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African rhinos to be flown to Australia to escape poachers

– Poaching explosion –

South Africa is home to around 20,000 rhinos, around 80 percent of the worldwide population.

But they are being killed for their horns, which are in high demand in China and Vietnam where they are prized for their purported medicinal purposes.

The horn is composed mainly of keratin, the same as human nails, but it is sold in powdered form as a supposed cure for cancer among other diseases, and as an aphrodisiac.

Poachers slaughtered 1,338 rhinos across Africa last year – the highest level since the poaching crisis exploded in 2008, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

The IUCN, which rates white rhinos as “near threatened” as a species, says that booming demand for horn and the involvement of international criminal syndicates has fuelled the explosion in poaching since 2007.

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