On the dilemma of a horn

Cutting off rhinos' horns might be one way to protect them from poachers. Is it a strategy worth considering?

The Department of Environmental Affairs has commissioned an investigation into rhino dehorning as a potential anti-poaching measure.

The Endangered Wildlife Trust's head of science and research, Harriet Davies-Mostert, is set to deliver the study's findings to the department in September. We asked Davies-Mostert about the implications of rhino dehorning as an anti-poaching strategy in South Africa.

How would dehorning help combat rhino poaching?

By dehorning a rhino - in other words, by removing most of the horn - you ensure that the economic return a poacher can get from the sale of that remaining stub does not justify the risk of poaching the animal. But dehorning is only a partial solution.

For example, in areas where there isn't effective law enforcement, it will still be worth a poacher's while to go after that stub of horn if his chances of getting caught are non-existent.

How do you dehorn a rhino without injuring it?

An expert vet who really knows what they're doing is critical. If you're using dehorning to protect the animals, you need to do it regularly because the horn does grow at a rate of about 12cm a year. The horn should also not be cut too close to the skull, as this can cause injury.

How much does it cost to dehorn a rhino?

Dehorning is not cheap. In addition to having to do it regularly, it also depends on the drugs and of course you're going to need that expert vet. For some wild populations, you'll also need a helicopter. A realistic estimate is in excess of R8000 an animal, but it will be cheaper to do more animals in one shot.

How would dehorning affect a rhino's social behaviour?

Rhinos use their horns for defending their territories and young, digging, foraging and displaying, so dehorning might stunt their behaviour in some way.

But there is one study in the Zimbabwe lowveld, where population growth rates for 23 free-ranging, dehorned rhinos were found to be no different to 85 different horned rhino populations tracked by the African Rhino Specialist Group of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature.

Whether growth rate is the only thing we use to measure the success of a population, however, is to be questioned. M any of SA's rhinos live in the fenced confines of smaller, private game areas - that is, conditions that might already have exacerbated territorial conflict among them - so while we're still collating all the data there is no telling how dehorning rhinos in such reserves would further affect their territorial behaviour.

What should happen to the horns once they've been removed?

One of the study's recommendations will look at what people should do with the stock.

Is a rhino a rhino without a horn? What would the eco-tourists say?

We've had similar questions with some of the large carnivores and some of the research work that we've been doing to develop more effective conservation measures. People are horrified when they see large carnivores wearing tracking collars, but we have shown that tourists can be educated. If dehorning has been shown to be an important tool in the protection of rhinos, then surely it's best to have a rhino with no horn than have no rhino at all.

What impact would dehorned rhinos have on the trophy-hunting industry?

A rhino trophy with no horn is not really a trophy . But, if poaching goes on the way that it has, then we might get to a point where trophy hunting of rhino won't be permitted. A lot of things will come out of the study. O nce we've collated all the information into one synthesis, it's going to help us understand how useful dehorning would be.

TELL US: Would you pay to see dehorned rhino if you knew it could save the species? E-mail tiara.greenlife@gmail.com