With rhinoceros horn worth more than gold, the animals are the target of poachers. South Africa alone lost over 400 rhinos to illegal poaching in 2011. It is estimated there are only 16,000 rhinos left in the world, and the animal faces extinction.

A black rhino, which had already been de-horned by a vet to protect it, wanders in the bush after poachers shot it four times, tore out the stump of the horn, and left it for dead. The wound became infected and though treated with antibiotics, the animal later died.

After some supervision by rangers at Tugela Private Game Reserve, in South Africa, a male rhino has taken a female whose horn had been removed by poachers, using a chain saw, under its protection.

The carcass of a white rhino, which was snared and killed for its horns, lies in the Selati private game reserve.

A white rhino and her calf walk in the bush at the Hluhluwe-Umfolozi Game Reserve. The reserve is the world’s largest repository of rhino, providing shelter to some 2,300 in total.

A white rhino skin is salted for curing after a morning hunt, on Dawie Groenewald’s game farm, near the town of Musina. The South African government allows some rhino hunting under permit.

Dawie Groenewald, his wife, and 11 vet and hunter employees, attend their trial in Musina, South Africa, accused of transgressing the Endangered Species Act, after unaccounted-for rhino carcasses were found on his game farm.

A member of the International Anti-Poaching Foundation leads a training workshop for rhino-protection rangers.

A vet on a game farm de-horns a white rhino, as a precautionary anti-poaching measure.

A black rhino is in transit after being captured as part of a security translocation program, transferring the animal to a safer location, at the Hluhluwe-Imfolozi Game Reserve.

An anti-poaching team guards a northern white rhino, part of a 24-hour watch, at Ol Pejeta Conservancy in Kenya. The park is home to four of the world’s remaining eight northern white rhinos, the world’s most endangered animal.

A woman grinds rhino horn for her own consumption, in Baoloc, Vietnam. She claims rhino horn cured her of kidney stones.

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