strategy against rhino poachers

Desperate search for a strategy against rhino poachers
Cape Town - It is a bloody, nasty business: The Poacher's most wounded or stunned by the brutal rhinos removed with axes and chainsaws, the great mighty horn meat.

The animals are left bleeding profusely and waidwund back. Most die - a painful death.

The illegal hunting of rhinos in southern Africa, their last great habitat, increases in years. By March of this year, poachers in South Africa alone have killed 135 of the pachyderms. 2011 there were 448 rhinos, 2010 or 333 - almost three times as much as in 2009. There are also legally hunted rhinos: 2011 143 paid for big game hunters up to 80,000 euros each.

The hunt is fueled by a growing market for the coveted rhino. In China and Southeast Asia, it is regarded by many as a medicine and - contrary to all scientific evidence - as an aphrodisiac, so as a means to stimulate sexual desire. Buyers pay according to the "International Rhino Foundation" up to 50,000 € per kilogram.

"Rhino poaching is operated by international organized crime," says the head of WWF in South Africa, Morné du Plessis. It is not sufficient reason, "the poachers to hunt. Governments in Africa and Asia must work together to find the gang bosses. "