PODCAST: Australian Rhino Project

Currently there are under 25000 rhinos in the wild, 90 per cent of which are in South Africa.

This year over 1500 will be poached for their horns which are worth $80,000 per kilo on the Asian market. The horns are used for spurious health reasons such as cancer cures, libido enhancement and hangover cures. The killings now exceed the replacement rate and the decline will be rapid unless this vile killing can be stopped.

David Barr talks to Dr Pete Morkel a vet famous in Africa for his conservation work with rhinos. He is in Australia working with The Australian Rhino Priject who are planning to bring rhinos to Australia to keep the species from extinction with a view to returning them to Africa if the situation improves. In the next few months 6 white rhino will be shipped by airfreight. After that the plan is to ship in 8 rhinos a year for 8 years to build up a breeding stock.

David plans to keep Eastside Radio listeners up to date with what is happening.