CyberDodo and Rhinos (1-28)

The rhino’s horn 2/2

With this animal, everything revolves around its horn. Its name is derived from the Greek ‘rhinos', which means nose, and ‘keras' horn, thus the horn on its nose.

Although the rhino can live for up to 45 years and has no natural predators, unless it is young, weak or injured, its horn has aroused the mortal interest of the worst enemy that it could ever find: man!

What is the rhino horn made of?

Keratine, which is also found in hair and nails. Rhino horns have been analysed to check if they do have special curative properties (Since it has long been known that, for example, the ingestion of hair does not bring any benefits to health), the result of these tests was logically negative.

Why is the rhino horn so much in demand?

There are as many answers to this question as there are uses by mankind. But in the end, the principle is always the same: whatever is rare is precious. A part of the horns taken by poachers is used to make knife handles or sculptures, which are sold for a fortune.

But the most common usage of the rhino horn is ‘therapeutic', since in Chinese traditional medicine the horn powder or shavings are reputed to heal a number of significant ailments, even sexual impotence.

These troubles have exterminated entire rhino populations and have resulted in these species being today under threat of extinction. Their protectors have had no other choice but to cut the horns of the animals in order to protect them from poachers, but the horns re-grow every 2 or 3 years

Let's end this case file by discussing rhino reproduction, which will demonstrate their extreme fragility and the urgent need to protect them.

In order to be able to reproduce, young female rhinos must wait to be 5 years and males, 8 years. The female has a gestation period of 15 to 18 months, as it can only suckle one baby for about 2 years, and during this period, the mother cannot have another baby.

You can now understand why the loss of a single rhino weakens the entire species and it does not just consist of some individuals which have been killed for their horns, but tens of thousands.

Protection programmes which have been put in place too late (we should not have waited for a species to be on the verge of extinction before acting) have been slightly successful, but poachers are always on the chase and rhinos are always in danger.

Although there are men ready to spend fortunes to buy agglutinated hair (Another description of the rhino horn), no individual is fully protected.

Again, everything depends on man, the worst and we hope the better

To see the cartoon on rhinos, click here

To see the quiz, click here

To see the game, click here
 

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