Deworm your pets and get them regularly examined by the vet

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.

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.

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).