Rhino Wars by Brent Stirton

Photo Credit: Brent Stirton

Brent Stirton is the senior correspondent for Getty Images and Verbatim Photo. He does most of his work for National Geographic Magazine, Human Rights Watch, Le Figaro, GEO and other international titles.

Brent shoots issues related to the environment, to diminishing resources and on global health issues. His commercial clients include Coke, Nike, and Novartis, amongst others.

"Rhino Wars"
Nature, first prize stories
May 4, 2016

Dorota Ladosz comforts a baby rhino after surgery, at a sanctuary run by Care for Wild Africa, in Mbombela, South Africa. The orphaned animal was attacked by hyenas after its mother had been killed by poachers.

Demand in Asia for rhino horntraditionally valued for its medicinal propertiesis rising steeply, as increasing prosperity in the region means more people can afford to pay the extremely high prices involved. This puts growing pressure on a species already threatened with extinction. In 2007, South Africa, home to 70 percent of the worlds rhinos, reported losing just 13 to poachers; by 2015 that had risen to 1,175. Unlike elephant tusks, rhino horn grows back when cut properly. Rhino rancher John Hume is among those attempting to end the international ban on trading in rhino horn, and to farm rhinos commercially, a move fiercely opposed by conservationists, who say a legal trade could doom rhinos.