This week, the South African media reported that some game farmers and reserve owners have allegedly been killing their own rhinos and claiming the rhinos were “poached” — and then selling the horns on the black market. Of course, game farmer Dawie Groenewald was mentioned in the IOL/ Cape Times revelation, since the bodies of
South Africa’s rhino horn syndicate case involving game farmer Marnus Steyl, professional hunter Harry Claassens, and Thai nationals Chumlung Lemtongthai, Punpitak Chunchom, and Tool Sriton has been postponed. Although the alleged syndicate’s legal team had hoped to get the case thrown out, the suspects will make another court appearance on November 5th. Steyl and his
This week, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono of Indonesia declared June 5th, 2012, as the beginning of the International Year of the Rhino. Indonesia is home to Critically Endangered Javan and Sumatran rhinos. Both species are teetering at the edge of extinction, with only around 40 Javan rhinos and fewer than 200 Sumatran rhinos still surviving.
Kaziranga National Park’s greater one-horned rhinos are safer today, following an exchange of gunfire between authorities and armed rhino killers, which left one of the assailants dead. According to India Blooms news, the incident occurred near the Bagori range of the park. Police also recovered a .303 rifle and live ammunition. Less than a week
The latest figures released by the South African Government Department of Environmental Affairs are grim: 150 rhinos have been slaughtered since the beginning of 2012. According the statement, more than half (87) of the rhinos were killed in South Africa’s famed Kruger National Park, and 90 people have been arrested for rhino-related crimes during the
Another rhinoceros subspecies gone forever: The IUCN has confirmed that the Western black rhino (Diceros bicornis longipes) is indeed extinct. Just like the recent extinction of the Vietnamese Javan rhino (Rhinoceros sondaicus annamiticus), “lack of political will” is cited as a contributing factor. The Diceros bicornis longipes page on the IUCN Red List of Threatened
The conservation community mourns this week as the extinction of the Javan rhino subspecies (Rhinoceros sondaicus annamiticus) was confirmed. Photo © WWF-Greater Mekong DNA testing determined that a female rhino, found shot to death in Vietnam’s Cat Tien National Park in 2010 with her horn missing, was the very last of her kind. A report
There are now at least 250 fewer rhinos in South Africa than there were at the beginning of the year, thanks to the continuing menace of international rhino horn smuggling syndicates.
Yet another unsavory connection between South Africa’s trophy hunting of rhinos and the illegal rhino horn trade: Recent investigations have revealed that Thai prostitutes were brought into the country by a known human trafficker for the purpose of “hunting” rhinos.
