Home » Science & Nature » Environment » Endangered Rhinos

Endangered Rhinos

© Kenneth Friedman

There once was (circa 1980s), and still may be, a digital counter in a room at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., which counted the increasing world population. The speed of the counter was, as I recall, more or less equal to the ticking of a clock. Go ahead, you can imitate the speed--1, 2, 3, 4--only the numbers were in the billions.

World Wildlife Fund writes in its July/August 1997 newsletter FOCUS, that "Central Africa's Changing Landscape Poses Conservation Challenges." What an understatement. Five years ago the population of Africa was an estimated 670 million and was projected for doubling within 24 years. Almost a quarter of that time has passed already.

And so it continues. Population growth and its accompanying competition for space for crops, herds, aquaculture, silviculture, buildings, highways, mines, reservoirs, dams and so on. You've probably heard all of this before in one way or another. Our fellow travelers, the animals, other species and indigenous peoples are being pushed off their traditional lands. Pushed to nowhere because there is no place for them to go. One of many species feeling the pinch for space is the rhino. It seems it just doesn't pay to be big, mean, ugly and horny, particularly if you're a rhino. (And you were thinking NFL linebacker! Shame!)

"Big" means there isn't much room for you, what with people encroaching on your habitat. "Mean" means people aren't going to ooh and ahh at you the way they do a kitty cat. Ugly gets the same lack of respect. About the only reason you do get affection is because you're horny--your horns are worth a lot of money for "Far Eastern elixirs and Yemini daggers."

In the 1970s, Africa was home to about 70,000 black rhinos. It ended the 1980s with about 3,000--near extinction. Quite a drop. Today, according to the International Rhino Foundation (IRF) there are about 2,500 black rhinos. IRF says that five species of rhino are on the "verge of extinction, a crisis of catastrophic proportions for such a venerable group of animals." IRF predicts that four species could be extinct in the wild within the next 10 years. That's 2007. In addition to the low number of black rhinos, there are only, according to the S.O.S. Rhino page, about 1,900 Indian/Nepalese, 400 Sumatran and 70 Javan rhinos remaining. (Sumatra and Java are Indonesian islands.) There are about 6,500 white rhinos.

The copyright of the article Endangered Rhinos in Environment is owned by . Permission to republish Endangered Rhinos in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.