On World Rhino Day, South Africa marks progress but still loses a rhino daily to poachers

DINOKENG GAME RESERVE, South Africa (AP) — The Dinokeng Game Reserve in South Africa has a thriving rhino population, but their exact numbers and the details of the security operation that keeps them safe from poaching are closely guarded secrets.

They are the protocols that reserves with rhinos follow to ensure they're not the next target for poachers who still kill on average one rhino every day in South Africa for their horns despite decades of work to save the endangered species.

South Africa has the largest populations of both black and southern white rhinos of any country and sees itself as the custodian of the animals' future.

As conservationists mark World Rhino Day on Monday, South Africa remains in a constant and costly battle against poaching nearly 30 years after black rhinos were declared critically endangered, and more than a half-century since southern white rhinos were on the brink of extinction with just a few dozen left.

South Africa has more than 2,000 of the 6,700 black rhinos left in the wild or in reserves and 12,000-13,000 of the world's 15,000 remaining southern white rhinos, which are now listed as near threatened after a turnaround. Those two species are only found in the wild in Africa. South Africa has a pivotal place in saving them but also is the epicenter of rhino poaching that is linked to organized crime.

South Africa's rhinos are spread between government-run parks and private owners like Dinokeng.

The country has made marked progress in the last decade with that public-private collaboration, bringing the number of rhinos killed by poachers from well over 1,000 every year to 420 last year. Yet, 195 rhinos were killed by poachers in the first half of this year, according to the South African Environment Ministry, still one every day.

“Please do not tell a ranger that we’re not going to win this war,” said Marius Fuls, a wildlife monitor and ranger at Dinokeng. "If we as conservationists stop believing that we’re going to win this, then we have lost it. We’re the last thin green line between the extinction of rhinos.”

In South Africa and elsewhere, anti-poaching efforts now employ high-tech tactics to help rangers. Reserves are using drones, night surveillance equipment, radar technology, motion-sensing cameras and artificial intelligence. Rhinos at Dinokeng are fitted with tracking devices so rangers know where they are. Rangers also patrol with K-9 dog units.

Dinokeng has been successful in protecting its rhinos, but there is no letup. “It would be naive to think that poaching is not a threat even though we haven’t had incidents in many years," Fuls said. "Poaching is always a threat."

Some reserves continue to dehorn their rhinos to make them useless to poachers who kill them because of the high demand for rhino horn products for medicinal and other uses in parts of Asia. Studies indicate that rhino horn products sold through illegal markets sometimes fetch higher prices than gold.

The fight against poaching is always looking for new ways to stop rhinos being killed. This year, a group of scientists in South Africa working with the International Atomic Energy Agency launched a program to inject small amounts of radioactive material into rhinos' horns. The aim is to make them unsellable, but also detectable if they are smuggled through borders.

The scientists said the radioactive material does not harm the rhinos.

Conservationists are also moving rhinos to new areas in a repeat of South Africa's famous Operation Rhino of the 1960s. That operation was a reaction to the drastic situation of southern white rhinos, which were nearly extinct. It moved some of the last remaining white rhinos in eastern South Africa to other areas so they could be better protected and establish new breeding populations. It is credited with saving the southern white rhino.

Several conservation organizations are doing that again now, both in South Africa and elsewhere.

One of them is Peace Parks Foundation, which has sent nearly 50 black and white rhinos to the Zinave National Park in neighboring Mozambique, a reserve which was decimated by poaching.

The operation — expensive and complicated — has returned rhinos to Zinave for the first time in more than 40 years and the population is already growing, with eight rhino calves born there since the relocation, according to Peace Parks.

"It's been an incredible success story," said Gillian Rhodes, combating wildlife crime program manager at Peace Parks Foundation. But she added rhino poaching rates are still “devastating.”

Similar success in rhino conservation is reported elsewhere in Africa.

The east African nation of Uganda on Monday held its first-ever ceremony to name 17 rhino calves at a sanctuary, an event the head of the country's wildlife agency described as “a powerful statement that Uganda has chosen restoration over despair and resilience over loss.”

Rhinos were hunted to extinction in Uganda, but the species was reintroduced in 1996 and the country is now home to 50, said James Musinguzi, executive director of the Uganda Wildlife Authority.

World Rhino Day was started in 2010 to raise awareness of the threat of poaching and habitat loss for all five of the world's rhino species. The other three, which are found in Asia, are in an even worse predicament. There are just over 4,000 greater one-horned rhinos, only around 50 Javan rhinos and less than 50 Sumatran rhinos left, according to the International Rhino Foundation's latest count.

Imray reported from Cape Town, South Africa.

