{"id":77671,"date":"2025-05-05T23:21:10","date_gmt":"2025-05-05T23:21:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/77671\/"},"modified":"2025-05-05T23:21:10","modified_gmt":"2025-05-05T23:21:10","slug":"poachers-have-killed-over-100-rhinos-in-south-africa-this-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/77671\/","title":{"rendered":"Poachers have killed over 100 rhinos in South Africa this year"},"content":{"rendered":"

CAPE TOWN, South Africa — Poachers in South Africa killed more than 100 rhinos in the first three months of this year, most of them inside national parks, highlighting an ongoing battle to protect<\/a> one of the best-known endangered species.<\/a><\/p>\n

South African Environment Minister Dion George announced the figures Monday and said that of the 103 rhinos killed between Jan. 1 and March 31, 65 were poached in national parks.<\/p>\n

The average of more than one rhino killed a day is in line with last year’s count and \u201ca stark reminder of the relentless threat to our wildlife,\u201d George said.<\/p>\n

South Africa has the largest rhino population in the world, with an estimated 16,000 to 18,000 animals, according to conservation groups. That includes black and white rhinos.<\/p>\n

Black rhinos are only found in the wild in Africa<\/a> and are listed as critically endangered with around 6,400 left, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature. Around 2,000 are in South Africa.<\/p>\n

South African authorities have focused in recent years on criminal syndicates they believe are behind much of the country’s rhino poaching.<\/a><\/p>\n

The environment ministry hailed a conviction last year of what it called a poaching \u201ckingpin\u201d from Mozambique. Simon Ernesto Valoi was sentenced to 27 years in prison by a Mozambique court for running an operation poaching rhinos in South Africa’s huge Kruger National Park, which borders Mozambique.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

More AP Africa news: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/africa<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CAPE TOWN, South Africa — Poachers in South Africa killed more than 100 rhinos in the first three…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":77672,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3843],"tags":[38099,12017,933,3907,8616,12016,728,4179,38097,38098,70,16,15,263],"class_list":{"0":"post-77671","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-38099","9":"tag-animal-poaching-and-smuggling","10":"tag-animals","11":"tag-article","12":"tag-climate-and-environment","13":"tag-endangered-species","14":"tag-environment","15":"tag-general-news","16":"tag-hunting-and-fishing","17":"tag-rhinoceros","18":"tag-science","19":"tag-uk","20":"tag-united-kingdom","21":"tag-world-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114457797072714517","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77671","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=77671"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77671\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/77672"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=77671"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=77671"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=77671"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}