Black Rhino Essay, Research Paper

BLACK RHINO

Black rhinos are the only one of the five species of the remaining rhinos. Rhinos have roamed the earth for over fify million years. Until the early part of this century, hundreds of thousands of rhinos roamed over huge area of Africa and Asia. The world’s rhinos are endangered not because evolution has caught up with them, but because they have been shot. Man is the adult rhino’s only predator. The black rhinos was once found in the suitable habitat over much of Africa in the Sahara. There were 65,000 black rhinos in 1970 to only 3,800 in 1987. This is one of the greatest conservation scandals. Certain governments and organization groups have concerted effort to rectify this disaster. In Kenya, 98 percent of the black rhinos were killed between 1970 and 1885. Therefore the black rhino has suffered the most spectacular rate of decline of all rhino species in the last 10 to 15 years with population reduced 85 percent. The black rhino could once be found in Africa, south of the Sahara Desert, in brush country, grasslands and open forests. However, due to poaching, they are now found in small isolated populations, the two largest being in Tanzania and Zimbabwe. The rhino’s most distingunishing feature may well be the cause of its extinction. Their horn has been prized for many years by tradiontional Eastern cultures. It has been carved into daggers and also ground into powder that is thought to have healing powers. Once the most numerous of all rhino species, the black rhino has been the target of the greatest hunting pressure of all. Rhinos are slow breeders, only giving birth to one calf every 2 to 4 years. The gestation period is between 15 to 16 months. Rhinos have poor vision and are unable to detect a motionless person at a distance of more than 100 feet. The rhino’s eyes are located on either side of its head. To see forward, the animal must peer first with one eye, then with the other. The black rhino are 1,750 – 3,000 pounds, 4.5 – 5.5 feet tall at shoulder, and the larger horn are 1 feet 8 inches – 4 feet and 4 inches long.

Ways to Prevent Extinction:

One of the most attempts at preserving wildlife have been directed toward saving individual species. Also conservationists have also attempted to save individual species through captive breeding, in which, animals are bred and the offspring raised in captivity until they can be released into a protested wildlife. Captive breeding remains as important part of species conservation. Without such efforts, some animals would surely have become extinct. Many ecologists today believe conservation of wildlife would be more effective if efforts to protect a species began earlier. They believe efforts should start before the species reached the brink of extinction. Many scientists thus argue that society should concentrate on conserving whole ecosystem, thereby saving the individual species that live within them. In conclusion, I believe conserving whole ecosystem will prove far and away the most effective method for saving for saving most species because instead of bringing species back again and again from extinction, we should devote our engergies to finding ways for humans activities to take place without causing so much environmental harm.