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Rhino is a robust species that can play a very positive role in sustainable wildlife industries to the economic benefit of rural people. Efforts to protect rhinos will, at the same time, create protection for a range of other species. For this reason rhinos should be referred to as “flagship species”. Apart from the obvious need to maximize the growth rates of rhino populations to build up numbers of rhinos, healthy growth rates of at least 5% per year are essential for maintaining genetic diversity. Today, there are fewer than 5,630 black rhinos left in the wild, and, with poaching seeping across the continent, the critically endangered black rhinos' last stand may be in northwestern Namibia. It is here that SRT works tirelessly to protect the last, free-roaming population of black rhinos (Diceros bicornis bicornis) left in the world. Covering an area of 25,000 km2, SRT's trackers come from local communities and possess a deep knowledge of rhinos and their surroundings. Their skills are tested during long patrols, on foot in an area with no national park status, no fences and no controls over who enters and exits. |
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Rhino monitoring performance in 2021 with our newly developed ‘Rhino Monitoring Dashboard’ customized in our SMART database