Critically Endangered
As we learnt last week with the Elephants and Rhinos World March, these two beautiful animals are continually at risk of extinction due to the ivory trade, which has never been really banned at all.
People never stops to think about how precious these animals are, how majestic they are, wandering through the plains of Africa and Asia. To better understand how much they are endangered is useful to look at the numbers.
At the beginning of the 20th century, in Africa existed 100,000 Black Rhinos. Now the population is around 5,000. In the 60s they were doomed to disappear from the world and only with great efforts they have been saved and now they are protected in the sanctuaries. Nevertheless, poachers constantly threat them. The White Rhinos are luckier than their brothers are, but they are still under threatening. The White Rhino population is around 20,000, the majority living in sanctuaries.
In Asia, the situation is even worse. The Javan Rhino is the most threatened. There are only 60 individuals left. In Vietnam, they are disappeared. The last one was killed in 2010. The Sumatran Rhino, the smallest rhino, are the most threatened by poaching. There are still 200-300 individuals but scientists supposed that once they roamed throughout all Asia and now they survive only in some parts of it.
Looking at these numbers how could you possibly turn to the other side? How is still possible to continue to kill animals only for a little part of their body? We are so blind and deaf to the sufferings of all our brothers and sisters in nature. Why do not we face reality… we are so mad that we are driving so many species to extinction. We are mad for things but we forget what is actually precious and important. Some people say that animals are not like humans, they do not suffer as much as we do, and they do not have a soul. However, as Nicky Campbell said at the march, “if you think that animals do not have soul, so you do not have a soul!”
We are animals. Rhinos and the many endangered species in the world are like us. We are all animals and we have to take care of each other.
