On a recent trip to Zimbabwe I came across the carcass of a 5 year-old black rhino which was one of the first dehorned ones in Matusadona National Park on the southern shore of Lake Kariba. The rhino had been killed within days of its horn being cut off. There are only 15 black rhinos left in Matusadona from a population estimated at more than 150 two years ago.
In spite of Zimbabwe's aggressive conservation measures to dehorn all endangered rhinos, poachers are slaughtering rhino at a rate that could wipe out one of the largest concentrations in Africa in two years. Even. if sawing off the rhino's horn saves them eventually from the poachers, it may be too late to save them from extinction - due to their loss of biological viability. In the meantime, numerous rhino are being shipped to breeding centres in Australia and the USA to produce progeny over the next decade in order to return them to Africa later.
