A new study shows that years of hunting for long-horned rhinos have dramatically changed the evolution of animal species.
Search published in People and Nature magazinebased on analyzes made of a number of animal images from the past 140 years.
The horns of rhinos, of all species, have shrunk steadily over the past century – and scientists believe this may be due to hunting.
The researchers behind this study measured the horns of 80 rhinos filmed between 1886 and 2018.
There are five species of rhinoceros in the world today: white, black, Indian, Sumatran and Javanese. Everyone is standing IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.
The five search included.
Shorter Horn: Research shows that rhinoceros horns have gotten shorter horns over the years. The rhinoceros pictured is a black rhinoceros. Photo: NTB/Glyn Edmunds/REX.
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The photos were found in the archives of the Rhino Resource Center on the Internet, and they were carefully examined: several photos showed a rhino being shot and killed by poachers.
One photo, among other things, of former US President Theodore Roosevelt standing over the black rhino he killed in 1911:
The Hunter: Theodore Roosevelt and his capture in 1911. Note the length of the century! Photo: Library of Congress/Science Photo Library.
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Thus, the researchers in the study compared the length of the horn relative to the body of a rhinoceros, according to the site Sky News.
They also inspected artwork and drawings collected over more than 500 years.
Furthermore, researchers found that until the 1950s there was little interest in preserving rhino species.
– However, recently, there has been more focus on rhino conservation. This is reflected in the more recent images, Oscar Wilson, the study’s lead author and former researcher in the University of Cambridge’s Department of Zoology, tells Sky News.
medicine award
Rhino horns have always been a popular prize. It is also used in medicine in China and Vietnam, according to experts from the University of Cambridge, who were published in the research report.
Trophies and Medicine: Hunters who hunt rhinos often take it as a souvenir. In many places in Asia, pods are also used in medicine. Pictured here in a national park in India. Photo: AP Photo/Anupam Nath.
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It now turns out that years of rhino hunting have not only endangered the species – they have also reduced the size of the antlers for future generations.
– We are very happy to prove with pictures how the horns of rhinos have become shorter over time, Wilson comments on Sky News.
He says rhinos develop their horns for different reasons — that different species use them in different ways.
The horns are necessary to catch food and to protect themselves from predators, explains the researcher, who is currently at the University of Helsinki, Finland.
He thinks there is reason to believe that the young pods will harm their survival, and so he sees the results as startling – and disconcerting.
Furthermore, he says, rhinos are probably among the most difficult animals to work with in natural history for safety reasons.
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