A rhino calf stands alone in a field. Nearby, her mother’s body lays unmoving in the golden grass of the African savanna. Hours earlier, the mother and baby were peacefully grazing in the morning sunshine. Rhinos are targeted by poachers for their horns across Africa and Asia, making tragic stories like this unfortunately all too common. The mother’s horns will be sold on the black market for use in Traditional Chinese Medicine—despite a new study showing, yet again, that rhino horn is useless as a medicine—or they’ll be sold as luxury gifts and end up on someone’s bookcase in China or Vietnam, used as a status symbol often displayed during business meetings.
The illegal rhino horn trade is the top reason that rhinos are being driven to the brink of extinction. This crisis is fueled by organized crime, which profits from the exorbitant prices that people pay to consume rhino horn products for cultural and “medicinal” purposes in Asian markets. Adult rhinos who are poached for their horns are not the only victims of the illegal rhino horn trade. There are countless others, including the rhinos’ orphaned calves—many of whom do not survive without their parents.
What is Rhino Horn Used for in Medicine?
Traditional Chinese Medicine can involve components sourced illegally from rhinos and other wildlife to use as cures for a wide range of ailments, including hangovers, cancer, fever, measles, snakebites, and AIDS. Rhino horns lack any curative properties and are actually not horns at all. They’re composed of keratin—the same inert, difficult-to-digest fibrous protein that makes up your fingernails, toenails, and hair. Despite widespread rumors to the contrary, rhino horn is not commonly sought or prescribed as an aphrodisiac (although, unfortunately, the rates of this have increased slightly as these rumors continue to flood social media platforms). These made-up rhino horn medicinal properties are driving the number one threat to all rhinos around the world.
Does Rhino Horn Actually Cure Anything?
To understand what people are actually ingesting when they consume rhino horn as part of a medical treatment, a team of scientists recently conducted the first systematic assessment of rhino horn mineral concentrations, analyzing the chemical composition of 182 different samples taken from rhino horns during necropsies. The results revealed that rhino horn actually contains such low concentrations of minerals that, according to scientists, “it seems implausible that any health benefits via mineral supplementation from rhino horn exist.” In fact, rhino horns can also contain elements that are toxic to consume, such as arsenic and lead, further illustrating the harmful and false nature of traditional rhino horn uses.
This is “somewhat alarming,” the scientists added, “as use of a biological substance without curative properties could endanger humans requiring effective medical care.”
How Many Rhinos are Left in the World?
There are fewer than 27,000 rhinos left in the world. In 2023, poachers killed at least 586 African rhinos—one every 15 hours. Poachers are now being supplied by international criminal gangs with sophisticated equipment to track and kill rhinos. They sometimes use a tranquilizer gun to bring the rhino down before hacking its horn off, leaving the rhino to wake up and suffer a slow death.
Rhinos need their horns to forage, to break branches, as a social tool, and to defend themselves and their calves from danger. They deserve to keep them and to be left alone to live without threat of harm or extinction. Unfortunately, the demand for rhino horn medicine is escalating in Asia, and rhino horn poaching is accelerating to the point where it could overshadow rhinoceros birth rates. Without increased effort from conservation groups, law enforcement, and civil society as a whole, rhinos are at serious risk of going extinct due to wildlife crime.
How Can We Save Rhinos?
Since 2020, the Wildlife Conservation Network’s Rhino Recovery Fund (RRF) has invested in projects designed to stop the poaching of all five rhino species across Africa and Asia, disrupt the trafficking of and demand for rhino horn, and help rhino populations recover by restoring their habitat and reintroducing them to their natural range.
With the right support, rhinos can recover and roam safely in the wild. By continuing to support critical rhino conservation work that involves effective law enforcement and intelligence networks, boosts protected area management in rhino rangelands, and increases the relevance of rhinos to modern society, the RRF strives to prevent more rhinos and their calves from being torn apart by an illegal trade driven by a senseless demand.
Read more about the study proving rhino horns have no medicinal value.