Officials in South Africa are taking the grave situation of the vanishing rhino population into their own hands — infusing their horns with red dye and toxins to ensure that poachers can’t sell the valuable body parts.
More than 1,000 rhinos were killed last year and the Rhino Rescue Project has decided to do something radical about it, Barcroft Media reports.
The conservationists have begun tracking the endangered animals in the Sabi Sands Private Game Reserve from the air, tranquilizing them and then injecting their horns with a special concoction of red dye and special toxins.
The mixture renders the horn completely useless to those trying to sell it commercially — and also toxic for human consumption.
The rhino is kept cool and relaxed throughout the entire procedure and is safely set free once they are finished.
“I refuse to sit back and have to explain myself to the next generation when they ask me, ‘Well, what were you doing when rhinos weren’t extinct?'” said Lorinda Hern, who organized the initiative with veterinarian Dr. Charles van Niekerk.
lennyflank on March 3rd, 2019 at 00:31 UTC »
The poaching really is insane there. The rhino at the Pretoria Zoo has to have an armed guard all night, or somebody will sneak in and kill it for the horn.
At Kruger National park, they have "sighting boards" at the camps where tourists can post the locations where they have seen animals (so the other tourists can go see too). But the park doesn't let anyone post where they have seen rhinos--the poachers were using the info to go kill them.
:(
TheZygoteTalentShow on March 2nd, 2019 at 23:49 UTC »
Also makes the rhinos look fuckin badass
rignacious on March 2nd, 2019 at 23:15 UTC »
This seems like a pretty good idea. In the past, conservationists have protected rhinos from poaching by removing their horns, but horns can't be removed entirely and "hornless" rhinos are still killed for the small part of the horn that is left behind. The only problem is it is thought that some poachers kill rhinos without horns in order to avoid tracking them again in the future.