Rhino Poaching in South Africa

My AP Biology Thoughts Unit 8 Ecology EPISODE TITLE: South African Rhino Poaching

Welcome to My AP Biology Thoughts podcast, my name is Keenan Wallace and I am your host for this episode called Unit 8 Ecology-Threatened Rhinos in South Africa. Today we will be discussing South African Rhino Poaching and how it relates to the AP Biology Curriculum.

Segment 1: Overview of Rhino Poaching

• numbers poached rising in recent years:
• 13 Rhinos poached in 2007, peaked in 2015
• 1175 Rhinos killed in south africa in 2015 (more than 3 a day),
• number poached has since declined with 394 killed in 2020
• Rhino population has decreased from 1 million in the 1800s to only 27,000 in the wild today.
• Rhinos are a keystone species: They play an integral role in their ecosystem and many other species in the ecosystem depend on their presence

Segment 2: Evidence that supports dangers of rhino poaching

• Rhinos are so large that they actually Geo-form: change the land around them
• Rhinos often wallow in mud to keep cool and ward off insects.
• This helps maintain waterholes
• When the rhinos get out they track the fertile, nutrient rich soil that accumulates in waterholes far and wide, distributing the nutrients.
• Rhino dung supports other species and food chains
• Rhino dung fertilizes soil
• Dung beetles lay their eggs in rhino dung, which also supports species that eat the beetle larvae
• A number of bird species rely on Rhino dung for insects and seeds.
• Rhinos support fly and tick species as well as animals that eat them, like terrapins (a kind of turtle) and oxpeckers (the iconic symbiotic relationship)
• Keep grass short, allowing plant species that can’t survive among long grass to thrive.

Segment 3: Connection to the Course

• Without rhinos, all of these roles would be left unfilled and with its foundation gone the ecosystems would begin to collapse. (keystone species)
• When you hear about rhino conservation, this is why it matters.

Thank you for listening to this episode of My AP Biology Thoughts. For more student-ran podcasts and digital content, make sure that you visit