Stephanorhinus kirchbergensis: A Rhinoceros from the Pleistocene of Romania.

Three species of Rhinoceros are known from the Middle-to-Late Pleistocene of Romania, the Woolly Rhinoceros, Coelodonta antiquitatis, a cold-adapted species associated with the various glacial phases, the Narrow-nosed rhinoceros, or Steppe Rhinoceros, Stephanorhinus hemitoechus, a species associated with the warmer, interglacial phases, and Merck's Rhinoceros, Stephanorhinus kirchbergensis, a larger species which may have reached as much as three tonnes, making it larger than the White Rhinoceros, Ceratotherium simum, the largest extant Rhinoceros species. Merck's Rhinoceros also appears to have favoured warmer phases, and possibly to have been restricted to the Eemian Interglacial (between 130 000 and 150 000 years ago), although specimens have been found from Siberia which apparently lived alongside Woolly Rhinoceroses, suggesting the species may have been longer lived more tolerant of climatic variation than it is generally given credit for.

In a paper published in the North-Western Journal of Zoology on 15 June 2026, Vlad Codrea of the Paleotheriology and Quaternary Geology Laboratory at Babeș-Bolyai University, the Department of Natural Sciences at Mureș County Museum, the Department of Natural History at Țării Crișurilor Museum, and the Emil Racoviță Speleological Institute, and Aurelian Popescu of the Department of Natural Sciences at the Museum of Oltenia Craiova, describe a partial Rhinoceros mandible from Dolj County in southwestern Romania. 

The mandible was discovered by English engineer William Heerlein Lindley, who was working on a water supply system for the city of Craiova, which had undergone a period of rapid expansion during the late nineteenth century, leaving the system of wells which had traditionally provided water for its residents wholly inadequate. It is unclear exactly where Lindley found the mandible, but it probably came from the Upper Terrace of the Jui River Basin, which reaches its greatest width to the east of Craiova, and where Lindley carried out considerable work, channelling water from natural springs into a system of cast-iron pipes to supply the city. The Upper Terrace has also yielded Woolly Mammoth, Mammuthus primigenius, Woolly Rhinoceros, Coelodonta antiquitatis, and Irish Elk, Megaloceros giganteus, fossils, and is considered to be Late Pleistocene in age.

Location of the municipality of Craiova. Codrea & Popescu (2026).

Lindley gave the mandible to Alexandru and Aristia Aman, who had a collection of art, antiquities, and books, which in turn was passed to the Olteniei Museum in Craiova in the 1950s, with the specimen becoming part of that museum's natural history collection.

The specimen is the rear part of the mandible of a large Perissodactyl, with the anterior portion broken off, a broken area on the anterior edge of the coronoid process. This broken area makes it hard to judge the  elevation of the anterior edge of the vertical branch of the mandible. The teeth have also been broken from the jaw, but this is recent damage, probably caused during its excavation.

Right half mandible from the Malu Mare area of Dolj County, Romanina, in (a) lateral buccal view, (b) lateral lingual view, and (c) upper view. Codrea & Popescu (2026).

The damage to the jaw removes many of the diagnostic features used when classifying Perissodactyls, though its large size rules out anything but a large Rhinoceros, while still being too small for the truly enormous Elasmotherium. It also has a nutrient foramina on the ventral side of the symphysis, a feature associated with Merck's Rhinoceros, leading Codrea and Popescu to conclude that it should be assigned to this species.

While the teeth of the specimen are missing, they were clearly all fully erupted, indicating that it was an adult at time of death. It was probably of about average size for a specimen of Stephanorhinus kirchbergensis. The exact age of the specimen is impossible to know, given the circumstances of its discovery. If it does come from the sediments Lindley excavated at Malu Mare when laying his pipeline, then it would be the oldest known Rhinoceros from Romania, as well as having come from deposits which also yielded cold-adapted species such as Woolly Rhinoceros, Woolly Mammoth, and Irish Elk, although it is possible that Lindley discovered it elsewhere, so this cannot be asserted with any confidence.

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Authorities in Singapore seize largest ever shipment of Rhinoceros horn.

