It’s not just snares, traps and machine guns anymore. Now it’s poison.
On twitter, @Nmichaelross posted a link to an article in the Guardian reporting that poachers in Zimbabwe poisoned waterholes with cyanide.
80 elephants were killed. For their tusks. The ivory used to make trinkets.
Elephants whose herds once roamed Africa now face extinction.
So do rhinos.
Rhino horn, made of keratin, the same substance found in fingernails, hair and feathers, is incorrectly thought to have medicinal value. Rhino horn, its value driven by demand in increasingly prosperous Southeast Asia, is now worth more than gold and cocaine.
The big cats—lions, tigers, leopards—hunted for trophies or for their pelts also face extinction.
On World Rhino Day, bestselling author Sibel Hodge wrote about the devastation here. Her novel, The See-Through Leopard, inspired by the slaughter, is a thrilling story set in Africa about the almost-magical healing powers of an orphaned leopard cub.
Zuri, also set in Africa and inspired by articles about poaching, is a love story about an orphaned baby rhino.
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