White rhinoceros have become confined to national parks and other protected areas through human occupation of their ranges. However, the drop in rhino populations during the last three decades is primarily due to illegal hunting for rhino horn. Because of the value of the horn (used for ornamental purposes and in traditional Chinese medicine to cure fever), poachers in national parks are a major problem.
The status of the white rhinoceros is "vulnerable" with numbers slowly increasing and believed by some to be around 4-5,000. An IUCN estimate put the total wild population of white rhino in 1997 at 8,465, with 660 in captivity.