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.
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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 ...
The good news is that elephant populations are thriving in areas of southern Africa after years of hugely successful conservation, following the banning of the much despised ivory trade. Conservationists in some areas are now faced with a new challenge: overpopulation. Scientists and conservationists in Africa and globally believe that there are three solutions: translocation, culling or contraception, but there is no one solution which can solve problems of overpopulation immediately, and is problem free and humane.
......
Culling draws strong criticism from all quarters and is no longer extensively practiced. A moratorium on culling has been in place in South Africa since 1994.[ A decade later elephant populations have doubled in places such as Kruger Park to over 13000.] According to Allafrica.com, a 7% increase in numbers has conservationists very concerned not only for the vegetation, but the problems associated with elephants wandering outside of the park to surrounding communities, in search of food.
according to Melissa Wray, courtesy of Kruger Park Times and Science in Africa.
Not quite. Socialist Tanzania did a pretty good job for a long time preserving its big game animals.
How? By allowing legal hunting - which I believe it still does. Kenya, which outlawed hunting in 1976, saw its herds devastated by poaching.
Demand for ivory is so high now that 25,000 elephants were slaughtered last year alone. And this years slaughter rate is even faster than last years. Trying to meet the ivory demand with legalized hunting would still lead to the elephants extinction.
“..are too few rangers and too many poachers. ...”
I am sure politics has a role.
But you are right.
With so much real stuff to concern ourselves with, even giving rhinos extinction a second thought is beyond my imagination.
God’s creation isn’t “real” enough stuff to concern ourselves with?
99.9% of all the species that ever existed on this planet are extinct.
God is in control of all of his creations. At least that is what we believe in our house.
So what is your solution? My money, American blood?
It sure as hell ain’t gonna be your bravery stopping it.
Shove your insults up your ass.
The short answer is that there are.
The long answer: a neighbor couple went on several safaris and became good friends with a farmer in Africa. He suggested they plan a longer stay. Their last trip, they extended their visas twice and managed to spend 9 months in the bush. Meat hunting for the farm workers, culling operations, backing up PH apprentices. Because they'd be ranging miles away from home, the farmer took them to the district warden as soon as they collected their bags. His emphatic instructions: 'If you see any poachers, shoot them!'
Coward. Why are you here while all the poor Rhinos are dying? Don’t you care at all?
If I cared as much as you claim to care I would do something real. Guess we know how much you care, coward.
I agree, Africa is a hell hole and there is nothing we can do about it. I have friends who left South Africa because it became unlivable.
I’ve heard that Botswana is pretty decent.
I've seen a rhino in the wild...once,in Tanzania.A truly majestic...and scary...creature.Sad doesn't begin to describe this event.Ten bucks says it was Chinese interlopers who paid bribes to crooked officials for a mining license and on the weekends hunted game from helicopters.It's in Asia where rhino horns are believed to have medicinal properties after all.Asians are willing to pay serious cash for rhino horns.
We need to make RINOs extinct, not Rhinos.
I’m remembering a fetching little pygmy rhino girl at the San Diego zoo who cadged a lot of popcorn and bananas from visitors by batting her eyes at us.. Had to have a zookeeper on the scene to prevent visitors from feeding her.
I am one of those people who actually prefer animals to humans. Destruction of wild beasts is a crime against God, who created them all.
Even in zoos, a powerful beast.
It will be a terrible day if all that is left will be a few sickly animals caged.
“...It’s in Asia where rhino horns are believed to have medicinal properties ..”
Sounds a bit backward, for such a “progressive” country.
I read a book recently “The Lower River”. UGH! The filth, brutality, ignorance and squalor was hard to take.
You can still have a great trip in Zimbabwe as long as you put it out of your mind that the leader thinks of you as a filthy european and keeps his people in crushing poverty.
None of that compares to the plight of the poor Rhino. /s
Two of the best dogs I have ever had were Rhodesian Ridgebacks so something good has come from there.
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