

This has had a serious impact across intended conservation efforts, leading to a lack of enough genetic diversity for offspring to be conceived. In a matter of a decade, the wild population of northern white rhinos went from well over five hundred to just fifteen. There Are No Northern White Rhinos in the Wild Despite international bans on rhino horn trade and established protections in different countries, poaching is very hard to regulate, with an estimated 3% of poachers actually getting apprehended. There is a large demand for rhino horns in different Asian countries, in part due to their perceived medical properties, but mostly as a symbol and signifier of wealth. Rhinos are poached for a variety of reasons, but the main one is their horns. Due to their lack of natural predators, northern white rhinos are quite susceptible to poaching. The significant decrease in wild northern white rhino populations has been mostly due to extreme poaching on the part of illegal traders across Africa. Poaching Has Deeply Impacted Rhino Populations This has been a sad event that’s been decades in the making, to the point where the future of the northern white rhino as a subspecies looks devastatingly bleak. This widespread problem, propelled by the high demand for rhinoceros horn, has pushed the northern white rhino near extinction, posing a heartbreaking scenario for conservationists everywhere. As poachers continue to go unchecked, several endangered species across the world face total extinction, the northern white rhino among them.
