The GNU (Government of National Unity) minister leading South Africa’s conservation efforts was able to report a decrease in rhino poached numbers for the first half of the year, driven in part by extensive dehorning in KwaZulu-Natal.
The decrease, Dion George said in a Thursday (1 August) statement, was slight – two – down to 229 from the corresponding 231 last year. This came with what he called “a significant drop” in May and June: 21 and 22 compared to 42 and 34 for the first six months of last year.
The reduced loss is thought to be attributable to the dehorning of rhino populations in KwaZulu-Natal and specifically in Hluhluwe iMfolozi Park where over a thousand rhinos have been dehorned since April 2024.
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