Nature
PUBLISHED
In more shocking and depressing conservation news, a white rhinoceros has been killed and stripped of its horn at Thoiry Zoological Park, not far from the French capital, Paris.
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“Vince was found this morning by her caretaker, who is very attached to the animals she cares for and is deeply affected," the zoo said in the statement. "This odious act was perpetrated despite the presence of five members of the zoological staff living on site and surveillance cameras.”
The other two rhinos living at the zoo, luckily, were unharmed.
The white rhino is listed as “Near Threatened” on the IUCN Red List. This is largely due to the massive demand in China and parts of southeast Asia for their horns, which are revered for their supposed, and totally unverified, aphrodisiac properties and used in traditional Chinese medicine.
Despite new efforts to curb this illegal trade across the globe, rhinoceros horn thefts from museums and private collectors are on the rise in Europe. That said, the poaching of a live animal in a European zoo is practically unheard of.
The past few weeks has seen an unusual spate of violent attacks on animals in zoos. The past few weeks have seen a hippopotamus beaten to death at a zoo in El Salvador and a crocodile stoned to death at a zoo in Tunisia.
