Is dehorning a rhino a better solution?
Rhinos are well known for their bulk body and their horns. It is known that rhinos use their horns for several behavioural functions, including defending territories, defending calves from other rhinos and predators, maternal care (including guiding calves) and foraging behaviour, such as digging for water and breaking branches. Male rhinos also use their horns during disputes over territory or dominance.
Over the past few years there has been a shocking increase in rhino poaching. Rhino poaching is the illegal act of slaughtering. The most common reason for rhino poaching is to meet the high demand for their horns in Asian countries, where the horn is predominantly used in Traditional Chinese Medicine but is increasingly being used as a symbol of wealth and prosperity. This persistent human desire for rhino horn drives the slaughter of more than thousands of animals each year.
There is no scientific research to support the use of rhino horn in medicine. Rhino horn is made mostly of a tightly packed protein called keratin, the same protein found in our fingernails and hair. If you trim a rhino’s horn, it grows back.
Worldwide, the situation is alarming. In the last decade, 9,442 African rhinos have been lost to poaching. The situation for Asian rhinos is equally bleak. There are fewer than 30,000 rhinos globally, with Africa’s southern white rhino the most populous species at about 20,000.
Number of African rhinos poached from 2006 to 2019
Source: Save the Rhino, 2021
The current rhino poaching crisis began in 2008, with increasing numbers of rhino killed for their horn throughout Africa until 2015.
As an attempt to stop or decrease the poaching of rhinos, wildlife/reserve managers decided to take a drastic step and cut off the rhino’s horn. With the poachers’ prize removed, the risk of the hornless animals is greatly reduced.
Namibia was the first country to use dehorning to protect rhinos from poaching. Between 1989 and the early 1990s, dehorning coupled with rapid improvements in security and funding for anti-poaching was perceived by stakeholders to have contributed significantly to reducing poaching losses. The strategy has produced dramatic results in several reserves.
“This is not something we want to do. It’s expensive and invasive but we believe it is a necessary evil,” says Chris Galliers (chairman of the Game Rangers Association of Africa). The operation is noisy and violent, but there is no blood and it is no more painful than trimming your fingernails if done correctly.
Also, the rhino conservation sector, has responded to this alarming extinction risk in other number of ways, such as:
- First, intensive patrols with anti-poaching rangers are being undertaken, fences have been built or improved around protected areas, scouting drones have been deployed, horns of living rhinos have been equipped with RFID chips and information technology has been included at various levels to stop poaching
- Second, education and awareness campaigns have been set up to decrease the illegal demand for rhino horn
- Third, synthetic horns have been proposed to replace real ones and with that disturb the illegal market
- Fourth, cargo is being checked more intensively for animal body parts and negotiations with Asian governments are taking place to further enforce the ban on domestic sales of rhino horn in an effort to control the illegal trade
- Fifth, horns of living rhinos have been dyed, poisoned or removed to devalue rhino horn
So do you choose who to dehorn?
The simple answer is no.
If you dehorn just a few individuals from parks, there will still be a risk for the other individuals with horns. Dehorning only selected bulls is not an option too, as those without horns would be more vulnerable in territory fights. In parks where the entire rhino population is dehorned, all bulls are placed at equal disadvantage. But dehorned rhinos can still fend off lions by using their considerable bulk as a weapon
Horns grow back over time, with recent studies claiming that the re-growth of dehorned rhino horn appears faster than growth in non-dehorned rhinos. With the current severe poaching threat, experts recommend that rhinos should ideally be dehorned every 12-24 months in order to be an effective deterrent.
It is a sad reality that in order to help save rhino species from the threat of poaching, the removal of their horns in a safe, controlled manner, has become one of the necessary and highly effective management tools for conservationists to deter poachers.
For dehorning to be effective, it must be coupled with extensive anti-poaching security and monitoring efforts. With an absence of security, rhinos may continue to be poached regardless of whether they have been dehorned. And if rhinos are to be dehorned, it should be done in conjunction with a publicity drive to ensure that poachers are aware that the rhinos have been dehorned. If not, there may be a lag effect whereby poachers continue to target rhinos in the area.
Dehorning has its place in rhino conservation and, although not a stand-alone solution, used alongside other methods (as mentioned above), dehorning can be used to protect rhinos. Due to the invasive nature of dehorning, it should only be considered as a last resort under conditions of severe poaching threat.
We inspire because we care
Love,
Bea & João
