Durban — The International Rhino Foundation (IRF) has revealed that Africa’s white rhino population, under pressure from poaching, continues to decline.
This was according to the IRF’s State of the Rhino report which is published every September.
The report documents current population estimates and trends, where available, as well as key challenges and conservation developments for the five surviving rhino species in Africa and Asia.
IRF executive director Nina Fascione said: “As has been the case in recent years, the overall population of the world’s five rhino species has again declined, standing at just over 26 000 now.”
“This is a very troubling trend, of course, but fortunately, it’s not all bad news.”
The IRF said the Asian Rhino Specialist Group (AsRSG) announced that the greater one-horned rhino, found only in India, Nepal and Bhutan, has increased to 4 014 individuals after a biannual survey was completed in early 2022. The population is growing largely due to the governments of India and Nepal creating habitats for rhinos, while also preventing poaching.
It said that poaching remains a threat, but authorities in India have had great success in significantly reducing poaching, through intense security and strict enforcement of wildlife crime laws. In 2021, there was only one recorded poaching incident. There has been only one recorded incident in the first half of 2022 as well.
The IRF said that the African Rhino Specialist Group (AfRSG) of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Species Survival Commission (SSC) released a report in 2022, The African and Asian Rhinoceroses - Status, Conservation and Trade, which estimates there are currently 22 137 rhinos in Africa: 6 195 black rhinos and 15 942 white rhinos. The overall number has decreased 6%, from 23 562, since the last Specialist Group report in 2017.
Poaching remains the greatest threat to African rhinos. Since 2017, there have been 2 707 recorded rhino poaching incidents in Africa, 90% of which took place in South Africa. In 2020, when governments implemented Covid mitigation measures, including lockdowns, there was a significant reduction in poaching – from 3.9% of the continental population in 2018 to 2.3% in 2021. Now that travel has reopened, poaching is on the rise again.
The IRP said white rhinos are decreasing primarily due to poaching losses. The population has decreased by almost 12% in the last four years, from an estimated 18 067 to fewer than 16 000 today.
“Because they are more numerous and because of their more social nature, white rhinos are particularly hard hit by poaching,” said Fascione.
The IRF said Africa’s other species, the black rhino, suffered a drastic decline at the end of the 20th century.
Between 1970 and 1993, the population of black rhinos decreased by 96% from approximately 65 000 to only 2 300 surviving in the wild. Since 1996, intense anti-poaching efforts and strategic translocations to safer areas have allowed the species to slowly recover. Poaching still looms as the greatest threat.
“IRF was founded 30 years ago based on concerns over this decline, but there is good news today for the black rhino in Africa,” said Fascione.
The AfRSG estimates a 12% growth in black rhino populations in recent years, from approximately 5 495 individuals in 2017 to more than 6 000 today.
The IRF said South Africa accounts for about half of the total black rhino population and is also home to most of the world's white rhinos. Again, poaching is decimating populations, 259 rhinos have been poached for their horns in the first six months of 2022, 10 more than were poached during the same time frame last year. The Kruger National Park, which is home to the largest population of rhinos in the world, has reported 82 rhinos poached this year.
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