South African National Biodiversity Institute

And then it turned.

Sanbi, using unpublished Sandparks data, puts the Kruger population at 1,812 at the end of 2023 and 2,131 a year later, the first real upward movement in years.

Poaching got worse over the same stretch, though.

South Africa lost 352 rhinos in 2025, down 16% nationally, while Kruger's share of that nearly doubled, from 88 in 2024 to 175.