Black Rhino Stories

  • Sharing Space

    WWF Magazine: Summer 2023
    The sounds of squabbling baboons and squawking guinea fowl greet Tjavarekua Tjijahura as she rises to prepare breakfast and break camp.
    A rhino partially emerges from vegetation
  • Eight species making a comeback

    March 03, 2022

    Recovering species is essential for effective wildlife conservation and critical to the work WWF does around the world. Here are just a few of our favorite, recent recovery stories.

    Banke Nepal camera trap
  • Ancient Survivors

    WWF Magazine: Winter 2021
    Ensuring a future for one of the world's oldest mammals
    Rhinos at sunrise
  • Rhino populations are recovering in Namibia thanks to community-led interventions

    WWF Magazine: Summer 2021
    Black rhino populations are recovering in Namibia thanks to community-led interventions.
    Rhino surrounded by vegetation
  • Capturing a rare rhino on its midnight stroll

    WWF Magazine: Spring 2021
    Mostly active at night, the critically endangered black rhino is an elusive species. A well-placed camera trap spotted one of these rare rhinos walking through a wildlife corridor in Kenya.
    Black rhino facing camera at night
  • Meet Dr. Jacques Flamand

    January 06, 2021

    WWF-South Africa's wildlife veterinarian, Dr. Jacques Flamand, has dedicated his career to the protection and conservation of South Africa's iconic species, including the critically endangered black rhino.

    A man touching a black rhino that is waking up after being sedated
  • Thermal technology promises to halt poaching of rhinos

    September 21, 2020

    Since 2016, WWF and FLIR Systems Inc., a thermal imaging company, have been working together to equip rangers in Kenya with night vision thermal technology to better protect wildlife from poaching under cover of darkness. Since the project began, no rhinos have been poached in the areas where the night vision cameras operate.

    two rhinos in field_Kenya
  • Sightlines

    WWF Magazine: Summer 2020
    In Zambia's Kafue National Park, WWF and partners are instituting new thermal imaging technology to monitor and protect wildlife from poachers, and to keep local people safer in the process.
    Workman on tower
  • Rhino poaching on the decline in South Africa

    Illegal killings of rhinos in South Africa are on the decline. In 2019, poachers killed 594 rhinos, down from 769 in the year prior, according to South Africa’s Department of the Environment, Forestry, and Fisheries.

    Two black rhinos in South Africa
  • Rhinos around the world

    November 14, 2019

    2019 has been a year of both wins and losses for rhinos. Though still facing threats like poaching and habitat loss, the global rhino population has increased by 30 percent over the past decade.

    An Asian rhino (Rhinoceros unicornis) drinks by the waters edge at sunset. Kaziranga National Park, India.
  • Where do rhinos live? And eight other rhino facts

    September 19, 2019

    Facts about rhinos and what WWF is doing to help protect the species.

    White Rhinoceros (Ceratotherium simum), Kenya.
  • In a blow to wildlife, China lifts a ban on the use of tiger and rhino parts

    October 29, 2018

    In an enormous setback for wildlife conservation, China announced it will allow hospitals to use tiger bone and rhino horn from captive-bred animals for traditional medicine. The decision reverses a decades-old ban that has been instrumental in preventing the extinction of endangered tigers and rhinos.

    Bengal Tiger in the Ranthambore National Park, India
  • South Africa’s rhino poaching trends show a slight decrease—but death toll remains too high

    January 29, 2018

    New 2017 rhino poaching numbers out of South Africa show a small decrease from the previous year, but the death toll remains perilously high.

    Two black rhinos in South Africa
  • WWF is saving black rhinos by moving them

    WWF’s Black Rhino Range Expansion Project (BRREP) has been working with passion, commitment, and determination for a brighter future for the critically endangered black rhino for more than a decade. BRREP works to grow black rhino numbers by creating new populations and provides equipment and training to rangers to monitor, manage, and protect rhinos.

    A rhino standing in a field
  • How WWF safely moves black rhinos to help the species thrive

    Looking back over years of moving black rhinos to create new populations as part of the Black Rhino Range Expansion Project in South Africa, it’s worth noting how capture and release techniques have improved. 

    black rhino calf in tall grass
  • South African rhino poaching numbers show need for urgent action

    February 27, 2017

    In 2016 alone, 1,054 rhinos were reported killed in South Africa.This figure represents a loss in rhinos of approximately 6% in South Africa, which is close to the birth rate, meaning the population remains perilously close to the tipping point.

    black rhino and calf
  • Academy Award-Winning Actor Jared Leto Joins WWF as Global Ambassador

    February 11, 2015

    Academy Award-winning actor, musician and director Jared Leto will become a WWF Global Ambassador, focusing on the most urgent, pressing issues facing our planet.

    jared leto and rhino