Keep your chin up, old boy

LAST year 438 rhinos, nearly all of them of the white (meaning wide-lipped) species, were known to have been illegally killed in South Africa, their horns often hacked off while they were still alive. That compares with an annual average of just 15 before 2008. This year more than 200 have already been poached, an average of 50 a month, with the year's final tally expected to top 600. If that trend continues, more rhinos will be being poached than born by 2016, sending the world's population into a decline that could be irreversible. Around 20,000 of the surviving white rhinos on earth live in South Africa.

“It is not an exaggeration to say that every rhino on the planet is now in mortal danger,” wrote the late Lawrence Anthony, a South African conservationist. “Unless something fundamental changes quickly, every last one in the world will eventually have been killed.”


In 1976 the global trade in rhino horn was banned under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES). This drove it underground, pushing up prices and spawning international crime syndicates ready to snap it up wherever it could be found, whether in game reserves, museums or even as trophies in private homes.

By the mid-1990s, 90% of the world's rhinos had disappeared, compared with the number 25 years earlier. All five species (three in Asia) were declared endangered or threatened with extinction. In South Africa, better security and conservation methods helped boost populations. Over the past four years the government has introduced a series of tough anti-poaching measures, sending soldiers armed with the latest high-tech equipment to back up rangers in game reserves and imposing heavy sentences on poachers when caught. Three were recently jailed for 25 years each. But the rewards plainly outweigh the risks.