What if there were only a couple dozen police officers to patrol all of Manhattan? Now imagine that the borough protected something far more valuable than gold, something that heavily armed criminals were willing to kill to get. How could those few officers keep the peace over such a large territory? That’s roughly the equivalent [...]

In 2010 a black rhinoceros female named Phila survived two separate and brutal attempts on her life. In the first, poachers used a helicopter to attack the private game reserve where she lived in South Africa. Another rhino died in the assault. Phila escaped with two gunshot wounds. She was lucky, but her ordeal was [...]

In 2009 four of the world’s last seven northern white rhinos (Ceratotherium simum cottoni) were moved from a zoo in the Czech Republic to Ol Pejeta Conservancy in Kenya. At the time conservationists expressed hope that returning the rhinos to semi-wild lives under their native African skies would help inspire the animals to mate and, [...]

Smile, you’re on endangered-species camera. The world’s last 35 Javan rhinoceroses (Rhinoceros sondaicus) are a little bit safer this week as 120 new camera traps have been installed in Ujung Kulon National Park, located on the western corner of the island of Java, in Indonesia. The new video cameras were donated by the World Wildlife [...]

Two endangered rhinos have been critically injured and a third died after poachers in South Africa hunted the animals down and chopped off their horns. Rhino horn—possession of which is banned under international law—is valued for use in traditional Asian medicine to treat cancer and other disorders, even though the horns—made of keratin like that [...]

Just two weeks after the World Wildlife Fund declared the Vietnam Javan rhinoceros (Rhinoceros sondaicus annamiticus) extinct comes the announcement of another rhino extinction, this time the western black rhino (Diceros bicornis longipes) of Africa. The declaration came last week from the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) as part of [...]

Illegal demand for rhino horns for use in traditional Asian medicine has soared in recent years. As a result, rhino deaths by poaching hit an all-time high in 2010, and 2011 is likely to beat that number. Last year, the owner of the Rhino & Lion Nature Reserve near Johannesburg, South Africa, proposed a new [...]

All things to nothingness descend, Grow old and die and meet their end… Nor long shall any name resound Beyond the grave, unless ‘t be found In some clerk’s book, it is the pen Gives immortality to men …and rhinos The Norman poet Master Wace wrote those words (well, all but the last line) in [...]

Rhinoceros poaching in South Africa hit an all-time high in 2010, with 333 animals slain for their valuable horns. That’s nearly triple the 122 rhinos killed in the country in 2009. Most of the poached rhinos were southern white rhinoceri (Ceratotherium simum simum). The most prolific type of rhino, it is considered a near-threatened species. [...]

With rhinoceros poaching in Africa approaching an all-time high, one nature preserve owner has had enough. Ed Hern, owner of the Rhino and Lion Nature Reserve near Johannesburg, South Africa, is experimenting with injecting cyanide into his rhinos’ horns. He believes the poison will not harm the rhinos, because there are no blood vessels in [...]

The fate of elephants, rhinoceroses and other imperiled species could be decided in the coming days at a major meeting on wildlife trade regulation in Bangkok. Beginning March 3, delegates from the 178 countries that have signed the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, dubbed CITES, will gather to [...]