rhino after posing for photo 15 Jan 2013 White Rhinos to be guarded by drones 05 Jan 2013
Conservationists say the poorly-paid rangers were vulnerable to corruption by organised poaching gangs, who target rhinoceroses for their horns which are prized in Asia for their reputed aphrodisiac and cancer-curing properties.
The trade in rhino horn has seen the numbers of rhino killed spiral in recent years. Over the border in Kruger, the South African part of the transfrontier park, 180 have been killed so far this year, out of a national total of 249. Last year, 668 rhino were poached in South Africa, a 50 per cent increase over the previous year.
Kelvin Alie, from the International Fund for Animal Welfare, said the fact that the rangers may have been turned while working on such an important ....
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
I was watching a report on the BBC this morning. In west Africa former “rebel” leaders are getting rich on allowances paid for not fighting. In fact the wealthiest are getting big money to protect the oil infrastructure they once destroyed. Meanwhile, everyone else is still dirt poor.
Maybe its just me but that seems like a real ass backward way of dealing with things.
Capitalist countries don’t have that many exotic big animals in the wild, do they?
Just yesterday someone was saying this could never happen to elephants in the wild
Exactly.
Like the ones about the elephants.
First gigantic stretch of the day.
I don’t know.
Sad indeed. And a good reminder that wealthy, Capitalist countries are better at preserving wildlife diversity than poor,
It is the increasingly rich populations in capitalist Asian countries that are demanding more and more ivory and rhino horns.
meh....
Sounds a lot like the mafia "protection rackets."
There are more Black Buck Antelope in Texas than there are in their original homeland, maybe it's Pakistan. We have a herd of Black Bucks on our ranch and they are multiplying like rabbits.
When the only few remaining elephants, rhinos, tiger, lions, etc. will be the ones confined to zoos, poachers will find a way to get at them too.
“..There are probably plenty of them living in zoos in the US....”
...and when they are gone from the wild, the price will go up and zoos won’t be safe.
even elephants will multiply fast if given enough food supply, range and left alone...
Haaaah
Can we poach liberals?
The bounty hunters can get AKs too, and the rangers can’t kill everybody if they’re coming from all over to catch poachers. They’ll all be too busy watching their backs to be hunting rhinos, though. It’s a wild west approach, I’ll admit, but it would make the trade a lot more dangerous and perhaps lead to its collapse altogether. Hanging people for poaching the King’s game is not new.
Celebrate diversity! The solution would be to farm these animals, but the environmental extremists think that’s cruel. So instead, the animals face extinction. Same thing with tigers. If it were legal to farm them, they would not be on the same path.
Some days ya feel like you’ve wandered into the democrat underground. LOL
The simple fact is that the standard of living here is too high to ever make “Zoo poaching” (LOL) even remotely profitable. The guys poaching them in Africa are making big bucks by their standards but by ours its nothing. The real money is being made by the international dealers and the USA is already locked down pretty tight on that front.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.