A consignment of 20 Rhinoceros horns weighing 35.7 kg and with an estimated value of US$870 000 has been seized at Singapore Changi Airport, according to a press release issued by the Singapore National Parks on 18 November 2025. The consignment was discovered on 8 November by Vengadeswaran Letchumanan, an employee of air cargo handling company SATS, who noticed a strange smell coming from a package labelled 'furniture fittings' which was being shipped from South Africa to Laos.

Rhinoceros horns seized at Singapore Changi Airport on 8 November 2025. Singapore National Parks.

Concerned by the smell, Mr Vengadeswaran, contacted his line manager, who intern contacted SATS Security, who opened the package. Upon discovering the contents of the first package, three other packages from the same consignment were X-rayed, revealing similar contents. As well as the Rhinoceros horns, the packages contained 150 kg of other Animal parts, which have yet to be identified, including bones, teeth and claws.

Animal parts seized at Singapore Changi Airport on 8 November 2025. Singapore National Parks.

The Rhinoceros horns have been identified by the Centre for Wildlife Forensics as having originated from White Rhinoceros, Ceratotherium simum, a species currently listed as Near Threatened on the International Union for the Conservation of Nature's Red List of Threatened Species. The international trade in Rhino horn was banned in 1977 under the terms of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, to which Singapore is a signatory.

South Africa is home to more than half of the world's surviving Rhinoceros population, but has (like many other countries) faced significant problems from poaching of the Animals for their horns. This reached a peak between 2013 and 2017, with more than a thousand Rhinos being killed each year in South Africa, according to Save the Rhino, although the number fell each year from 2015 until 2020. During the COVID 19 pandemic there was an increase in poaching, with the number killed rising slowly each year until 2023. There was a drop of about 15% in 2024, although this still resulted in 420 known Rhinoceros poaching incidents. The majority of Rhino poaching is thought to be carried out by organised crime syndicates, rather than opportunistic local hunters. 

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Suspected poacher shot in Kruger National Park, South Africa.

A suspected poacher has been shot in a confrontation with field rangers near the Crocodile Bridge entrance to the Kruger National Park in South Africa. The incident happened on Thursday 18 September 2025, after the rangers discovered and followed a set of Human tracks leading towards the southern boundary of the park. At about 8.00 pm local time they reported encountering two armed men, who fled, successfully climbing over the boundary fence. One of the men then allegedly turned and raised his riffle towards the rangers, causing them to fire. The other fled into a cornfield and escaped.

When the rangers reached the man they had shot they found he was alive, and called for a doctor and police support. A search revealed that a bag the man was carrying contained two Rhino horns, and that he did not posses a permit to enter the park or carry a firearm. He was arrested at the scene, but then transferred to a local hospital where he will be held until he is deemed fit to appear before magistrates. 

A pair of White Rhinoceros, Ceratotherium simum, in the Kruger National Park, South Africa. Roger de la Harpe/Kruger National Park.

South Africa is home to more than half of the world's surviving Rhinoceros population, but has (like many other countries) faced significant problems from poaching of the Animals for their horns. This reached a peak between 2013 and 2017, with more than a thousand Rhinos being killed each year in South Africa, according to Save the Rhino, although the number fell each year from 2015 until 2020. During the COVID 19 pandemic there was an increase in poaching, with the number killed rising slowly each year until 2023. There was a drop of about 15% in 2024, although this still resulted in 420 known Rhinoceros poaching incidents. The majority of Rhino poaching is thought to be carried out by organised crime syndicates, rather than opportunistic local hunters. 

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Controversial South African conservationist and Rhino farmer charged with multiple offences related to Rhino-horn smuggling.

The controversial conservationist and Rhino farmer John Hume has been charged with multiple offences relating to the illegal export of Rhinoceros horn from South Africa. Hume was charged before magistrates in Pretoria on 19 August 2025, along with five co-defendants, all of whom were former employees of Mr Hume's Rhino-farming business, on 55 separate charges relating to the export of Rhino horn worth 250 million South African Rand (roughly US$14.1 million) to Southeast Asia.

South African Rhino farmer and conservationist John Hume, who was charged with the illegal export of Rhinoceros horn to Southeast Asia on 19 August 2025. Bloomberg/Getty Images.

