White Rhinos Face Extinction Soon, Conservationists Warn
Friday, May 21, 2004
The northern white rhino faces extinction
in the wild in months unless Sudanese rebels stop poaching
the animals, conservationists warned yesterday at a meeting
in London organized by the British Save the Rhino group.
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The tiny population of white
rhinos still in the wild — estimated to number
25, all living in the Democratic Republic of the
Congo's Garamba National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage
Site — has declined from a population of almost
500 in the late 1970s.
Sudanese rebels have been poaching the white
rhinos for their valuable tusks and horns, said
Kes Hillman-Smith, a Garamba National Parks project
coordinator, who added that two park rangers were
killed by a group of poachers last week.
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In order to save these animals,
Hillman-Smith said, "We urgently need more funds to
bring in better equipment."
UNESCO runs a program to protect wildlife
from violence in D.R.C., where a five-year civil war killed
3 million people. In neighboring Sudan, the government has
fought the independence-seeking Sudanese People's Liberation
Army for the past 20 years (Astrid Zweynert, Reuters/Planet
Ark, May 21).
Copyright,
National Journal Group. Year 2004
