The Plight of the Rhino -Population numbers continue to decline.
After years of silence about Kruger National Park rhino populations from South Africa’s Ministry of Forestry and Fisheries and Environmental Affairs, we can now confirm that populations in the Kruger National Park have plummeted to an estimated 3,529 white rhinos and 268 black rhinos.
Source: African GeographiC
Recent Government updates claimed progress in the war against poaching on the grounds that the volume of rhinos being poached per year has reduced. This population update however suggests that the reduction in numbers itself is a significant factor contributing towards lower poaching volumes as they are more difficult to find.
In the late 1890s, the southern white rhino almost became globally extinct as a species. Thanks to people like Dr Ian Player, a tiny remnant population of fewer than 100 of these animals in IMfolozi Game Reserve in KwaZulu-Natal was saved and gradually multiplied to restock other parks in South Africa and elsewhere on the continent.
It remains my view that reported rhino poaching numbers tend to underestimate the actual number of deaths because of the difficulty of finding carcasses in dense bush over such a large area.
The number of rhino cows killed by poachers had a knock-on effect on overall population levels as this often led to the death of dependent calves and the future loss of calves that a rhino cow would have produced. “This effect equates to an additional five rhinos lost to the population per loss of one cow, now and in the future.” Poaching also led to social disruption of predominantly black rhino families as cows began to conceive less often. Read the full article here - Kruger rhino populations plummet – latest official stats - Africa Geographic. My thanks to Simon Espley of Africa Geographic and Tony Carnie, environment journalist for the details and text above.