On the night of 6 to 7 March 2017, individuals entered the box of a white rhinoceros of the zoo of Thoiry in France and shot him to recover his horn.
Speaking of the conservation of species,poaching was invited to the Zoological Park of Thoiry on the night of 6 to 7 March 2017. Vince, a young white southern rhinoceros ( Ceratotherium simum simum ) was killed by bullets . The criminals then cut off one of the horns of the animal.
The other two white rhinoceros of the zoo are unharmed. According to preliminary findings, the poachers forced one of the outdoor grids near the African Plain to the west of the park.
The institution’s press service explains: “ Every night, the rhinos have gone inside for safety reasons. They enter the same building but are all in different boxes .“
A separation that may have allowed the other two rhinoceros to escape death. Moreover, it is possible that the poachers were disturbed in their macabre task: indeed, the second horn of Vince was only partially cut. In the communiqué, the management of the park recalls that “ five members of the zoological staff live on site “ and that the establishment has surveillance cameras.
A growing threat to white rhinoceroses
Southern white rhinoceros are highly endangered by poaching. Currently, this subspecies has only 20,000 individuals in the world.
In the face of the risk of extinction, a conservation program has been set up in Europe. Thus, 250 southern white rhinoceros are currently housed in the zoos of the Old Continent to ensure their reproduction with the aim of safeguarding the species.
But the task is difficult as the trade of rhinoceros horns is important. By 2015 on the black market, 1 kilo of horn was sold 51,000 euros. Faced with this market value, South Africa saw the number of acts of poaching explode. According to the Parc Zoologique de Thoiry, “ horn thefts are also on the rise across Europe „.
