{"id":6525,"date":"2011-12-30T13:04:53","date_gmt":"2011-12-30T11:04:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/12\/african-rhino-poaching-hits-record-on-asian-demand\/"},"modified":"2011-12-30T13:04:53","modified_gmt":"2011-12-30T11:04:53","slug":"african-rhino-poaching-hits-record-on-asian-demand","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/african-rhino-poaching-hits-record-on-asian-demand\/","title":{"rendered":"African rhino poaching hits record on Asian demand"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t<span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>* Rhino horn more expensive than gold<span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>* Newly affluent in Southeast Asia pushing up demand<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>* Arms race in national park as carnage mounts<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>By Jon Herskovitz<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>JOHANNESBURG, Dec 30 (Reuters) &#8211; A record number of<br \/>\nrhinos were poached this year in South Africa, home to the<br \/>\ngreatest number of the animals, as rising demand in Asia for<br \/>\ntheir horns led to increased killings of the threatened species.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>At least 443 rhinos have been killed in South Africa in<br \/>\n2011, up from 333 last year, the national park service and<br \/>\nconservationists said.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>The street value of rhinoceros horns has soared to about<br \/>\n$65,000 a kilogram, making it more expensive than gold, platinum<br \/>\nand in many cases cocaine, as a belief &#8211; with no basis in<br \/>\nscience &#8211; has taken hold in recent years in parts of Asia that<br \/>\ningesting it can cure or prevent cancer.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>South Africa, home to more than 20,000 rhinos, was losing<br \/>\nabout 15 animals a year a decade ago. But poaching increased<br \/>\ndramatically from about 2007 as a growing affluent class in<br \/>\nplaces such as Vietnam and Thailand began spending more on rhino<br \/>\nhorn for traditional medicine.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>The number of rhinoceroses dying unnatural deaths in South<br \/>\nAfrica, either through illegal poaching or legal hunts, has<br \/>\nreached a level likely to lead to population decline, according<br \/>\nto a study by Richard Emslie, an expert in the field.<br \/>\n\u00a0 <span class=\"label\"><strong>Continued&#8230;<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>* Rhino horn more expensive than gold * Newly affluent in Southeast Asia pushing up demand * Arms race in national park as carnage mounts By Jon Herskovitz JOHANNESBURG, Dec 30 (Reuters) &#8211; A record number of rhinos were poached this year in South Africa, home to the greatest number of the animals, as rising [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[830,2370,183],"class_list":{"0":"post-6525","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-south-africa","7":"tag-news","8":"tag-reuters","9":"tag-south-africa-2","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6525","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6525"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6525\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6525"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6525"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6525"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}