Endangered Rhinos by Jan M. Czech

Author:Jan M. Czech
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Enslow Publishing, LLC

Rhino Habitat Loss

While poaching is by far the biggest threat to the rhino, loss of habitat also plays a significant role. As human populations grow, more land is needed to support it. This often results in pushing wild animals farther and farther into their wild habitat, which often creates a compacted population. Rhinos, as grazers and browsers, require a large territory in which to roam and find food. Logging— land being cleared for large farms that produce oil palm, wood pulp, coffee, rubber, cashews, and cocoa—and people looking for land on which to settle force rhinos into smaller and smaller habitats.

The rhino has also been forced to share its habitat with people for other reasons. Civil wars in some African and Asian countries have forced many people from their homes. Some of those refugees have sought asylum in wildlife sanctuaries. Once there, the human population takes natural resources, such as water and trees, that they use for firewood and shelter. The wild animals also need these materials to survive.

As humans move into rhino territory, more and more habitat is destroyed. Not only are trees disappearing in some rhino habitats, but grass is also disappearing. Traditional nomadic herding practices that moved cattle to new pastures and prevented over-grazing have changed. Now due to economic and population demands, cattle are raised in just one place, which has a devastating effect on the savanna’s ecosystem.2 Cattle are grazers, just as some rhinos are, and as they eat the rhinos’ food supply, rhinos are forced to look elsewhere. As ecosystems are destroyed, so is the rhino population.

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