Dehorning our rhinos

Recently the rhinos of Limpopo-Lipadi were dehorned and all went very well. This needs to be done about once a year to keep the horns short enough. The horns are made of nothing else than keratin, like our nails, but some people are led to believe that they have superpowers and can cure all kinds of diseases. In the last 20+ years poaching and smuggling of rhino horn has become an incredible industry, where National Parks and private reserves all over Africa have been forced to create army-like anti-poaching squads to protect the rhinos from being poached and killed for their horns. It is a difficult predicament to find ourselves in: on the one hand we would all prefer not to touch these magnificent and critically endangered animals, on the other hand it is the best way to keep them safe from poaching. Furthermore, it is required by Botswana law to dehorn rhinos for their safety. The dehorning was expertly done by ‘our’ vet Dr. Erik Verreynne, assisted by his team, the Anti-Poaching Unit and the Botswana Defense Force. During the procedure the rhinos were also micro-chipped. Quoting Dr. Erik’s look on things: “How do you hide perfection? Shapes that have been drawn by time over millions of years. It still makes me uneasy to dehorn rhinos. But not as uneasy as when I see the horns being hacked off by poachers.” The precious load of the rhinos was taken off site by officials from the Botswana Department of Wildlife and National Parks and is kept in their custody. If you would like to join Limpopo-Lipadi’s conservation efforts, this is of course possible. On our website you will find a button to help through a contribution to our NGO (https://limpopo-lipadi.org/donate/)