The endangered African rhinoceros seems to be making a comeback, with numbers now higher than at any time since the early to mid-1980s, according to a new report by the World Conservation Union (IUCN) and World Wildlife Fund. The IUCN estimates that there were some 13,000 African rhinos in the wild in 1999, compared to 8,300 in 1992. WWF describes the species’ recovery over the past century as “one of the world’s greatest conservation success stories,” and attributes the recent upswing to effective conservation programs in a number of African nations. Still, the populations of two of the six African rhino subspecies remain very low, and enviros say serious threats to rhinos persist. The animals have suffered heavily from poaching because their horns are sought for use in traditional Chinese medicine and for making decorative dagger handles in the Middle East.
