Has erectile dysfunction medication helped to save the Rhinoceros and other endangered species?

As an upright environmentalist kind of guy, I was wondering if the rising popularity of erectile dysfunction drugs like Viagra, Cialis, Levitra, etc, has caused a corresponding subsidence in the demand for powdered rhinoceros horn and other aphrodisiacs made from the body parts of endangered animals.

Predictions about the benefit of Viagra on rhinos and other endangered species have arisen for around 13 years.  Whilst there are people who believe that rhino horn will help to restore virility, it is mainly limited to groups in India, Thailand, and Laos.

Rhino horn has actually been a major substance within Traditional Chinese Medicine for centuries, and there are those who have credited rhino horn with the potency to cure an unusually wide array of maladies, from headaches to pus-filled boils--and even devil possession. However, a study carried out by the WWF (World Wildlife Fund), published the results of a pharmalogical study conducted by researchers at Hoffmann-LaRoche in The Environmentalist.

The study "found no evidence that rhino horn has any medicinal effect as an antipyretic and would be ineffective in reducing fever, a common usage in much of Asia." The use has even been compared to chewing one’s finger nails in terms of health benefits. Whilst TCM is a major cause for the use of rhino horn, it is also used for dagger horns and as cups for wine.

Frank and William von Hippel in a 1998 letter to Science, Frank, a biologist, conjectured that Viagra could eliminate demand for "animal potency products": "After all," he wrote, "the cost of Viagra is trivial compared to that of rhino horn." In a 2002 follow up, he and his psychologist sibling published a table listing nine types of threatened critter "collected for TCM treatments for ED." The fine print clarified that two of the nine, namely rhinos and tigers, in fact weren't collected for this purpose. Westerners-apparently including, as of 1998, Frank von Hippel-just thought they were.

Therefore, TCM does acknowledge some aphrodisiacs. They've been derived from sea cucumbers, pipefishes, seahorses, geckos, deer, and pinnipeds. Most of the trade in endangered species has been banned. However, indications may be gleaned from the few cases where such dealing remains legal. According to the von Hippels, sales of one TCM aphrodisiac, antler velvet from Alaskan reindeer, dropped sharply following Viagra's introduction, and the market for seals, prized for their genitalia, collapsed a little later. Critics questioned how much of this was due to competition from ED drugs, but in a 2005 survey underwritten by Pfizer, maker of Viagra, the brothers found Hong Kong men were abandoning TCM impotence treatments.

The rhino population has now improved, after it was previously in decline for 20 years. Conservation efforts, not pharmaceuticals, have made the difference. With the increasing interest in TCM, poaching pressure remains intense.

Asians are still using rhino horn to combat fever. TCM practitioners are adamant of the benefits of rhino horn. One scientific study of the substance claimed it was actually effective in reducing fever, but only at extremely high doses. However, demand for rhino horn are thought to be with the upper class, wealthy Asian population, and not the majority as rhino horn is quite expensive in comparison to other alternatives.