Africa: The population of the African Black Rhino in Africa is slowly increasing!

According to the latest update of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species™, the population of the African Black Rhino in Africa is slowly increasing. The species remains critically endangered, but continuing law enforcement efforts and successful population management measures, including moving selected rhinos from established populations to new locations to keep populations productive and increase the species' range, counter the persistent threat of poaching. The African Black Rhino population across Africa has grown at a modest annual rate of 2.5% from an estimated 4,845 to 5,630 animals in the wild between 2012 and 2018. According to population models, a further slow increase over the next five years is most likely to be expected.

Africa's other rhino species, the more numerous White Rhino continues to be categorised as near threatened on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species™. The White Rhino is more vulnerable to poaching as it has larger horns, and favours more open habitats so is easier to find than the African Black Rhino. Accoring to the IUCN, numbers of the Southern White Rhino subspecies declined by 15% between 2012 and 2017 from an estimated 21,300 to 18,000 animals, which largely cancelled out most of the growth in White Rhino numbers from 2007 to 2012. This recent decline was largely due to the high levels of poaching in South Africa's Kruger National Park, home to the world's largest White Rhino population. The other White Rhino subspecies, the Northern White Rhino, remains critically endangered (possibly extinct in the wild). [via iucn.org]