Hume began farming Rhinos in the early 2000s, with a herd of about 200 Southern White Rhinoceros, Ceratotherium simum simum, rising to about 2000 Animals by the time his ranch was taken over by African Parks in 2023. His business plan was simple; Rhinoceros were given good veterinary treatment to keep them healthy, the Rhinos were protected by armed guards at all times to protect them from poachers, and in addition their horns were docked regularly to make them less attractive to said poachers, and the whole thing was financed by the sale of the docked Rhino horns.

On the surface, this seemed like a good arrangement. The Rhinos appeared to thrive, a lot of people were employed boosting the local economy (although sufficient land to support 2000 Rhinos could presumably also support quite a few small African farmers), and the sale of horns from farmed Rhinos would provide an alternative supply to that from poached Rhinos, a trade which has led to the collapse of wild Rhino populations across Africa and Asia, and which has been linked to the trafficking of drugs, arms, and people.

A Rhino having a horn docked on a farm owned by John Hume. Leon Neal.

Unfortunately, not every conservationist agreed that a legal sale of Rhino horns was sustainable. Rather than creating an alternative to the supply of poached horns, many felt that the trade in farmed horns would create a grey area allowing the illegal trade to persist, since not all horn being traded could be assumed to be illegal.

The international trade in Rhino horn was banned in 1977 under the terms of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species. This did not, however, ban the trade in horn within countries. There are some traditional uses for Rhino horn within South Africa (although not sufficient to support a major industry) and the internal trade in horns was not banned until 2009. Following this, Hume, and another farmer, Johan Kruger, brought a series of legal challenges to the ban finally convincing the Constitutional Court of South Africa in 2017 that the ban had been introduced without sufficient consultation and should be reversed.

The logo for Platinum Rhino, John Hume's Rhinoceros farm. Facebook.

Following this, the law was amended to allow for the trade in Rhino horns within South Africa, provided both the supplier and the buyer had a valid permit to trade in the commodity. This change did not, however, allow for the legal export of Rhinoceros horn from South Africa under any circumstances. Later that year, Hume held his first online auction of Rhino horns, with listings on his website in Vietnamese and Mandarin as well as languages more commonly spoken in South Africa.  On several occasions since this time journalists have reported him speaking openly about the export of Rhino horns.

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African Rhinoceros population rose by 5.2% in 2022 despite ongoing poaching.

The population of Rhinoceros across Africa rose by 5.2% during 2022, with 23 290 Animals at the end of the year., according to a press release issued by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature on 21 September 2023 This is despite ongoing poaching in many countries, with 561 Rhinoceros known to have been killed by poachers in 2022. South Africa has the highest population of Rhinoceros on the continent, but also the highest rate of poaching, with 448 Animals killed in 2022, slightly down on 2021, when 451 Rhinoceros were killed by poachers in South Africa. In Namibia 93 Rhinoceros are known to have been killed by poachers in 2022, a sharp rise on 2021, when only 47 were lost in this way. In Kenya a single Rhinoceros was lost to poachers in 2022, down from six in 2021. 

A Black Rhinoceros, Diceros bicornis, one of two species of Rhinoceros found in Africa. Steve Garvie/International Union for the Conservation of Nature.

Both species of African Rhinoceros have seen a population increase, with a combination of protection and biological management initiatives seeing the population of Black Rhinoceros, Diceros bicornis, increase by 4/2% to 6487, and the population of White Rhinoceros, Ceratotherium simum, increasing by 5.6% to 16 803. Notably, this is the first increase in white rhino numbers since 2012.

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The impact of landscape change on the Greater One-horned Rhinoceros in Chitwan National Park, Nepal.

Human populations have risen sharply in South Asia in the past century, leading to a greater demand for land for agricultural and other purposes. This has had a profound impact on the wildlife of the region, as areas of uncultivated land have shrunk and become fragmented. Even in areas which have not been formally 'claimed' by Human populations, habitats are often degraded by activities such as fire-setting, Cattle grazing, and the collection of thatch and timber. 

