We focus on the conservation of four of the five rhino species, working to contribute to their population recovery and growth by achieving an annual growth rate of at least 5% for key populations: Once sedated, they are then loaded into trucks, provided an antidote, and driven to their new home territories. In Asia, candidates for translocation are tracked in their grassland habitat with the help of park and research staff and their captive elephant teams. In Asia, a number of successful translocations have been conducted in both India and Nepal, where the translocation process is slightly different from Africa. Creating more dispersed and better protected populations also helps keep rhinos safe from poachers.

Translocations reduce pressure on existing wildlife reserves and provide new territory within their former range where rhinos have a greater opportunity to increase in number. They are first sedated and then carefully airlifted to awaiting vehicles which take them to their new locations. During translocations, some rhinos are airlifted by helicopter.

Since its start, the project has helped successfully establish 12 new black rhino populations in safer, more spacious locations within their former range and relocated a total of 201 critically endangered black rhinos. In South Africa, WWF, in partnership with Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife and Eastern Cape Parks and Tourismand partners started the Black Rhino Ranger Expansion Project (BBREP) in 2003. WWF has a long history of supporting rhino translocations with the aim to establish new populations within their former range and move animals from risk areas to safe havens. WWF collaborates closely with government agencies in the US and globally as well as other international and local non-governmental organization partners to broaden support for rhino conservation. We also tackle illegal trade of-and demand for-rhino horn through advocacy and strengthening of local and international law enforcement to bring trafficking perpetrators to justice. We work to curb poaching by implementing innovative technology and building the capacity of government and community rangers on the ground. We help with community-based conservation approaches for people living in and around important rhino habitats. WWF secures and protects rhino populations and establishes new populations through translocations-the process of moving rhinos from parks with significant populations to others that historically held rhinos but currently do not. With nearly 60 years of experience, we know that successful rhino conservation requires a comprehensive approach that brings together the world’s leading experts to develop global strategies to save and recover these species. WWF plays a vital role in the fight to protect rhinos. Black rhinos have doubled in number over the past two decades from their low point of fewer than 2,500 individuals, but total numbers are still a fraction of the estimated 100,000 that existed in the early part of the 20th century. The only two remaining northern white rhino are kept under 24-hour guard in Ol Pejeta Conservancy in Kenya. But the western black rhino and northern white rhinos have recently become extinct in the wild. In Africa, southern white rhinos, once thought to be extinct, now thrive in protected sanctuaries and are classified as near threatened. However, the species still remains under threat from poaching for its horn and from habitat loss and degradation. The greater one-horned rhino is one of Asia’s biggest success stories, with their status improving from endangered to vulnerable following significant population increases. Successful conservation efforts have led to an increase in the number of greater one-horned (or Indian) rhinos, from around 200 at the turn of the 20th century to around 3,700 today. A mainland subspecies of the Javan rhino was declared extinct in Vietnam in 2011. Today, a small population of Javan rhinos is found in only one national park on the northern tip of the Indonesian island of Java. Three species of rhino-black, Javan, and Sumatran-are critically endangered. Very few rhinos survive outside national parks and reserves due to persistent poaching and habitat loss over many decades.

By 1970, rhino numbers dropped to 70,000, and today, around 27,000 rhinos remain in the wild. At the beginning of the 20th century, 500,000 rhinos roamed Africa and Asia.

Rhinos once roamed many places throughout Europe, Asia, and Africa and were known to early Europeans who depicted them in cave paintings.

Northern white rhinoceros