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Dehorning Black Rhinos Essay

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Dehorning Black Rhinos

Dehorning black rhinos helped save them from extinction in the early 1990s from poachers because the armed guards patrolling the National Parks did not prove to be effective. Another way to preserve the rhino is to find substitutes for the horns.

Black rhinos, also known as the hooked-lip rhino, were poached mainly for their horns in the early 1990s, which led to the rhinos near extinction. The black rhino once roamed the extent of Africa’s sub-continent. Now the rhinos are primarily found in Kenya, Tanzania, South Africa, Nimibia and Zimbabwe because of the demand for the horns. The rhino population has declined in those countries from 65,000 in the 1960s to 25,000 today (Rhino, Internet).

Rhino horns …show more content…

The country of Yemen imports 1,500 kilograms of horn each year, about half of which is used to fashion the dagger handles. Dagger handles would not seem to be a practical use because the horns are composed of hard protein and keratin compounded by hair, but when the horns are polished, they look like grained, dark, translucent, amber (Tudge, 1991, 34).

Dehorning is one method to prevent poachers from shooting a rhino. Dehorning, the process of removing the front and rear horns of a rhino (Wright, 1991, 36), is a simple procedure, although only trained professionals are allowed to practice it because of the safety for both the rhino and veterinarian. If the safety of both the rhino and the veterinarian is low, it is pointless to dehorn if the species is harmed (Atkinson, Internet). For maximum safety, veterinarians tranquilize the rhino with a tranquilizer dart fired from a rifle with the correct dosage for the size and weight of the rhino. Two veterinarians then use a handsaw or a chainsaw to cut just above the rhino’s snout to remove the horns. The veterinarians coat the remainder of the horn with tar to prevent infection. After the dehorning process there is a regrowth of the horn, so the process has to be repeated every 12-18 months (Atkinson, Internet).

The rhino is not harmed during or afterwards and no side effects have been reported (Atkinson, Internet). Rhinos were even reported to attack film crews with their broad snouts and also protected their young from

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