The Chitwan National Park in Nepal contains slightly over 950 km² of 'wild' landscape providing a habitat to large Mammals such as Greater One-horned Rhinoceros, Rhinoceros unicornis, Asian Elephant, Elephas maximus, Gaur, Bos gaurus, and Bengal Tiger, Panthera tigris. However, while in theory protected from Human actions, both this environment and the buffer zone surrounding in (in which only a limited range of Human activities are allowed), are coming being altered by Human pressures, leading to changes in the numbers and distributions of the Animals within the park.

Five species of Rhinoceros still survive on Earth. The most numerous of these, the White Rhinoceros, Ceratotherium simum, currently has a population estimated to be between 17 212 and 18 915, and is found in semi-arid grasslands in Southern Africa. The Black Rhinoceros, Diceros bicornis, has an estimated population of between 5366 and 5630 individuals, found in dry woodland savannah, although with a population fragmented and largely confined to protected reserves. The Greater One-horned Rhinoceros, Rhinoceros unicornis, is the most numerous surviving Asian Rhinoceros, with a population of over 3700, inhabit the moist riverine grasslands and alluvial floodplains of Ganges, Brahmaputra, and Sindh rivers and their tributaries. Less than 80 Sumatran Rhinoceros, Dicerorrhinus sumentransis, are thought to be alive today, living in the rainforests of Sumatra, Peninsula Malaysia, and Borneo. An estimated 75 Javan Rhinoceros, Rhinoceros sondaicus, still survive in the lowland forests of the Ujung Kulon National Park, on the westernmost tip of Java. 

The Sumatran and Javan Rhinoceros are the two rarest large Mammals surviving, and both are currently classified as Critically Endangered under the terms of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature’s Red List of Threatened Species. The Greater One-horned Rhinoceros was formerly classified as Endangered, but was downgraded to Vulnerable following a significant recovery of the population of this species in the Kaziranga National Park in India. The Black Rhinoceros is still considered to be Critically Endangered, due to its highly fragmented population, and the threat of poaching, while the White Rhinoceros is Near Threatened.

There are currently 752 known Rhinoceros with Nepal, 694 of which are found within the Chitwan National Park, where they inhabit the riverine grasslands of Reu, Rapti and Narayani rivers, while the remaining 17 are found within the Suklaphanta National Park, where they are found in mixed riverine forests and tall grasslands associated with the Chaudhar and Mahakali rivers. Greater One-horned Rhinoceros favour areas close to rivers, wallowing in riverbeds and feeding grasslands and open woodlands. They will occasionally retreat into more dense woodland to seek shelter during monsoons, and rarely visit croplands to feed on aggricultural products. Their favoured enviroment is grassland dominated by Wild Sugercane, Saccharum spontaneum.

An adult Greater One-horned Rhinoceros with a calf in the Chitwan National Park in April 2015. Sumanth Kuduvalli/Felis Creations/WWF.

In a paper published in the Asian Journal of Conservation Biology in July 2023, Prayag Raj Kuikel and Khadga Basnet of the Central Department of Zoology at Tribhuvan University, present the results of a study of changing land use by Greater One-horned Rhinoceros in the Chitwan National Park, in response to changing habitats within the park.

Previous studies of Rhinoceros in the Chitwan National Park have shown that their distribution has changed in recent years with the majority shifting from the eastern part of the park to the western part, but no attention has been given to date to the cause of this shift. 

The Chitwan National Park was Nepal's first national park, created in 1973, and was made a UNESCO World Heritage Site for the international significance of its unique wetlands in 1984. The park comprises a variety of lowland ecosystems within the wider Inner Tarai ecozone, including the Churia and Someshwor hills, the flood plains of the Reu, Rapti and Narayani rivers, and numerous ox-bow lakes. The eastern boundary of the park abuts the Parsa National Park.

Chitwan National Park, Nepal. Kuikel & Basnet (2023). 

Kuikel and Basnet looked at the way in which the Rhinoceros were using the landscape, and the way in which that landscape changed over time, using field observations, satellite data, and geographical information systems. The landscape was divided into a series of categories,  river area, sparse forest, dense forest, riverbed, bushes, cultivable land, and barren land, and Landsat images from 1993, 2000, 2010 and 2014, were used to track the way that these had changed over time.

