Authorities say 87 rhinos had been killed final yr in contrast with 45 in 2021, most of them poached from the nation’s largest park.
The variety of endangered rhinos poached in Namibia reached an all-time excessive final yr after 87 animals had been killed in contrast with 45 in 2021, official authorities knowledge has proven.
Africa’s rhino inhabitants has been decimated over the a long time to feed the demand for rhino horn, which, regardless of being product of the identical materials as rhino hair and fingernails, is prized in East Asia as a supposed medication and as jewelry.
On Monday, Ministry of Environment, Forestry and Tourism spokesperson Romeo Muyunda stated poachers killed 61 black and 26 white rhinos primarily in Namibia’s largest park, Etosha, the place 46 rhinos had been discovered useless.
“We note with serious concern that our flagship park, Etosha National Park, is a poaching hotspot,” Muyunda stated, including that the ministry and regulation enforcement officers have stepped up efforts in opposition to wildlife crime within the park to curb poaching.
The Southern African nation is home to the one free-roaming black rhinos left on the planet and likewise accounts for a 3rd of the world’s remaining black rhinos.
Rhino poaching has plagued Southern Africa for many years, particularly in neighbouring South Africa and Botswana, resulting in anti-poaching programmes, together with strict policing and dehorning, or eradicating horns from the rhinos as a means of discouraging poaching.
Namibia can also be home to the second-largest white rhino inhabitants on the planet after South Africa.
The Save the Rhino Trust estimates there are about 200 free-roaming black rhinos in Namibia, primarily within the northeast.
Meanwhile, elephant poaching in Namibia has declined through the years, from a excessive of 101 in 2015 to a low of 4 elephants poached final yr.
