ENVIRONMENT/NATURE
January 2012
438: The Shocking Toll of Rhinos Slaughtered in South Africa
South African Rhino Photo: Wegmann/Wikipedia
I have mentioned this before. The essential problem is our economic system. The rarer something becomes, the more valuable it becomes, therefore the greater the motivation to exploit it. Even if it is illegal, people will take more risks, the great the rewards are for taking these risks. This is completely opposite to how the natural world works where if something is being predated, and it becomes rare, the predators switch attention to something less rare, therefore decreasing the attention on it. We must look for a way to reverse this mechanism in our economoy because it is this which can drive things to extinction, no matter how hard we try to protect it. It doesn't matter if it is the eggs of rare birds, rare and restricted orchids, the problem is the same. If there is a demand for something in a market economy, it because more valuable as supply decreases. It is a major driver of environmental damage.
Read the article GUARDIAN/Illegal South African rhino killings hit record high
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Unfortunately, at the rate things are going for Rhino's, they will be extinct long before we have a change in our economic system. There will always be a demand for animal parts, no matter the economic system, although I agree with your point that when high (money) rewards are up for grabs, poachers are willing to take greater risks. I believe the human race is still deeply embedded in the dark ages.
Read the article GUARDIAN/Illegal South African rhino killings hit record high
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Poaching is a serious problem that is getting worse and becoming a real threat to rhinos, but I wish Brits weren't such a load of ignorant bunny-hugging alarmists on these issues. I'm always stunned at how there seems to be a preponderance of idiots wishing to voice their contrived anti-humanism through a series of trite and bizarre comments about how everything would be better without mankind, in a bid to what... look profound? You don't look profound, you look like an idiot. Sentimentalism and pretentious fatheads is the last thing any cause, scientific or political, needs.
Because the news isn't all that bad; white Rhinos have bounced back from only 50ish in 1900 to nearly 20,000 today (up from 10k in 2000). They are not an endangered or threatened species and their population is healthy. To anyone who's spent time in Africa regularly over the last 20 years the rise will be noticeable. Tourists in the Kruger in the 90s would be hard-pressed to find a rhino; now you'll likely see 5 or 6 in a day's driving.
Reserves have tried de-horning and it has been a failure. Armed patrols and shoot on sight policies have proved more fruitful; but at the end of the day if the Chinese government won't play ball and go after the organised crime gangs there's only so much the South Africans can do.
How infuriating, that these animals die for the sake of quack 'medicine' being flogged to the growing wealthy middle class in China; often more as a status symbol than from any serious belief in this 'supplement'. Unless the Chinese do act, the growth in demand for this might prove as disastrous for the southern white rhino as the growth in demand for jambiya daggers in the 70s proved for the black rhino!
Read the article GUARDIAN/Illegal South African rhino killings hit record high
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I just love the double standards professed in both the articles and in the comments section below. I abhor the killings of these rhinos yes but what I don't understand is what makes us morally superior to the rest of the world. We tell other countries that they cannot do things that benefits their economy, we tell Brazil that they have to stop cutting down their rain forests and we are disgusting when endangered animals are killed. Yet I urge you to look back at our own history and our own role in destroying the environment. It is in the past you say? Well no it isn't. HS2 will destroy up to 13 ancient forests destroying many habitats for animals, and we do not even blink. Before we start assuming the position of moral arbiter over the rest of the world, especially when it comes to the environment, let's please assess our own position first.
Read the article GUARDIAN/Illegal South African rhino killings hit record high
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It's very likely that the demand for rhino horn was fueled by hunting, rather than the other way round. Why the escalation in poaching only now, since the demand has been around for many many decades in the East, with the belief that rhino horn is a cure for ills being nothing new. The increase in poaching is linked with the issuing of permits for legal hunting, and with the sale of our rhino by Sanparks to hunting lodges. It is SA's so-called 'conservation' management that has actually created the demand for rhino horn, and that continues to fuel it by allowing hunting to continue, and by doing little to stop illegal poaching
Read the article MAIL & GUARDIAN/Rhino lovers issue ultimatum ahead of poaching hearings
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1. No question, the poaching of Rhino must be stopped but do threats from a foreign animal RIGHTS group assist us to acheive this? International Animal Rescue Foundation is an animal RIGHTS group opposed to hunting, they are jumping on this bandwagon to raise money and further their anti-hunting agenda, alonside their freinds at CAPS and BORN FREE FOUNDATION, they stand to make money from the issue.
2. 25% of the rhino population is on private land. If game farmers are prohibited from reaping the reward of their good stewardship by being allowed to legally arrange the hunting of surplus rhino bulls then they may as well get rid of their rhino and return the land to cattle - we stand to lose 25% of the rhino population if a hunting moratorium is imposed.
3. Most private rhino owners are campaigning for an opening of the rhino horn trade. Rhino horn can be harvested from the animal WITHOUT killing it, if the trade is allowed.
4. Only a lunatic animal RIGHTS group (not an 'anti-cruelty' group Fiona, come on you know the difference between rights and welfare!!!) would suggest the destruction of a national asset (OUR national asset, NOT theirs!) of US$600 million (is that R5 BILLION?) that would be better served protecting the rhino that belong to the State and expanding the ranges available.
5. Debate the issue but don't let the European animal rights groups jump on this bandwagon and bleed it for donations (that's all they are after - HSUS and IFAW should be making their pitch any day now!!).
6. Listen to people with a vested interest like John Hume - if he is allowed to make money from rhino, they will never become extinct.
