98.8% of white rhino occur in just four countries: South Africa, Namibia, Zimbabwe and Kenya.
According to AfRSG data from 2011, the majority, 98.8%, of white rhino occur in just four countries: South Africa, Namibia, Zimbabwe and Kenya.
South Africa remains the stronghold for the southern white rhino subspecies conserving 18,800 individuals, or 93.2% of the population in 2010. Sizeable southern white rhino populations occur in the greater Kruger National Park, which incorporates additional private and state reserves, and Hluhluwe-iMfolozi Park, but also occur in numerous state-protected areas and private reserves, some of which are also well protected throughout the country.
Smaller, reintroduced populations occur within former range states in Botswana, Namibia, Swaziland, and Zimbabwe, while a small number survive in Mozambique. Populations of free-ranging southern white rhino have also been established outside their historical range in Kenya, Zambia, and more recently, Uganda, although Uganda is a former Ceratotherium simum cottoni range state. An approximately 3,500 year old white rhino subfossil indicates at one stage, Kenya was also once a white rhino range state.
In 2007, Namibia, Zimbabwe, and Kenya were the only other countries with over 300 wild southern white rhino, but following increased poaching, numbers in Zimbabwe had dropped to 290 by the end of 2010. Together, these three countries conserve 82.1% of the subspecies outside of South Africa.
• Image | © Glen Carrie, Some Rights Reserved Unsplash
• Sources | (Dulal, 2017; Emslie, 2012; Emslie & Brooks, 1999; Koopmans, 2012)
