Kathi,

Some thoughts on the black.

I have seen black rhino on hunts in Namibia, RSA and Zim. They are interesting animals in more ways than one. They can eat and digest browse that is poisonous to other animals. When they are removed from an area, the bad stuff can take over and effectively push other species out too.

The first black rhino "license" I saw in recent times was offered at US$300,000, and from what I hear they are down to around $100,000 now. That data agrees with the numbers data the conservationists are estimating.

Maybe if I live long enough I can do a proper "Big 5".

jim dodd

Africa's Black Rhino Seen on Road to Recovery

Wed Jun 23,10:17 PM ET
By Ed Stoddard

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - Africa's black rhino has been snatched from the brink of extinction and its numbers are on the rebound, but the lumbering beast still faces many threats, conservationists said on Thursday.

"Africa's critically endangered black rhinoceros could be on its way to recovery if present trends continue," The World Conservation Union (IUCN) and WWF International said as they unveiled new estimates from the African Rhino Specialist Group.


Demand for rhino horn in East Asia, where it is valued for medical purposes, and in the Middle East, where it is used in dagger handles, left a bloody trail of dead rhinos in its wake.


Rampant poaching drove black rhino numbers down to around 2,400 in the mid-1990s from an estimated 65,000 just two decades before. Poachers typically hack off the horns and leave the hulking carcasses to rot under the African sun.


"The latest findings show black rhino numbers have increased to just over 3,600, a rise of 500 over the last two years," Swiss-based IUCN and WWF said.


Better law enforcement and an increase in the amount of protected habitat, notably in South Africa where landowners are converting farms into private nature reserves, are reasons that have been given for the rise in numbers.


"The ability to engage the private sector has been very helpful... In South Africa, private land owners are buying black rhinos as an asset," Dr. Sue Mainka, the head of IUCN's species program, told Reuters by telephone.


The conservation bodies made no mention of black rhino numbers in Zimbabwe, where environmentalists have sounded the alarm about an upsurge of poaching amid lawlessness and a crumbling economy.


The black rhino is following a comeback path blazed by its bigger cousin the white rhino, which is the world's second largest land mammal.


The southern white rhino population, down to just 50 individuals a century ago, now stands at 11,000.


Both animals are in fact gray in color.


The outlook for two other African sub-species of rhino is far more bleak, the IUCN and WWF said.


The northern white rhino has been reduced to a single, small population of just over 20 animals in the anarchic Democratic Republic of Congo (news - web sites), and could soon be wiped out altogether by Sudanese poachers.


In Cameroon, the western black rhino may be in an even worse state with only a few animals scattered widely.


"Illegal demand for horn, high unemployment, poverty, demand for land, wars, the ready availability of arms and internal instability ... pose a threat to rhino populations," said Taye Teferi, WWF's African Rhino Coordinator.

Jim - it is actually legal to take a black rhino?

In what country?

I can imagine that it must be a dying old specimen with tags, tattoos, marks from radio collars, a name, a serial number, and a personal staff of 10...

I doubt that you could import the trophy into most countries?

Rick.

Rick,

If someone buys a black rhino at auction and releases it on private property, most game laws are replaced by agriculture regulations.

Many countries are more cavalier about importing animal parts than hyperactive-anal places like the USA.

I measured one collection for SCI that had -- if you can believe it -- two black rhinos, both taken on the same hunt in Angola in the 60s. Times change.

jim