Can anything stop the rhino poaching crisis?

A 2010 filepic of a wildlife official in Kenya with a rhino tusk seized from poachers. Poaching of rhinos is worsening; a record 1,215 rhinos were poached in 2014, a 21% increase over the previous year. Photo: AFP

Killing demand is the only way to curb the slaughter of rhinos for their horns.

AT the end of the 19th century, a group of 20 to 50 southern white rhinoceros were discovered in the Umfolozi-Hluhluwe region of South Africa. The species had been thought lost to the guns and trophy rooms of colonial hunters. Today their population is more than 20,000.