Rhino’s in Africa are being poached for their horns

Conservationists have said that the rhino population in Africa are facing the worst poaching crisis for decades. In the past three years, it is said that gangs of poachers have killed over eight hundred rhinos. They are killed for their horns, which on the black market, can fetch over £22,000 a kilo.

It is feared by experts that recent efforts to stabalise the population of black and white rhinos could be underminded by the recent rise in poaching. The black rhino, which is a critically endangered species, has a population of four thousand eight hundred and fourty which is spread across Southern African nations.

There are two subspecies of white rhino which have a population of around twenty thousand. Last year it was estimated that three hundred and thirty three rhinos were killed in South Africa alone, a further seventy have been shot dead already this year. It is suspected that most of the rhino horns which have been illegally harvested go to the medicine markets in South East Asia.

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