The southern white rhinoceros or southern white rhino (Ceratotherium simum simum) is one of the two subspecies of the white rhinoceros (the other being the much rarer northern white rhinoceros). It is the most common and widespread subspecies of rhinoceros.
The southern white rhino lives in the grasslands, savannahs, and shrublands of southern Africa, ranging from South Africa to Zambia. About 98.5% of southern white rhino live in just five countries: South Africa, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Kenya and Uganda.
The southern white rhino is listed as Near Threatened; it is mostly threatened by habitat loss and poaching for rhino horn for use in traditional Chinese medicine.
The southern white rhino was nearly extinct near the end of the 19th century having been reduced to a population of approximately 20–50 animals in KwaZulu-Natal due to sport hunting and land clearance. Numbers increased rapidly from 1992 to 2010, due to intensive protection and translocation efforts, however population growth then slowed as poaching increased, with numbers declining from 2012 to 2017. An approximate 15% decline in estimated numbers between 2012 and 2017 was primarily due to reductions in populations within South Africa's Kruger National Park. Poaching rates peaked in 2014 and as of December 2017, there were an estimated 18,064 southern white rhino in the wild with populations being assessed as Near Threatened since 2002.
White rhino trophy hunting was legalized and regulated in 1968, and after initial miscalculations is now generally seen to have assisted in the species' recovery by providing incentives for landowners to boost rhino populations.