Fieldwork was carried out in the Chitwan National Park between December 2016 and September 2017, both on foot, by canoe, and on Elephant back. This was done to provide ground truth of environmental interpretations of landscape type, as well as to carry out direct observations of Rhinoceros. Direct observations of Rhinoceros were made in both the eastern and western regions of the park, while the presence of Rhinoceros on islands in the Narayani River was confirmed by the identification of dung. Animals were classified as calves if they were under four years old, subadults if they were four-to-six-year old, and adults if they were over six. Sightings of Rhinoceros were mapped against landscape type using Arc GIS software.

Most prior studies of Greater One-horned Rhinoceros have concluded that their preferred habitat is riverine grasslands, so Kuikel and Basnet concentrated their efforts on the grasslands associated with the Reu, Rapti and Narayani rivers. The use of each landscape type was calculated by the number of Rhinoceros sightings there as a total of the whole. Areas infested by the invasive Climbing Hemp Vine, Mikania micrantha, was also mapped, as was the condition of the land, state of water bodies, and areas of drought or flood, and variations in vegetation cover.

Kuikel and Basnet found that dense forest cover increased by 196 km² between 1993 and 2014, while grassland and sparse forest decreased by 154 km², and cultivatable land decreased by 56 km². Baren land increased by 56 km², and river cover increased by 14 km², while other land cover types remained roughly constant.

In line with predictions, 49% of all Rhinoceros sightings occurred in open forest or grassland environments, with 38% in riverine forests, 10% in rivers, and 3% in dense forests. The two land cover forms which increased the most in the park were both largely unused by Rhinoceros.

While the over the entire area of the park the areas favoured by Rhinoceros decreased, in the western part of the area there was an increase in river area, and therefore also in land in close proximity to rivers, as well as in the amount of land covered by pure stands of Wild Sugarcane. Infestations of Climbing Hemp Vine covered 23.3% of the land area in the eastern area and 18.3% in the western area, with this particularly affecting rivers, riverine forests, and grasslands. The eastern area was also affected by drought, which was apparently driven by vegetative succession; forms of vegetation which were not washed away by the annual floods had taken hold, leading to the formation of new dykes, which altered the flow of waterways. Only seventeen areas where found in the eastern area where the annual flood cleared areas of vegetation in the eastern part of the park, compared to 32 in the western part. These areas were those colonised each year by Wild Sugarcane, creating the favoured environment for Rhinoceros.

A Greater One-horned Rhinoceros feeding in a stand of Wild Sugarcane in the Chitwan National Park, Nepal. Tripadvisor.

The habitat favoured by Rhinoceros in the Chitwan National Park is steadily decreasing, and it is likely that following current conservation practices will cause it to decrease further. Dense forest and baren areas, both avoided by Rhinoceros, are increasing within the park, while grasslands and mixed woodland, which are important Rhinoceros habitats, are decreasing. Human behaviour is generally assumed to be the major cause of habitat loss for species such as Rhinoceros, though in the case of the Chitwan National Park, the major problem appears to be vegetative succession in undisturbed land. This has been made words by the rapid spread of the invasive Climbing Hemp Vine, as well as indiscriminate fire setting and overgrazing of domestic Animals (leading to the formation of barren areas.

Greater One-horned Rhinoceros require flood plain grasslands and open forest in order to thrive. They also utilise the rivers themselves. In the Chitwan National Park areas formerly utilised for agriculture have been returned to nature, creating new habitats, but over time flood plain grasslands develop into open woodland, and then dense woodland, effectively excluding the Rhinoceros. 

Over time the eastern part of the park has dried and become more heavily forested, while the amount of wetlands in the western part of the reserve has increased slightly, causing the Rhinoceros to shift towards the western end of the park. While the Rhinoceros are currently finding suitable habitats in the west of the park, the general trend is towards drying and afforestation across the whole area, with the spread of the invasive Climbing Hemp Vine, which supplants native species such as Wild Sugarcane, the main food of the Rhinoceros also impacting the available space for the species. 

Kuikel and Basnet recommend that future conservation efforts in the Chitwan National Park include the maintenance of stable wetlands and a management plan for the invasive Climbing Hemp Vine.

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