Even zoos can no longer protect rhinos from poachers
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Tanya Wyatt, Northumbria University, Newcastle
Zookeepers at Thiory Zoo, near Paris, recently arrived at work to find their four-year-old rhinoceros, Vince, dead from a gunshot to the head. The larger of his two horns had been cut off with a chainsaw. The poachers responsible had forced open one grill and two locked doors in order to get into the rhino’s enclosure. Police presume that the smaller horn was not taken, and the zoo’s other two rhinos were not killed, because the poachers either did not have time or were interrupted.
There is speculation that the poachers are “professionals” and the horn will be smuggled to Asia.
No matter how shocking and heartbreaking it is to hear about the murder of this rhino, it should come as little surprise. In their native habitats the five species of rhino are at best “near threatened” and at worst “critically endangered” because they are poached for their horns. According to the charity Save the Rhino the t...
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