Rhino poaching deaths reach record high

A one-horned rhino named Baghekhaity stands next to its 10-day-old calf at a zoo in Guwahati, in the northeastern Indian state of Assam, September 10, 2013. The calf was born on September 1 under the conservation breeding programme for one-horned rhinos in the state, local media reported. REUTERS/Utpal Baruah (INDIA - Tags: ANIMALS)

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 More than half of South Africa’s rhino deaths occurred in world-famous Kruger National Park. The popular safari destination lost 252 rhinos in 2011, and witnessed the poaching of an additional eight rhinos in the first weeks of the new year, according to authorities from South Africa National Parks. For more information. visit www.traffic.org © naturepl.com Mark Carwardine / WWF

 

 

  Photo By SIPHIWE SIBEKO/Reuters Tue, 1 Oct, 2013

An eight-year-old rhino walks after being tagged with a GPS device at the Mafikeng Game Reserve in South Africa's North-West province, in this November 12, 2010 file photo. The number of rhinos killed by poachers has hit a new annual record in South Africa, raising worries of a downward population spiral in a country that is home to almost all of Africa's rhinos. To match SAFRICA-RHINOS REUTERS/Siphiwe Sibeko/Files (SOUTH AFRICA - Tags: ANIMALS .

 

 

 Photo By STAFF/REUTERS Sun, 12 Jan, 2014

An endangered east African black rhinoceros and her calf walk in Tanzania's Serengeti park in this file photo taken May 21, 2010. A permit to hunt a black rhino in Namibia sold for $350,000 at an auction in Dallas on Saturday with proceeds going to protect the endangered animals despite protests from animal rights groups that saw the sale as immoral conservation. REUTERS/Tom Kirkwood/Files (TANZANIA - Tags: ANIMALS ENVIRONMENT)

 

 Photo By HANDOUT/Reuters Thu, 19 Dec, 2013

 Rhino horns are pictured in this undated handout photo courtesy of the United States Attorney's Office, District of New Jersey. A Chinese citizen, the admitted ringleader of an international smuggling operation that trafficked in $4.5 million worth of rhinoceros horns, ivory cups and trinkets, pleaded guilty on December 19, 2013 in federal court in New Jersey, prosecutors said. 

Zhifei Li, 29, said he had sold 30 raw rhino horns for as much as $17,500 each to Chinese factories that carve them into cups that are thought to improve health, according to federal prosecutors. 

 

 

REUTERS/United States Attorney's Office, District of New Jersey/Handout (UNITED STATES - Tags: CRIME LAW ANIMALS) ATTENTION EDITORS - THIS IMAGE HAS BEEN SUPPLIED BY A THIRD PARTY. IT IS DISTRIBUTED, EXACTLY AS RECEIVED BY REUTERS, AS A SERVICE TO CLIENTS. FOR EDITORIAL USE ONLY. NOT FOR SALE FOR MARKETING OR ADVERTISING CAMPAIGNS 

 

 

 Rhino poaching deaths reach record high

More than 1,000 rhinos were poached for their horns in South Africa in 2013, a record number and an increase of over 50 percent from the previous year, the country's department of environmental affairs said on Friday.

Rhino hunting is driven by soaring demand in newly affluent Asian countries such as Vietnam and China, where the animal's horns are prized as a key ingredient in traditional medicine. (Reuters)

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