JOHANNESBURG, South Africa – South Africa says at least 633 rhinoceros have been killed this year alone as a poaching epidemic continues to threaten the animals.
South Africa’s Department of Environmental Affairs issued the new statistics in a statement Wednesday. The statistics show that 395, the majority of the killings, have taken place at the expansive Kruger National Park in South Africa’s northeast.
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From the 1990s to 2007, rhino killings in South Africa by poachers averaged about 15 a year. However, the number has soared as buyers in Asia now pay the U.S. street value of cocaine for rhino horn.
Rhino horn is made of keratin, a tough protein found in human fingernails. There’s a belief in Asia that taking ground-up horn cures diseases. However, no medical evidence supports that.
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