Poachers killed this black rhinocerous for its horn with high-calibre bullets at a water hole in South Africa’s Hluhluwe-Imfolozi Park. They entered the park illegally, likely from a nearby village, and are thought to have used a silenced hunting rifle. Black rhinos number only about 5,000 today.
Photograph by Brent Stirton, Getty, National Geographic CreativeA four-man antipoaching team permanently guards the last remaining male northern white rhino on Ol Pejeta Conservancy in Kenya in July 2011.
Photograph by Brent Stirton, Getty, National Geographic CreativeA security team member (displaying his “antipoaching unit” tattoo) holds a rhino’s horn at the ranch of John Hume—the world’s top rhino farmer—in Klerksdorp, South Africa. The horns of Hume’s 1,300 rhinos are trimmed every 20 months or so and grow back. He has been storing trimmed horns for years in hopes of a legalised trade, which he says will reduce poaching, a claim many conservationists reject. South Africa lifted its domestic ban on rhino horn just a few months ago.
Photograph by Brent Stirton, Getty, National Geographic CreativeVeterinarian Johan Marais (left) prepares to try out a novel treatment—rubber bands used in human surgery—to close a gaping hole in this female rhino’s face made in May 2015 by poachers hacking out her horn. The rhino, named Hope, died more than a year later of a bacterial infection in her intestine.
Photograph by Brent Stirton, Getty, National Geographic CreativeA game rancher near Port Elizabeth who couldn’t afford the high cost of protecting his rhinos from poachers sold this one to a more secure operation. The rhino, blindfolded and wearing earplugs to calm it, will be sedated and accompanied by a veterinarian during the 20-hour truck journey to its new home.
Photograph by Brent Stirton, Getty, National Geographic CreativeLulah’s mother was killed by poachers in Kruger National Park. She now lives at Care for Wild Africa, a sanctuary specialising in rhinos. Staff member Dorota Ladosz lives with her full-time and comforts her after surgery to repair wounds inflicted by hyenas before her rescue.
Photograph by Brent Stirton, Getty, National Geographic CreativeOn Hume’s ranch, a team led by veterinarian Michelle Otto treats an abscess on a male rhino bought from another property owner. Otto speculates that when this animal’s horn was removed, his owner had cut dangerously low, causing an abscess to form.
Photograph by Brent Stirton, Getty, National Geographic CreativeThese rhinos at a feeding site on Hume’s ranch have recently had their horns trimmed. Unlike elephant ivory, rhino horn grows back when cut properly. He estimates that he has five tons in storage, which could bring him some £34 million. Hume held the first rhino horn auction in South Africa in years in August.
Photograph by Brent Stirton, Getty, National Geographic CreativeThese white rhinos crossed from Kruger into Sabie Game Park in Mozambique, where 29 white rhinos and two black rhinos were counted in 2015. Rhinos that enter Mozambique are holding their own thanks to efforts to crack down on poachers—but they remain at very high risk.
Photograph by Brent Stirton, Getty, National Geographic CreativeSudan was transferred along with three other northern whites from a zoo in the Czech Republic in 2009. The rhinos, which had not produced offspring in captivity, were brought to the wild in a last-ditch effort to breed them back from the brink of extinction.
Photograph by Brent Stirton, Getty, National Geographic CreativeA white rhino calf romps with a juvenile in a game park holding pen in South Africa's KwaZulu-Natal Province.
Photograph by Brent Stirton, Getty, National Geographic CreativeAn eight-pound rhino horn like this can reap several hundred thousand pounds on the black market. In Asia, some mistakenly believe rhino horn has medicinal properties. It is actually made from keratin, the same material as fingernails and hair.
Photograph by Brent Stirton, Getty, National Geographic CreativeA white rhino cow (left) grazes with a bull that has become her companion after a poaching attack in KwaZulu-Natal Province, South Africa. Using a helicopter, a gang tracked her and her four-week-old calf, shot her with a tranquiliser dart, and cut off her horns with a chainsaw. Rangers found her a week later, searching for her calf, which had died, probably of starvation and dehydration.
Photograph by Brent Stirton, Getty, National Geographic CreativeGame scouts found this black rhino bull wandering Zimbabwe's Saveacute Valley Conservancy after poachers shot it several times and hacked off both its horns. Veterinarians had to euthanise the animal because its shattered shoulder couldn't support its weight.
Photograph by Brent Stirton, Getty, National Geographic CreativeAn anaesthetised white rhino cow is left to wake in a field after a dehorning procedure to deter poachers. Poachers killed a reported 1,054 rhinos in South Africa in 2016.
Photograph by Brent Stirton, Getty, National Geographic CreativeSome critics of dehorning say it leaves the animals unprotected against natural predators. Advocates argue that the absence of horns deters poachers and reduces the number of rhinos that die of wounds from fights over territory and mates. "An adult rhino packs such an awesome punch, even with a stub of a horn," Hume says. "A lion is unlikely to tangle with one, horn or no horn."
Photograph by Brent Stirton, Getty, National Geographic CreativeA decomposing rhino with its horns cut off lies where it was strangled in a poacher's wire snare on a private game reserve not far from Kruger National Park in South Africa. Rangers staked out the site, but when the poacher didn't return, reserve officials removed the horns.
Photograph by Brent Stirton, Getty, National Geographic Creative