In Africa, 586 rhinos were recorded dead in 2023, compared to 551 in 2022, with poaching being the main threat.
The number of rhinos worldwide rose slightly in 2023, but so did the number of animals killed by poachers, according to a new report.
Thanks to conservation efforts, the white rhino population increased by 1,522 to reach 17,464 in 2023, according to an annual report by the International Rhino Foundation, which was marked on Sunday to mark World Rhino Day. However, the number of black and greater one-horned rhinos remained the same, it added.
This left the global rhino population of all five subspecies at about 28,000, down from 500,000 at the beginning of the 20th century.
In Africa, one rhino was killed every 15 hours last year as demand for the animal's horn remains high, according to the State of the Rhino report.
In total, 586 rhinos were killed across the continent, most of them in South Africa, which has the largest rhino population, with an estimated population of 16,056. The number of rhinos killed rose marginally from 551 in 2022, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature.
Still, South Africa's white rhino population is increasing despite poaching thanks to conservation efforts, the report said.
While black rhino populations have been thriving in several regions, they have declined slightly over the past year due to intense poaching in Namibia and South Africa.
Since July 2023, Indonesian authorities have been investigating and prosecuting Javan rhino poaching groups, who have confessed to killing 26 animals in Ujung Kulon National Park between 2019 and 2023.
In India, the population of one-horned Asian rhinos has grown from 1,500 four decades ago to more than 4,000 thanks to conservation and anti-poaching efforts, according to government data included in the report.
Rhinos face several environmental threats, including habitat loss due to development and climate change, but poaching, based on the belief that their horns have medicinal uses, remains the main threat.
Philip Muruthi, vice president of species conservation at the Africa Wildlife Foundation, said protection has played a major role in the increase in the rhino population.
In Kenya, the number of rhinos has increased from 380 in 1986 to 1,000 last year, he said. “Why has that happened? Because the rhinos have been taken to sanctuaries and protected.”
Muruthi advocates for a campaign to end the demand for rhino horns, as well as the adoption of new technologies to track and monitor rhinos for their protection, while educating the communities where they live about the benefits of rhinos to the ecosystem and economy.
Rhinos, known as megaherbivores that clear parks and create paths for other herbivores, are also good at establishing forests by eating seeds and spreading them around parks in their dung.
