RHINO HORN AS MEDICINE????????????

Shy, secretive creatures living in dense rainforest, Javan rhinos are difficult to find. Over the past 14 years, Rhino Protection Units have tracked the rhinos daily, usually by following signs such as dung and footprints. This intense monitoring and protection has essentially eliminated losses from poaching. Even though poaching has been eradicated in Ujung Kulon, Rhino Protection Units remain vigilant. Rhino poaching in Africa has reached a 15-year high, and last month’s loss of a Javan rhino to poachers in Vietnam is of grave concern. Rhinos are killed for the sole intention of selling their horns on the black market, which are used in traditional Asian medicine to reduce fever.

Latest news@Rhino

The world’s most threatened large mammal species, the Javan rhino, suffered another devastating setback when a carcass was discovered in Indonesia’s remote Ujung Kulon National Park last week. Ujung Kulon holds the only viable population of the critically endangered species; no more than 48 Javan rhinos remain on the planet, and at least 44 of those are found in Ujung Kulon. Fewer than four animals of unknown sex and age may remain in an isolated population in Cat Tien National Park in Vietnam, where the carcass of a poached Javan rhino, with its horn removed, was found last month. This recent loss reinforces the critical need for bold action to save this species. Although the rhino population in Ujung Kulon has remained relatively stable over the past 20 years, the overriding problem facing the species is that there is only one viable population in one location. Thus there is still significant risk of extinction from a single natural disaster or introduced diseases.

In another incidence an eight-year-old white rhino bull was shot dead with an AK47 rifle at Karkloof Spa at Otto's Bluff on Friday night.

snow leopards

Researchers estimate that there are between 3,500 and 7,000 snow leopards left in the wild. There are about 600 of these cats in zoos around the world.
Snow leopards are sparsely distributed across 12 countries in Central Asia: China, Bhutan, Nepal, India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Russia, and Mongolia. China contains as much as 60% of the snow leopard's habitat.
In Kazakhstan the skin of snow leopard is sold for $ 10000. In Pakistan and Nepal snow leopard has been killed by the farmers for saving their livestock.
Reasons for the snow leopard's decline include hunting for fur and as a trophy, killing by farmers because of its reputation as a livestock predator, and loss of prey due to man's hunting of the prey and competition of prey with domestic livestock. Large scale pika and marmot poisoning programs have also been conducted on the Tibetan Plateau. Recently, use of its bones in oriental medicine has been a major reason for commercial poaching, since cites has decreased the trade in its skins.