South Africa National Parks: 52 rhinos rhinos have been poached in 2012 so far

update (17 Feb 2012): According to "The Mercury" newspaper, two more rhinos had been poached at a private game lodge near Hluhluwe in KwaZulu-Natal, raising the number to 54. 

South Africa National Parks (SANParks) has published the current and devasting numbers of this years rhino poaching so far. According to their statistics, 52 (!) have already get killed in South Africa's National Parks while 30 arrests have been made. The hardest hit areas continue to be the Kruger National Park (KNP) and Limpopo province with 26 and 13 rhinos poached in both areas respectively.

The CEO of SANParks, Dr David Mabunda, said "it is worrying that we are still losing such a high number of rhinos throughout the country. The most encouraging area in this whole saga is the increasing number of arrests and the steeper sentences that are being imposed on convicted criminals.".

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