Poaching
The Danger to Animals
Causes
People usually poach for money, medicine, or items such as the rhino horn, that they think are valuable.
Causes:
• Money
• Their Fur
• Their horns
• Their eggs and meat
Rhino and Elephant Horns
Tiger Rugs
Poaching
The Effects & Statistics of Poaching
Effects
Effects
• extinction
• they could become endangered
• problems in their habitat
• overpopulation of other animals
Statistics
• Poaching is the illegal harvesting of animals through capturing, catching, hunting, or killing. Poaching also includes the illegal removal of an animal part from a live or dead wild animal.
• This activity occurs most commonly with animals that are legal to hunt and sell at a certain time.
• the most common form of poaching are those that involve violation of local or international animal harvesting restrictions
• about 100 million animals are poached per year
Poaching Facts
• Many countries believe that the rhino horn is an important ingredient for many medicines. This is false.
• At the beginning of the 20th century there were a few million African elephants and approximately 100,000 Asian elephants. Today, there are about 450,000-700,000 African elephants and 35,000-40,000 Asian elephants.
• In 2012, 668 rhinos were poached in South Africa.
• In 2011, there were 13 large-scale seizures of ivory and over 23 tons of ivory confiscated. This is equivalent to at least 2,500 elephants.
• A 2010 United Nations report suggests that gorillas could disappear from large parts of the Congo Basin by the mid-2020s. Bear gall bladders get top dollar for Chinese herbal remedies. And big-horned sheep antlers can fetch $20,000 on the black market.