Endangered rhinos, horns, daggers, art and Chinese medicine

The world's rhino population has declined 90 percent since 1970, conservationists estimate. In Africa, there are some 20,150 white rhinos that are near threatened and 4,840 black rhinos that are critically endangered. South Africa is home to more than 90 percent of Africa's rhino population. A record 1,215 rhino were poached in South Africa in 2014. [Source: Yara Bayoumy, Reuters, April 4, 2012]
By the 2010s the price of rhinoceros horn had reached $50,000 per kilogram, higher than the price of gold, the African Wildlife Foundation said. In October 2011, Vietnam’s Javan rhino was declared extinct in the country, and in November, East Africa’s Western Black Rhino was declared extinct in the wild. If the poaching situation was left unchecked, expert said, rhinoceros could become extinct in the wild by 2025.
"We've certainly reached a tipping point in rhino populations. There is no way that our national populations can sustain the level of poaching," Pelham Jones, chairman of the South Africa Private Rhino Owners Association, told Reuters. "What I've seen in the past is that many politicians ... have solidly got their heads in the sand ... The attitude of saying that there is no crisis is a statement of denial. There is a crisis," Jones said.

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