This species of Rhino’s may no longer be with us in the near future
The Sumatran Rhino’s
Why are Rhino’s becoming endangered?
Rhino’s nowadays are gradually nearing towards critical endangerment and worse, extinction. In 1970 there were only 70,000 rhinoceroses and currently there are only 29,000 and are reducing by the day. The main reason for the dramatic decrease in rhino’s is due to animal poachers and hunters. Why do humans go after Rhino’s? Well, the prominent reason is a rhino’s tusk. Normally, in elephants and rhino tusks, there are precious materials with ivory being the important and unfortunately valuable material. In the Asian market, the tusk of a rhino is worth a staggering $65,000 per Kg which is absolutely insane. The demand for the tusk is so much in Vietnam that people are sometimes willing to overpay. Worst of all, it is being hunted out of fame and wealth as a hunter would showcase their tusk as some sort of prized possession. The other use of the tusks is for traditional Chinese medicine, but that is a dying art compared to fame and publicity. The tusks are extremely valuable hence why poachers and hunters are after them and therefore the sad decline in Rhino’s.
The Sumatran Rhino – On the brink of extinction
Whilst being the most endangered rhinoceros species, the sumatran rhino are the only rhino’s in Asia that have two tusks and are the smallest of the rhinoceroses. This is why they are notorious targets of poachers and hunters and why they are nearing extinction as they are critically endangered. Alarmingly, there are approximately only 100 of sumatran rhinos left and they live in dense areas thus not getting a lot of freedom and space to openly live. In fact, they cannot succeed outside their ecosystem and for this reason, many are raised in captivity in order to help preserve and then try attempts to raise its population figures. They are now currently raised and seen in Indonesia as the species was declared extinct Vietnam in 2010 and in Malaysia in 2015.
Furthermore, according to the WWF, only two female sumatran rhinos have reproduced in the last 15 years and the population is becoming increasingly unstable. It is even more worrying that only two females have reproduced because that is half the approximate lifespan of the sumatran rhino as they only live up to a maximum of 35-40 years. And what’s even more worrying than that? female sumatran rhinos only give birth to a calf once every three years! Now that is pretty shocking. Luckily, they are not left unattended as they receive protection from hunters and poachers on a constant basis and are properly maintained and fed.
It is sad to see that people value a tusk for personal benefit over nature itself and hunters are poachers are extremely coming under fire especially when they decide to publicise their photos with their fallen prey. Human’s may be top of the food chain in some cases, but are we really civilised and respective to nature? Unless someone thinks there might be a rhinoceros invasion, should we really be interfering in a business that is really not ours and secondly only for profitable means?
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