Rhino Horn Medical Myths

Rhino poaching has been on the lips of everyone nationally and internationally. With the help of social media the news has spread and everyone wants to jump in and help. So we wanted to do our part and created a list of Rhino Horn myths, share it and help people get educated about rhino’s and their horns.

Medicinal Myths

The rhino horn is mainly used in China for its “healing properties”, or so they claim. Researchers have found that there are no healing properties found in the rhino horn whatsoever. This doesn’t stop poachers and traders since superstition and tradition override facts and logic, also somewhere someone is making money from it. Since the dawn of time people from all across the world have used strange herbs and ingredients for their ailments because their grandmother’s grandmother used to “eat cricket legs for her headaches”.

Here are some of the ailments the Chinese believe the rhino horn cures:

• Devil possession
• Clears up phlegm
• Removes hallucinations
• Protects you from all evil spirits
• Feverish colds
• Typhoid’s
• Clears your vision
• Miasmas (unpleasant atmosphere)
• Chases bewitching nightmares away
• Carbuncles and boils.
• Using it continually makes one robust
• Headaches
• Gelsemium poisoning. (poisonous plants)
• For intermittent fevers with delirium.
• Expels fear and anxiety
• Calms the liver

They also grind it and ash it so that it can be mixed with water, they believe this mix cures:

• Overdose of poisonous drugs
• Violent vomiting
• Melancholia
• Lost voice
• Food poisoning
• Arthritis

The western myth circulating about the rhino’s medicinal properties is that it’s being used as an aphrodisiac by the Chinese.

Interesting facts about the rhino:

• The rhino horn structure is the equivalent of a fingernail, it’s basically made from agglutinated hair just like our fingernails.
• A pound of rhino horn powder is worth an estimated $45,000 on the black market (2011 stats). The reason why rhino horns are so expensive is that it’s been banned by the most countries and powerful wildlife organisations. Since it’s banned prices have exploded to an all time high because it’s harder to obtain than normally. The more effort it takes the better we say, luckily game rangers and game parks are protecting their rhino and are patrolling their lands frequently for poachers.
• When mentioning a group of rhinos you would refer to them as a “crash”.
• Rhino’s are pregnant for at least 15-16 months, hopefully that makes you feel a lot better about your pregnancy.
• Rhino’s are fairly blind (very poor vision) but they have great hearing and smell, so stay clear and keep quiet.
• The horse and zebra are related to the rhino
• Rhino’s can run up to 30-40 miles per hour, hopefully you can run faster.

Ruan Smit enjoys helping the environment and the creatures on this great big world. Currently he’s at the Kruger Park camping it out at Skukuza with his laptop and cofee,good times.