NEW YORK: The DNA of one black rhino could hold the key to its species survival. Martin Peralta reports on plans to use 3D printing to undercut the poachers’ business model.
Ntombi the black rhinoceros is six years old. She lives in Limpopo, in the north-east of South Africa. But she and her species are in grave danger. The black rhino is listed as critically endangered, with only about 5,000 animals left in the wild.
Black rhinos are poached for either their horns and or as game. If the current poaching rate continues, it is estimated that all rhinos could be extinct in the next decade or two.
Already 95 per cent of the world’s rhinos have been lost in the last 40 years. The number of rhinos poached in South Africa alone has increased 9,000 per cent since 2007—from 13 a year, to a record 1,215 in 2014. That’s almost four rhinos killed every day.
And in spite of concerted conservation efforts, the northern white rhino will soon become extinct, with only four left in the world.
