Save the rhinos!

A rhino at Shamwari Game Reserve in South Africa. Photo by Brian Ray

Did you know poachers are illegally killing rhinos for their horns, at the rate of one approximately every 11 hours according to National Geographic? People from Asia are buying the horns on the black market because they believe the horns have healing powers against diseases like cancer. But that is medically not true.

Did you know that the last known rhino living in Mozambique died in April 2013? The rhino is now extinct in that country because poachers have killed them off.

South African rhino poaching has been a problem since 2010.  In 2010, 333 rhinos were poached. In 2011, 448 were poached. In 2012, 668 were poached. As of June 2013, 446 have already been poached. The rhino poaching has increased at alarming rates. I’m afraid poachers might wipe out the rhino population in South Africa too.

South Africa has the largest rhino population in the world. Most of them live in Kruger National Park which is on the border of South Africa and Mozambique. Mozambique is one of the poorest countries in the world. People are desperate and will put their lives at risk for money. Mozambique doesn’t have strict laws against poaching. Poachers enter Kruger National Park along the border. 

South Africa is working hard to save the rhino. In Kruger, their rangers are armed to protect the rhinos from poachers. The park also has help from the South African army, helicopter patrols and drones. But it’s not enough because more and more rhinos are dying. 

It seems all too real to me. I can’t imagine life without rhinos. They are not the best-looking animal, but if you have ever seen one in person, you know there is a unique beauty to them. On a safari my family took while living in South Africa, our guide, Harry, told us that we were fortunate to see the rhinos in the wild because they might not be here much longer. We saw a whole "crash" of rhinos – four together including a young one. That's what a group is called. It would be awful if one day the world woke up and learned that it could never see a real live rhino in the wild anywhere ever again!

I think the best way to help the rhinos is to talk about the poaching problem. Make more and more people aware that the rhinos are seriously endangered because people are killing them to sell their horns. I hope that people who are buying the horns learn that the horns are not medicine and cannot cure diseases and they stop buying them. I think if people stop buying the horns, then poachers will stop killing the rhinos. 

If you want to learn more about South African rhinos, you can check out the websites: www.rhinos.org and www.savetherhino.org.

Audrey Ray

Audrey Ray is a soon-to-be sixth-grader at Bay Middle School, currently living abroad in South Africa.

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Volume 5, Issue 15, Posted 9:44 AM, 07.23.2013