Rhino numbers tick higher, but poachers lurk amid high demand for horns

Africa reports 586 rhino killings in 2023, up from 551 in 2022, with poaching the main threat.

Rhinoceros numbers across the world increased slightly in 2023, but so too did the number of animals killed by poachers, according to a new report.

Thanks to preservation efforts, the white rhino population increased by 1,522 to 17,464 in 2023, an annual report by the International Rhino Foundation said as it marked World Rhino Day on Sunday. However, the number of black and greater one-horned rhinos stayed the same, it added.

That left the global rhino population of the five subspecies at about 28,000, which stood at 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, the State of the Rhino report says.

A total of 586 rhinos were killed across the continent, most of them in South Africa, which has the highest population of rhinos at an estimated 16,056. The number of killed rhinos increased marginally from 551 in 2022, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature.