White Rhino Stories

In Zambia's Kafue National Park, WWF and partners are instituting new thermal imaging technology to monitor and protect wildlife from poachers, and to keep local people safer in the process.

Illegal killings of rhinos in South Africa are on the decline. In 2019, poachers killed 594 rhinos, down from 769 in the year prior, according to South Africa’s Department of the Environment, Forestry, and Fisheries.

2019 has been a year of both wins and losses for rhinos. Though still facing threats like poaching and habitat loss, the global rhino population has increased by 30 percent over the past decade.

In an enormous setback for wildlife conservation, China announced it will allow hospitals to use tiger bone and rhino horn from captive-bred animals for traditional medicine. The decision reverses a decades-old ban that has been instrumental in preventing the extinction of endangered tigers and rhinos.

In 2008, the Zambia Wildlife Authority successfully relocated four white rhinos from South Africa to Mosi-oa-Tunya to create a new population on the north side of the Zambezi River.

New 2017 rhino poaching numbers out of South Africa show a small decrease from the previous year, but the death toll remains perilously high.

In 2016 alone, 1,054 rhinos were reported killed in South Africa.This figure represents a loss in rhinos of approximately 6% in South Africa, which is close to the birth rate, meaning the population remains perilously close to the tipping point.

Academy Award-winning actor, musician and director Jared Leto will become a WWF Global Ambassador, focusing on the most urgent, pressing issues facing our planet.