Poaching in National Parks

While none of these animals live in the wild in North America, their numbers continue to decrease on the other side of the world. Even in national parks the rare Indian Rhinoceros is still being driven closer to extinction by poachers. In the world famous Royal Chitwan National Park in Nepal, 24 of these animals have been poached since the last census in 2008. This brings the number of Indian Rhinos down to approximately 372 animals with that number declining.

The largest population of Indian rhinos are located in Kaziranga National Park in India and number just under 2000. Already this year, five have been killed by poachers bringing the total in the past year and couple months to 19. Along with these poachings, there have been eight white rhinos killed in Africa recently bring their number to a 3 year total of 93 animals poached.

Indian rhinos are classified as vulnerable with their primary threat being poachers. They have been poached for their horn which has traditionally been used in Asian medicines, although no study's have shown any benefit from them. As of May 2007, there were 2575 Indian rhinos remaining in the world.