Driving the killings are soaring prices that China's growing, moneyed class are willing to pay -- up to $65,000 per kilogram (Rs 33 lakhs) . This has even forced museums in Europe where thefts have occurred to replace real rhino horns with fakes.
Behind it is a deeply rooted belief among many Chinese that rhino horn -- basically compressed hair -- can cure everything from rheumatism to cancer, despite admonitions by most medical experts that it has "about as much medicinal value as chewing one's fingernails."
The product has been struck from the list of officially approved Chinese traditional medicines but is readily available in China and Vietnam, the second largest consumer.
To date, experts say Asian countries have proved better at protecting their rhinos than Africa, where most of the China-bound horns originate before being smuggled mainly through Southeast Asia by air, land and sea.