Read the article MAIL & GUARDIAN/Rhino lovers issue ultimatum ahead of poaching hearings
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Obviously that battle against poaching is a losing one at this stage, with the propensity of growing Asian markets, and the enormous amount of money to be made by poachers themselves.
Firstt of all, shouldn’t we be forcing the government to start deploying more and more SANDF soldiers along the borders of our parks, as well as to combine this with intelligence to be able to perform operations into parks as well. This would surely have a declining effect on poaching numbers while the real problem can be addressed. The real problem is twofold, firstly, the idiotic popular believe that Rhino horns have some sort of medicinal value, which is the biggest driver to dwindling rhino populations.
South-Africa must start using mass educational campaigns to thwart these medieval-like miss conceptions, because if we don’t take responsibility for this, no one will!! Secondly, maybe we have come to a point where we should start thinking of the possibilities of having regulated markets in rhino horns (and ivory). In such conditions we should be able to farm and harvest rhino horns, in a regulated environment, and sell these to the markets where the demand is high. All of this would obviously be done in a manner which is not harmful to rhino’s AT ALL.
This will also bring about the advantage of instilling control on these markets, but also creating jobs for South-Africans. South-Africans being employed in this market will also be able to bring about much more awareness. Proceeds from these markets can obviously be utilised for more conservation, but also to ideally finance educational campaigns and awareness in the Asian markets where it is needed. Protecting Rhino’s the way we have been doing, is obviously not working very well, if we don’t start being clever about it, the only thing we will have left on the topic of rhino’s in less than 15 years, will be photo’s and memories...
Read the article MAIL & GUARDIAN/Poachers skill up to slip ivory, rhino horns out of SA
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One has to provide really strict and enforceable disincentives to eliminate ivory poaching. Continuous education at all levels of society is must. Being caught doing such a crime should bear the same consequences as being caught with illegal drugs overseas. Every rhino killed is an assault on our global natural heritage. Kruger National Park is owned and appreciated by us all...even people who will never visit it.
I really hope that SANPARKS and KNP step up to the plate big time and show some real mettle in defense and conservation of its unique and precious fauna and flora. After reading about the death of nine (9) rhinos in KNP, it makes me worry that the park is under siege. Army patrols are there but that might not be enough. Each of us has the right and responsibility to do whatever we can to help protect the KNP and its threatened species (rhinos). These perpetraitors must not operate with impunity. Their actions must be stopped by any means necessary.
Read the article NEWs 24/3 more rhino carcasses found.
Pafuri Gate, Northern Entrance to Kruger National Parkl/Wikipedia
"Lost World" Found in the Seas off Antarctica
Close-up of new species of yeti crab Photo: Courtesy Oxford University
Unidentified pale octopus crossing the sea floor Photo: Coourtesy Oxford University
RESEARCH ARTICLE
We estimate that we know about 10% of the world flora and fauna, so yes, there are a lot more species that exist than we know about. Even here in North America we have discovered only about half of the species that live here. Most of the unknown ones are found in the obscure and little studied creepy-crawlie groups, like the bacteria, fungi, insects, etc. Every time I study a group (mostly local stuff) I find more new, un-described species than ones we already knew about.
It is a hoot working on this stuff - and you don't need an ROV or half a million dollars to do it. I make my discoveries with a desk, a PC, a camera, and a microscope. It's cheap affordable science, really.
I think this is a big part of the urgency that environmentalists feel: When we mess around with an ecosystem we can (and do) lose species that we didn't even know were there.
Read the article CBC NEWS/'Lost world' of new Antarctic species found
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Life without sunlight on our planet strongly suggests that life without sunlight could exist elsewhere.
This is a remarkable find, but let us hope that scientists proceed slowly exploring it.
For all we know, the lights we use to illuminate this dark area could be harming some of the creatures down there.
Read the article CBC NEWS/'Lost world' of new Antarctic species foun
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The tubeworms are not the lowest in the food chain, chemosynthetic bacteria are. That is what the tubeworms live off. They host the bacteria and their gills (the part seen outside the tube) supply them with the oxygen they need to gain energy from the elements coming out of the vents.
At vents it is these bacteria that take the place of algae in the sunlit ecosystems. Note though that despite some descriptions these communities are not completely independent of the sun as they need molecular oxygen to thrive and without cyanobacteria and algae there would not be any available, in the air or the sea. It is the oxygen that connects these ecosystems to others.
I presume some other organism hosts or lives off similar bacteria fixing metals from the vent in this community. The currents in the Southern Ocean sweep around the globe and thus form a barrier for the entry of organisms from further north which probably explains why some species are absent, their larvae simply didn't get swept there. What is perhaps more remarkable considering the isolation of many of these sites is how many species are present between sites and how recognisably similar they are. But then these vents often don't live all that long in geological time so these animals must have evolved an efficient larval dispersal system. Much like the worms who specialise in breaking down the bones of dead whales on the seafloor.
Read the article GUARDIAN/Pale octopus, hairy-chested yeti crab and other new species found
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It's truly amazing how life even under the most difficult of circumstances seems to find a way to overcome adversity. If bacteria and creatures can flourish 8,000 feet deep in the icy waters of the Antarctica it defies logic to think many other life forms don't exist on millions of planets throughout our galaxy alone- especially when the catalyst is chemical, as opposed to solar based.
Read the article WASHINGTON POST/Deep-sea vents, just north of Antarctica, flourish with species never seen before
READ MORE COMMENTS: NOVEMBER - DECEMBER 2011
