In the early 1970's, there were about 500 black rhinoceros in the [M 003 / Serengeti-Mara] ecosystem. By the late 1980s they were poached into extinction in the Serengeti. Today, 30 rhinos live in a fenced sanctuary in the Masai Mara Game Reserve and about [ P016 / 50 in the neighboring Ngorongoro Conservation Area].
The poacher's prize is the horn of the rhinoceros which is not a horn but rather hard-packed hair and fibrous [G 25 / keratin]. The markets for this commodity are Asia and India where it is believed that the horn, when ground into a powder, acts as an [G 46 / aphrodisiac] and has [G 47 / medicinal] value. North Yemen, however, is the main market for the horn where it is valued at over US$15,000. There, it is ornately carved, polished and used as the handle for a curved dagger worn as a symbol of manhood and class.
When the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) implemented a worldwide ban on the sale of ivory, it included the rhinoceros horn. Poaching of elephants all but stopped immediately, but the ban was completely ineffective in the rhino's case.
The demand for ivory largely declined as public awareness increased, but buyers of rhinoceros horn are motivated by traditional beliefs and values. As the numbers of black rhinoceros have dwindled - for example, in Kenya from 20,000 in 1970 to 210 today - the black market value has soared from $17 per pound to $15,000 per pound and rising.
