Yesterday we brought you an update on the news of the hunter who has paid nearly a million rand to shoot an endangered trophy white rhino. But where rhinos are poached, there are even more far reaching implications, not least finding the resources to care for their orphaned young.

To address this issue, rhino rehabilitation expert, Karen Trendler, in collaboration with the Endangered Wildlife Trust, will launch a formalised Rhino Orphan Response Project. The aim is to address the growing numbers of orphaned and injured rhinos stemming from the dramatic rise in poaching in recent years.

Some 440 South African rhinos were lost to poachers last year, and the problem of rhino orphans has now reached crisis point, according to Trendler. She explains that many calves are lost to predators and poachers who kill them either because they are a nuisance, or for their horns once they start to grow when they are around five months old.

The project aims to find orphaned rhinos in the bush before they can fall pray to poachers or predators, and to rehabilitate as many calves as possible.

[Source: Business Day]