OL PEJETA, Kenya (AP) — Wildlife experts and veterinarians said Friday there is hope to prevent the extinction of the northern white rhino because they successfully extracted eggs from the last two remaining females of the species. The eggs will be used to reproduce the species through a surrogate.Read the Full Article Here.
NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Eight critically endangered black rhinos are dead in Kenya after wildlife workers moved them from the capital to a new national park, the government said Friday, calling the toll “unprecedented” in more than a decade of such transfers.Read the Full Article at San Francisco Chronicles
Poachers forced their way into a French zoo and killed a southern white rhinoceros named Vince, sawing off one of his horns before fleeing into the night.
The Thoiry Zoo said police are investigating the killing of the 4-year-old animal. The poachers remain at large.
“It is extremely shocking what just happened,” zoo director Thierry Duguet told France’s 20 Minutes newspaper. “An act of such violence, never before seen in Europe.”
Read the full article at NPR!
The white rhino was left to die last spring.
Poachers had entered the reserve in South Africa’s Eastern Cape province, sedated the female with a dart tranquilizer, and hacked off her horns and part of the skull under them. When the reserve’s owners found the rhino days later, news reports said, the gruesome hole in her face was riddled with maggots. But she was alive.
Last week, the rhino — who has since been dubbed Hope — underwent facial reconstruction surgery intended to close up that wound. It was the sixth major surgery she has had since her horns were cut off, according to the Independent Online, and it’s unclear whether it will work.
Read the full article here!
Poachers shot dead a rhinoceros at a wildlife park in northeast India hours after Britain’s Prince William and his wife Kate visited the sanctuary, a wildlife official said Friday.
Rangers found the dead rhino with its horn missing on Thursday — the day the royal couple left the Kaziranga National Park in Assam state, home to two-thirds of the planet’s remaining one-horned rhinos.
Read the full article at Yahoo News!
From Yahoo News:
Following the tragic killing of Cecil the lion it is imperative that we use this outrage to turn the spotlight on one of South Africa’s biggest tragedies—rhino genocide. When most travelers head to Africa for a safari vacation they are hoping to spot the “Big Five.” That is shorthand for the big game— lion, elephant, buffalo, leopard and rhino. But, if things don’t change and soon, they will only ever get a chance to see the “Big Four.”
Read the full article Right Here
This is a brilliant example of how technology and nature can come together!
Poaching for rhinos has become so rampant and the prospect of the species going extinct has become so real that scientists have developed an extreme measure to fight back: a hidden camera inserted into the horns of the rhinos.
The aim is for the hidden camera to provide evidence to convict poachers and act as a deterrent to poaching.
Read the full article at GrindTV
Photo courtesy of Protect
Another worthwhile story for the day:
On a stretch of land in Kenya, the last rhino for miles was killed 25 years ago.
Eastern black rhinos, murdered by poachers for their horns, have not set foot in the 100-square-mile native habitat since, and their numbers worldwide plummeted by 98 percent between 1960 and 1995 because of hunting and poaching.
But last week, that began to change.
Read the full article at Yahoo News
While the action may seem a little counter-productive, there actually is a good reason for it!
Windhoek (AFP) – A US hunter who paid $350,000 to kill a black rhinoceros in Namibia successfully shot the animal on Monday, saying that his actions would help protect the critically-endangered species.
Read the full article at: Yahoo News
A report from Yahoo news:
SAN ANTONIO (Reuters) – In the Texas grassland, home to white-tailed deer and rattlesnakes, outdoorsman Charly Seale sees a vast sanctuary of open spaces that could be used to protect the wild African rhino from its biggest enemy – poachers in search of the animals’ valuable horns.
Read the full article at Yahoo News
