More and more rhinos, but also more poachers

(Nairobi) The world’s rhino population has increased slightly, but so has their slaughter. The problem is most prevalent in South Africa, where poaching fueled by a high demand for rhino horn remains a major threat, conservationists say in a new report.

The number of white rhinos increased from 15,942 in 2022 to 17,464 in 2023, but the number of black rhinos and Indian rhinos remained the same, according to the report released by the International Rhino Foundation ahead of World Rhino Day on Sunday.

Another subspecies, the northern white rhino, is technically extinct, with only two females remaining in the secure Ol Pejeta Private Game Reserve in Kenya. A trial is underway to develop embryos in the laboratory from an egg and sperm previously collected from white rhinos and transfer them into a surrogate female black rhino.

A total of 586 rhinos were killed in Africa in 2023, most of them in South Africa, which has the largest rhino population, with an estimated 16,056 individuals. These killings were up from 551 reported in 2022, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

Combining the populations of the five subspecies, there are just under 28,000 rhinos left in the world, down from 500,000 at the start of the last century.

Rhinos face various environmental threats such as habitat loss due to development and climate change, but poaching, driven by the belief that the horns have medicinal uses, remains their main threat.

Philip Muruthi, vice president for species conservation at the Africa Wildlife Foundation, said conservation has played a big role in the rhino population’s rise. In Kenya, their numbers have increased from 380 in 1986 to 1,000 last year, he said. “Why has this happened? Because rhinos have been brought into sanctuaries and protected.”

Mr Murithi is advocating for a campaign that will end the demand for rhino horn and the adoption of new technologies to track and monitor the animals for their protection. He also hopes to educate communities where rhinos live about the benefits of the animals to the ecosystem and the economy.

Known as gigantic herbivores that mow the lawns of parks and create passages for other species, rhinos are also good at expanding forests by ingesting seeds and spreading them throughout the parks with their droppings.

Mr Murithi said the northern white rhino should never have been so close to extinction.

“Don’t get the numbers so high that it’s very expensive to get them back up and we’re not even sure that’s going to happen,” he said.

The body of the last male northern white rhino – named Sudan – who died in 2018 has been preserved and put on display at the Kenya Museums in Nairobi.

Bernard Agwanda, a research scientist and curator of mammals at the museum, said preserving Sudan will provide a testament to how the species lived among humans and the importance of conservation initiatives.

“So we expect the northern white rhino to […] “Long live one or two centuries to be able to tell his story to future generations,” he hoped.