Conserving the African rhinoceros

The Southern African rhinoceros population has been dwindling through the years. A lot of effort has been put toward coming up with the most effective way of protecting the black and white rhinoceros population in the world yet still the animals remain endangered despite the enormous global efforts to protect the species. Such conservation efforts include; establishment of sanctuaries, wildlife farming, dehorning, trade and market controls, listing of species as endangered, use of biotechnology and biotelemetry. However useful, each of these methods has its own strengths and weaknesses relative to the success of rhinoceros conservation. It however has been noted in this review that dehorning is the most effective method as it involves removal of the horn hence extinguishing the need for poaching. Despite the high success rate it has also been noted that this requires a great deal of skill and finance hence limiting the application of this technique in developing nations. Sanctuaries provide an ideal breeding environment that is better than the wild and enhanced breeding accounted for a significant increase in rhinoceros population where it has been applied. It was however been conclude that a holistic conservation approach is required to conserve the African rhinoceros.