Brent Stirton's Image

In South Africa, many game farms are dehorning their rhinos as a precautionary anti-poaching measure, though poachers may still kill a rhino for the stump, and the horns will grow back after about five years.

Here, on a game farm outside Klerksdorp, the vet’s assistant holds up the horns of a southern white rhino for an identity picture. The horns will be microchipped and securely stored as investment should trade in rhino horns be legalised. Conservation groups are largely against legalisation as a way of satisfying the Asian-market demand for horn, fearing a lack of ethical policing of any trade.