The pandemic is a gift to poachers in Africa

NAJIN ANDUN Fatu roam the Kenyan savannah with a heavy gait, stopping intermittently to burrow their horns into tall grass or scratch their backs against wooden posts. At Ol Pejeta Conservancy, where they live, the last two northern white rhinos on Earth are known as “the girls”. Since there are no surviving males, modern science is the only hope of keeping the subspecies alive. Every few months the girls (pictured) go through an unpleasant medical procedure to harvest their eggs, which are then rushed to Italy to be fertilised with the frozen sperm of long-gone males. The ordeal leaves them exhausted for days.Najin and Fatu are ambassadors for wildlife facing extinction. Even before the pandemic, the estimated that 1m plant and animal species were at risk of dying out, many within decades. Now poaching is on the rise across Africa as covid-19 empties protected areas of tourists and cuts the income of already poor villagers. The pandemic threatens to undo progress made by governments that cracked down on illegal hunting in a bid to save other species from the same fate as the northern white rhinos.