AP Africa news: https://apnews.com/hub/africa

Members of the public and volunteers participate in rhino tracking at the Ziwa Rhino Sanctuary, northwest of Nakasongola, Uganda, Monday, Sept. 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Hajarah Nalwadda)

Rhinos rest under a tree at the Ziwa Rhino Sanctuary, northwest of Nakasongola, Uganda, Monday, Sept. 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Hajarah Nalwadda)

Two rhinos rest under a tree at the Ziwa Rhino Sanctuary, northwest of Nakasongola, Uganda, Monday, Sept. 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Hajarah Nalwadda)

Marius Fuls, left, a wildlife monitor, holds an antenna to locate rhinos at the Dinokeng Game Reserve near Hammanskraal, South Africa, Thursday, Sept. 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Alfonso Nqunjana)

Marais Fuls, left, a wildlife monitor, holds an antenna to locate rhinos at the Dinokeng Game Reserve near Hammanskraal, South Africa, Thursday, Sept. 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Alfonso Nqunjana)

A rhino is seen at the Dinokeng Game Reserve near Hammanskraal, South Africa, Thursday, Sept. 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Alfonso Nqunjana)

ARROYO GRANDE, Calif. (AP) — A California sheriff said Friday that evidence suggests human remains were present at a home connected to the man convicted of killing Kristin Smart, a 19-year-old college student who went missing in 1996.

San Luis Obispo County Sheriff Ian Parkinson said they cannot say whether the remains are those of Smart.

The office served a search warrant Wednesday on the home of Susan Flores, whose son Paul Flores was convicted in 2022 of killing Smart. Authorities have not answered questions about what prompted the search, but scientists specializing in human decomposition and soil took samples from the ground.

“We believe that based on what we’re looking at evidence-wise -- scientific-wise -- that a human’s remains were there at one time -- or still there. We can’t call it Kristin, but there’s evidence to support human remains,” Parkinson said during a news conference.

Tim Nelligan, an expert in soil vapor testing, confirmed by phone Thursday that he was on the premises, gathering samples from the yards of Flores and a neighbor. He said his team has, in general, “come up with a methodology to assess soil vapor" and its relation to “human cadaver decomposition,” but that he could not discuss the current investigation.

Smart went missing from California Polytechnic State University in May 1996 after returning from an off-campus party. Prosecutors alleged she was killed during an attempted rape and that the last person she was seen with was Paul Flores, a fellow student. She was declared legally dead in 2002.

The decades-old case has captivated the public, fueled in part by a podcaster who helped investigators by bringing forward additional witnesses. Chris Lambert of the “Your Own Backyard” podcast first reported the search of the home in the central coast town of Arroyo Grande, about 100 miles (160 kilometers) northwest of Los Angeles.

Attempts to reach Susan Flores for comment Wednesday and Thursday were not successful. She has never faced criminal charges related to the case.

Nelligan and other scientists poked instruments into the soil and pulled up long tubing. Soil vapor sampling, which is an evolving science, involves collecting underground gas samples to detect volatile organic compounds associated with human decomposition.

Lambert, the podcaster, said he did not know much about the search, but was optimistic investigators could locate Smart's body. He said past searches of Susan Flores' home have never been thorough.

“This property in particular has been overlooked for quite some time," he said Thursday in front of the house.

Paul Flores and his father, Ruben Flores, were arrested in 2021.

Prosecutors alleged Smart’s remains were buried on Ruben Flores’ property and later moved. He was acquitted of accessory charges. That property is different from the one currently being searched.

Paul Flores was sentenced in March 2023 to prison, where he has been physically attacked at least twice. In 2024, a judge ruled that he must pay just over $350,000 to Smart's family for costs they incurred after her death.

The family has said it would forgo restitution if Flores would tell them where the woman's body was. Flores’ attorney, Harold Mesick, said in 2024 that the defense did not know where her remains are. Flores maintains his innocence.

FILE - Paul Flores listens during his murder trial in Monterey County Superior Court in Salinas, Calif., on July 18, 2022. (Daniel Dreifuss/Monterey County Weekly via AP, Pool, File)

This photo provided by San Luis Obispo County Sheriff's Office shows authorities conducting a search on Wednesday, May 6, 2026, at a home in Arroyo Grande, Calif., connected to the man convicted of killing Kristin Smart. (San Luis Obispo County Sheriff's Office via AP)

FILE - This undated photo released by the FBI shows Kristin Smart, the California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo student who disappeared in 1996. (FBI via AP, File)

Scientists take samples from the soil Thursday, May 7, 2026, from the neighboring yard of a home in Arroyo Grande, Calif., connected to the man convicted of killing Kristin Smart as part of a sheriff's investigation. (AP Photo/Haven Daley) CORRECTION: Corrects from authorities to scientists

Scientists take samples from the soil Thursday, May 7, 2026, from the front yard of a home in Arroyo Grande, Calif., connected to the man convicted of killing Kristin Smart as part of a sheriff's investigation. (AP Photo/Haven Daley) CORRECTION: Corrects from authorities to scientists

Scientists take samples from the soil Thursday, May 7, 2026, from the neighboring yard of a home in Arroyo Grande, Calif., connected to the man convicted of killing Kristin Smart as part of a sheriff's investigation. (AP Photo/Haven Daley) CORRECTION: Corrects from authorities to scientists