Black rhinoceros - Population & distribution

Slight increases since 1996

Previous Population and Distribution
Black rhinos were once found throughout sub-Saharan Africa with the exception of the Congo Basin, but today their range has been severely reduced. The extent of their former range in western Africa is not precisely known. One of the largest subspecies, the south-western black rhino, was distributed in central and southern Namibia and South Africa. The last documented individual there was killed in 1853.

Numbers and distribution declined in East Africa in the first half of the twentieth century. By the 1960s, Diceros had mostly disappeared from Ethiopia and Somalia, and at the end of that decade it was estimated that 70,000 survived on the continent. The poaching epidemic that started in the early 1970s effectively eliminated most of the black rhinos living outside conservation areas, and severely reduced numbers in national parks and reserves.

During the late 1970s and in the 1980s numbers decreased by between 40 and 90% in some regions; in 1981 only 10,000 to 15,000 remained and by 1993 only 2,475 rhinos were recorded. Since 1980, black rhinos have probably disappeared from Angola, Botswana, Chad, Central African Republic, Ethiopia, Malawi, Mozambique, Somalia, Sudan, and Zambia.

Populations in Africa stabilised by 1992 largely due to significant population increases in South Africa and Namibia, which offset the mortalities elsewhere. Since 1996 most of these populations have continued to show modest increases.

Current Population and Distribution
Today, almost 98% of the black rhino population is found in just four countries: South Africa, Namibia, Zimbabwe and Kenya. In South Africa there has been ongoing recovery of black rhino populations, and the country's population now accounts for approximately 40% of the total black rhino wild population. Other countries with important black rhino populations are Namibia, Kenya and Zimbabwe.

See map below: