White Rhinos

Despite their name, white rhinoceroses are not white in color, but gray. The "white" in their name is thought to come from the Afrikaans word for "wide," which sounds like "white" and refers to their mouths, which are wide and square due to being grazers; i.e., they eat grasses. The black rhino, which is a totally different species, is the smaller of the two African species, and they have a hooked upper lip since they are browsers not grazers, meaning they eat leaves, not grasses. Their pointed lip helps them feed on leaves from bushes and trees.

These white rhinos are of the subspecies southern white rhino (Ceratotherium simum ssp. simum) and are listed as Near Threatened by the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species (2020) with a current population trend that is decreasing; though in Kruger they are Severely Threatened. The northern white rhino (C simum ssp. cottoni) is listed as Critically Endangered in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species (2020), but because there are only two females left, they are functionally extinct. The last male northern white rhino died on March 19, 2018. The black rhino (Diceros bicornis) is listed as Critically Endangered in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species (2020) with a current population trend that is increasing. The GPS location information of where these photos were taken has been removed in an attempt to protect the animals.

Rhino horns are sold on the black market mainly to Vietnam and China, where they are ground into a powder and used as traditional medicine remedies for a variety of ailments. The rhinos in the reserves in the Greater Kruger Area as well as in Kruger National Park are dehorned to attempt to prevent poaching and their ears are notched for identification purposes. At Dinokeng Game Reserve, the rhinos are not dehorned; instead, to prevent poaching tracking devices have been implanted into the horn of each rhino and the horns have been infused with a pink dye as well as a poison that is toxic to humans but not rhinos, then the horn is sealed with an adhesive putty. Both the dehorning and infusing the horns with poison and pink dye act as deterrents to poachers and have been successful in decreasing the number of rhino deaths due to poaching, but unfortunately poaching remains a serious threat. More recently, South Africa has started to infuse a radioactive isotope, harmless to rhinos but strong enough to be detected by customs agents when the smuggled horns are transported across borders, into the horns as a new way to attempt to deter poaching.

China is responsible for a lot of the major conservation issues we're facing. It's the main market for rhino horn. Tigers are being killed for tiger bone wine. They're driving the tropical timber trade and illegal logging in Indonesia, and the trade in tropical reef fish.

—Mark Carwardine, zoologist, environmental activist, author, and wildlife photographer