{"id":28201,"date":"2016-08-31T02:26:32","date_gmt":"2016-08-31T02:26:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/zimbabwe-dehorns-rhinos-to-curb-poaching\/"},"modified":"2016-08-31T02:26:18","modified_gmt":"2016-08-31T02:26:18","slug":"zimbabwe-dehorns-rhinos-to-curb-poaching","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/zimbabwe-dehorns-rhinos-to-curb-poaching\/","title":{"rendered":"Zimbabwe dehorns rhinos to curb poaching"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>{Wildlife authorities in Zimbabwe have begun dehorning the country&#8217;s 700 adult rhinos to curb rampant poaching, a conservation group said Tuesday.}<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Our target is to dehorn every single adult rhino and to ear-notch the young ones for record-keeping,&#8221; Lisa Marabini, director for the Aware Trust Zimbabwe (ATZ) conservation group, told AFP.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Poaching is a very serious problem in this country. This (dehorning) will act as a dissuasive measure and reduce the potential reward for poachers.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>ATZ, which includes veterinarians and conservationists, is working with the Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority on the dehorning project.<\/p>\n<p>The authority was not immediately available to comment.<\/p>\n<p>ATZ declined to give exact numbers of how many rhinos had been dehorned for security reasons.<\/p>\n<p>Rhinos are among the most poached animals in Zimbabwe and their population has been dwindling over years due to illegal hunting, prompting authorities to keep them in protected areas.<\/p>\n<p>But Marabini said at least 50 rhinos were killed by poachers in Zimbabwe&#8217;s game reserves last year.<\/p>\n<p>Rhino horns are worth thousands of dollars due to demand in East Asia for their supposed medicinal qualities, fuelling a boom in poaching and trafficking in Zimbabwe and neighbouring South Africa.<br \/>\nThe animals are targeted by armed gangs due to the belief in Vietnam and China that ground-up horn cures diseases, including cancer.<\/p>\n<p>Also believed to be an aphrodisiac, the horn is composed mainly of keratin, the same component as in human nails.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"spip-document spip-document-14672 aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/jpg\/rhino.jpg\" alt=\"A white rhino in Limpopo. Wildlife authorities in Zimbabwe have begun dehorning the country&#039;s 700 adult rhinos to curb rampant poaching. \" \/><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>{Wildlife authorities in Zimbabwe have begun dehorning the country&#8217;s 700 adult rhinos to curb rampant poaching, a conservation group said Tuesday.} &#8220;Our target is to dehorn every single adult rhino and to ear-notch the young ones for record-keeping,&#8221; Lisa Marabini, director for the Aware Trust Zimbabwe (ATZ) conservation group, told AFP. &#8220;Poaching is a very [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[100],"byline":[228],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-28201","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-environment","tag-africa","byline-afp"],"bylines":[{"id":228,"name":"AFP","slug":"afp","description":"Agence France-Presse is an international news agency headquartered in Paris. 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