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Black rhino numbers up, other breeds down

GLAND, Switzerland, June 24 (UPI) -- The World Wildlife Fund and other groups reported Africa's endangered black rhinoceros is stable and recovering but other sub-species continue to decline.

The black rhino was greatly endangered after a population decrease from 65,000 in the 1970s to only 2,400 in the mid '90s. The WWF and the World Conservation Union said black rhino numbers are back up to just over 3,600, an increase of 500 over the past two years.

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Africa's white rhino also appears to be rising in number with a population of 11,000, a huge increase compared to the 50 that existed just a century ago.

Organized poaching, however, continues to put two rhino sub-species at high risk of extinction. The northern white rhino has a small population of only 20 animals and the western black rhino is in worse condition, with just a few animals located sporadically throughout Cameroon.

"Illegal demand for horn, high unemployment, poverty, demand for land, wars, the ready availability of arms and internal instability also pose a threat to rhino populations," Taye Teferi, WWF's African rhino coordinator, said in a statement.

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