2012 Photo Contest, Nature, 1st prize

Rhino Wars

Photographer

Brent Stirton

Reportage by Getty Images for <em>National Geographic</em> magazine

26 March, 2011

A white rhino skin is salted for curing after a morning hunt, on Dawie Groenewald’s game farm, near the town of Musina. The South African government allows some rhino hunting under permit.

About the photographer

Brent Stirton

Brent Stirton is a special correspondent for Getty Images, and a regular contributor to National Geographic magazine as well as other international titles.  He speci...

Background story

Musina, Limpopo, South Africa

A white rhino skin is salted for curing after a morning hunt, on Dawie Groenewald’s game farm, near the town of Messina. The South African government allows some rhino hunting under permit. Despite the fact that rhinoceros horn is illegal worldwide, demand is rising steeply as a newly wealthy Asian middle class is able to afford the prized substance, previously the province of the rich. Authorities are often bribed, or turn a blind eye to illegal trade in, and use of rhino horn. Ground rhino horn is used primarily as an anti-fever and anti-toxin medication, in practices that go back centuries. In Vietnam, where a senior government minister has claimed that rhino horn cured his cancer, it sells for €1,865 per 100g to local customers, and for over €6,340 to foreign buyers. With rhinoceros horn worth more than gold, the animals are the target of poachers. South Africa alone lost over 400 rhinos to illegal poaching in 2011. It is estimated there are only 16,000 rhinos left in the world, and the animal faces extinction.

Technical information

Shutter Speed
1/125 sec
Focal length
24 mm
F-Stop
7.1
ISO
400
Camera
Canon EOS 1D Mark IV

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