Trafficking of endangered species is the fourth largest illegal business in the world, followed by drugs, weapons, and human trafficking. Species such as the Western Black Rhino have already gone extinct due to poaching. Rhinoceros are hunted for their horns, which are worth twice their weight in gold. In Africa in 2000 only 7 rhinos were killed throughout the whole year. By 2013, around 946 rhinos were killed. The numbers are only growing larger with time, as a result, more species of rhinos are going extinct.
Every fifteen minutes an elephant is killed, which equals 96 a day, and over 33,792 a year. Elephants are killed for their ivory. There is no way to obtain their ivory with out killing them. Sometimes, even after they're shot, the elephants are still alive while poachers hack off their tusks with machetes and die shortly after.
Although rhinos and elephants are big targets, other "iconic" animals such as tigers, cheetahs and apes are victims of trafficking as well. A mother cheetah is worth just shy of 20 million dollars.
To help solve the problem, two organizations who are fighting wildlife crime are World Wildlife Day, and WILDAid.
WILDAid has recently released videos to spread awareness of wildlife crimes. To achieve this goal they have teamed up with celebrities, conservationists, political officers and the media. The link to one of their videos is below:
https://vimeo.com/64118789
http://www.wildaid.org/news/yao-ming-urges-china-%E2%80%98say-no-ivory-and-rhino-horn%E2%80%99-new-film
World Wildlife day aims to spread their message and awareness of endangered animals. They have managed to make Wildlife day marked on the United Nations calendar. By educating and spreading awareness of the decline of endangered animals, World Wildlife has already made a huge difference.
http://www.wildlifeday.org/
#seriousaboutwildlifecrime #elephants #biodiversity #rhinos
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