Hunt a rhino, save an ecosystem?

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http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0425/p01s04-woaf.html

By Nicole Itano | Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor

JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA – Once on the verge of extinction, black rhinos in South Africa's national parks have made a spectacular comeback. Under the country's aggressive conservation programs, the mammal's population has grown by more than 50 percent in the past decade. But that success has brought a new challenge: how to control a population in limited conservation space.

Now South Africa is weighing a controversial measure that would allow hunters to kill five old male black rhinos a year, which could raise $200,000 per kill. Allowing hunting, some experts say, has helped resurrect the white rhino population, which now stands at 11,000 worldwide, from a low of 200 at the turn of the 20th century.

Supporters say it can also raise much-needed conservation cash. But critics say rhinos and other animals in abundance here are still endangered elsewhere in Africa.

"The general feeling is that we have a problem and that problem isn't going to go away," says Kevin Rodgers, a professor of ecology at the University of the Witwatersrand here. Mr. Rodgers is heading a scientific review of the impact of elephants - whose population has ballooned to 12,000 from 8,000 in 1994, when culling was stopped - on behalf of the South African parks. "Eventually, we're going to have to make hard decisions," he says. He will submit his findings to park management Monday.