RHINO numbers grew across Africa last year, conservationists said yesterday, hailing the first bit of “good news” in a decade for an animal threatened by poaching.

Nearly 23,300 rhinos roamed the continent at the end of last year, up 5.2% on 2021, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). 

“With this good news, we can take a sigh of relief for the first time in a decade,” said Michael Knight, a wildlife ecologist who chairs the IUCN’s African Rhino Specialist Group.

The IUCN combined rhino estimates from various nations to produce the continental tally and said “a combination of protection and biological management initiatives” had led the number of black rhinos to increase by 4.2% to 6,487.

White rhinos were up 5.6% to 16,803 – the first increase since 2012, IUCN said.

“It is imperative to further consolidate and build upon this positive development and not drop our guard,” said Knight. 

Rhinos have been decimated by decades of poaching driven by demand from Asia, where horns are used in traditional medicine for their supposed therapeutic effects.

More than 550 rhinos were killed by poachers across the continent last year, mostly in South Africa, IUCN said. 

South Africa is home to nearly 80% of the world’s rhinos. Poachers there have increasingly targeted privately owned reserves in their hunt for horns, highly sought in black markets where the price per weight rivals that of gold and cocaine at an estimated US$60,000 (RM281,418) per kg. – AFP, September 22, 2023.