A Troubling Stat Marks World Rhino Day

The Dinokeng Game Reserve in South Africa has a thriving rhino population, but their exact numbers and the details of the security operation that keeps them safe from poaching are closely guarded secrets. They are protocols that reserves with rhinos follow to safeguard against poachers who still kill on average one rhino a day in South Africa. South Africa has the largest populations of both black and southern white rhinos of any country and sees itself as the custodian of the animals' future. As conservationists mark World Rhino Day on Monday, the AP reports that South Africa remains in a constant and costly battle against poaching nearly 30 years after black rhinos were declared critically endangered, and more than a half-century since southern white rhinos were on the brink of extinction. A look:

• South Africa has more than 2,000 of the 6,700 black rhinos left in the wild or in reserves and 12,000-13,000 of the world's 15,000 remaining southern white rhinos, which are now listed as near threatened after a turnaround. Those two species are only found in the wild in Africa.
• The country has made progress in the last decade, bringing the number of rhinos killed by poachers from well over 1,000 every year to 420 last year. Yet, 195 rhinos were killed by poachers in the first half of this year. "Please do not tell a ranger that we're not going to win this war," said Marius Fuls, a wildlife monitor and ranger at Dinokeng. "If we as conservationists stop believing that we're going to win this, then we have lost it. We're the last thin green line between the extinction of rhinos."
• In South Africa and elsewhere, anti-poaching efforts now employ high-tech tactics to help rangers. Reserves use drones, night surveillance equipment, radar technology, motion-sensing cameras, and artificial intelligence. Rhinos at Dinokeng are fitted with tracking devices so rangers know where they are. Rangers also patrol with K-9 dog units.

• Some reserves continue to dehorn their rhinos to make them useless to poachers. Studies indicate that rhino horn products sold through illegal markets sometimes fetch higher prices than gold.
• This year, a group of scientists working with the International Atomic Energy Agency launched a program to inject small amounts of radioactive material into rhinos' horns. The aim is to make them unsellable, but also detectable if they are smuggled through borders.
• World Rhino Day was started in 2010 to raise awareness of the threat of poaching and habitat loss for all five of the world's rhino species. The other three, which are found in Asia, are in an even worse predicament. There are just over 4,000 greater one-horned rhinos, only around 50 Javan rhinos, and less than 50 Sumatran rhinos left.