Over 100 rhinos killed in South Africa in the first 3 months of 2025, as data show

According to the South African Environment Minister Dion George, Wilderer killed over 100 rhinos in South Africa in the first three months of 2025.

From January 1 to March 31, 103 rhinos were killed and 65 of them poached in the South African national parks, George said on Monday, May 5th, in an explanation.

“The loss of 103 rhinos against poaching in the first three months of 2025 is a strong memory of the relentless threat to our wildlife,” said George, before finding that some progress was made. “But the lack of poaching in four provinces shows that our targeted interventions provide results and we have to build on this progress.”

In 2024, 420 rhinos were lost, with an average of 35 rhinos per month compared to 2025 average 34 per month. “In the past ten years, Wilderer has killed almost 10,000 rhinos across Africa to meet the demand for Horn on the black market,” reports the International Union for Nature Conservation Area (IUCN).

South Africa has the largest Rhino population with around 16,000 to 18,000 black and white rhinos in the country, according to nature conservation groups. Black rhinos are listed as critically endangered. Around 6,400 are all over Africa, and 2,000 of them are in South Africa according to the International Rhino Foundation.

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The International Nashorn Foundation said that Rhino Horn is “a lucrative, illegal goods sought by well -established, organized and powerful transnational criminal syndicates”.

The announcement by George on May 5th follows the 15 arrests and five law enforcement measures against people for Rhino -Wilderei and the associated crimes in South Africa. On April 30, a man from Mozambique, Nelson Sambo, was sentenced to 20 years in prison for Rhino Wildering and the associated crimes. Mozambique, which borders on South Africa, is known as an important transit and recruitment center for the poaching of syndicate.

In August 2024, according to the Wildlife Justice Commission “Kingpin” Simon Ernesto Valoi “Kingpin” Simon Ernesto Valoi was sentenced to 27 years in prison. He was condemned because he led an operation in the huge Kruger -National Park of South Africa that borders on Mozambique.