The Rhinos of HIP

In the first nine months of 2022, poachers killed 190 rhinos in state-run protected areas in South Africa’s KwaZulu-Natal province. That’s one rhino killed every 35 hours. Most of this surge in poaching has taken place in Hluhluwe-Imfolozi Park, better known as HIP.

HIP is one of Africa’s earliest proclaimed conservation areas, established in 1895 in large part to protect the southern white rhino (Ceratotherium simum simum) from extinction. At the time, there were believed to have been fewer than 100 left, all in KwaZulu-Natal. HIP’s rhino conservation was so successful that white rhinos have now been translocated back to many countries across their previous range. White rhinos can now be found in Namibia, Zimbabwe, Kenya, Rwanda, Mozambique and Zambia — all of them a direct result of the work done in HIP.

I spent time in and around HIP looking at the causes behind the surge in poaching in 2022 and some of the possible solutions for Mongabay. An article from this story was published by Mongabay and can be found here.