On the same day that the news that the last white rhino in the wild in Africa had died a communication from the World Wildlife Fund reminded us that the population of black rhinos in south-east Africa (Kenya, Tanzania and South Africa) had been rapidly depleted since 2012 by the actions of highly sophisticated and capitalised criminal enterprises, this undoing most of the good work done for black rhino conservation in the years before 2012. The rhino is, of course, killed for its horn which is ground down to a powder in Africa before being whisked off to the Far East. The animal, wounded by the initial bullet often bleeds to death through the open wound left after the horn has been hacked-off.
The ‘trade’ is fuelled by demand, that demand created by the traditional notion that rhino horn has some medicinal qualities as well as boosting the male libido, the later probably related to the coincidence that the rhino’s horn has a similar trajectory to the human male erection. In fact the material of the rhino’s horn has a similar composition to the human finger nail. Co-incidentally the black rhino evolved at about the same time as homo-sapiens co-existing with Neanderthal Man. So the one contemporary creature has all but eliminated the other on the premise of a nonsense.
It is interesting that the endless current Brexit debates keep going on about ‘trade’ as if it were a given virtue. I think it may lead to a lot of bad things happening unless we keep asking what type of trade, what will be the outcomes.
With the Sun over the Equator today eastern England is at last freed from the grip of the east winds blowing from Siberia. Best wishes to anyone living full-time in Siberia.
Each year at this time a small flock of oystercatchers appears on the Humber bank. A colourful wader and easy to identify the have a loud, high-pitched piercing call and, as I have observed, particularly so at night. The local flock seem to prefer an area of wetland inland of the clay bank to the Estuary foreshore, presumably using their long beaks to search for worms. Apparently oystercatchers are not migratory but clearly they change locations.