Zimbabwe dehorns rhinos to curb poaching

Zimbabwe has stepped up efforts to curb poaching in the country by dehorning adult rhinos.

The southern African nation will dehorn the nearly 100 rhinos residing in its state parks, which are targeted by poachers.

Furthermore, private conservancies, which house some 600 additional rhinos, may also choose to dehorn their rhinos.

“We are in a crisis, we are loosing these animals at an alarming rate and I don’t personally like doing this to the rhino but it’s something that has to be done. I have no doubt in my mind that if we had not been dehorning those animals since 2010 those populations would no longer exist. You just have to look north in the Zambezi valley, the statistics for elephant poaching. We’ve lost between forty to seventy percent of our elephants up there,” said Veterinarian Lisa Marabini.

Last year, about 1,300 rhinos were illegally killed for their horns across Africa. Of these 50 rhinos were killed in Zimbabwe, double the figure for the previous year.

This killings is mainly to feed the appetite of Asian markets, who use the horns for traditional medicine.

Reuters