Poverty resulting from loss of crops and livestock may lead to increased poaching as a way to earn income. Competition over water resources may also cause increasing strife and disruption between communities and between humans and wildlife, bringing people in ever closer contact with rhinos. In Africa, climate change-induced drought is causing myriad detrimental impacts to human communities, which in turn can trigger a cascading effect for wildlife. The threats from climate change are broad and vary depending on the species. Namibia, home to the largest number of black rhinos in the world, saw a devastating 93% increase in rhino poaching from 2021 to 2022.Ĭlimate change poses an increasing risk to rhinos as well. Poachers have reacted by targeting other, smaller areas, like province-run Hluhluwe Imfolozi Game Reserve, which has borne the brunt of South Africa’s rhino poaching deaths in the past year. Large protected areas like Kruger National Park in South Africa have also greatly increased security measures to reduce the number of poaching incursions on their land. This can make it more difficult for poachers to find rhinos as big populations become less concentrated – spread out across large national parks and reserves. As poaching pressure increases around the continent, the number of white rhinos – the most populous of the five species – continues to decline. Over the last year, poachers have shifted their focus from the largest rhino populations to smaller, perhaps more susceptible ones. Indonesia’s Ministry of Environment and Forestry has reported a recently discovered unnatural Javan rhino death that is currently under investigation.Īcross Africa, poaching patterns are changing. And Indonesia’s Ujung Kulon National Park, home to the world’s only population of Javan rhinos, has seen an alarming increase in incursion attempts over the past year. After recording no poaching incidents last year, India suffered two poaching losses in 2023, one in Kaziranga National Park and one in Manas National Park. Across the globe, rhino populations that were once considered less threatened have seemingly become the primary target of poaching efforts, which are orchestrated by highly organized, transnational criminal syndicates. Poaching for rhino horn is the greatest threat to all five rhino species. The two most significant factors causing rhino populations to decline are poaching and habitat loss, but climate change is increasingly impacting many facets of rhino survival. The remaining species, the Javan rhino, has an unknown population trend status. Two species, black rhinos and greater one-horned rhinos, continue to increase in numbers, while two species, white rhinos and Sumatran rhinos, have been experiencing declines (white rhino numbers were recently reported to have increased over the last two years, which is encouraging but not yet a long term trend). This World Rhino Day, September 22nd, 2023, news about the world’s five rhino species remains mixed. On the veranda (decorated with a trio of bleached white rhino skulls), a half-dozen armed men are receiving a security briefing from a British Special Forces veteran.With all five species combined, there are just over 27,000 rhinos left in the world. A heavy bulletproof vest hangs off the back of his chair. A matte black AR-15 with silencer and thermal scope sits on his desk. An automatic pistol is tucked into the front of his cargo pants. He also shows off a seriously upgraded security profile. He openly cries as he describes fears that the raiders would have murdered or tortured him with the acetylene torch had he not been out on the day of the incursion. He has invested millions raising and protecting rhinos and dedicated years advocating for a legal trade in their horns-from which he planned to make even more millions. “To be involved would be a betrayal of everything that I morally stand for,” he says, weeping. A week after the robbery, the ranch owner, who later asked to remain anonymous because of additional robbery attempts on the farm and his home, knows what people are saying.
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