The rhinoceros is still present with certainty in the swampy area of the lower Uebi Scebeli and in the total reserve of Bubashi.
The reason for the decline is the systematic hunting by the local people for the animal's horn, which is taken via Aden to the orient.
Our enquiries in the central and northern parts of the country, in the districts of Bulo Burti and El Bur, have been entirely negative in places where the rhinoceros was found with some regularity some 30 years ago. In that region which was officially designated to protect the rhinoceros and the Dibatag, the last records concern an animal killed in 1942, a family of three seen by a local policeman near the border of the reserve at El Dere in 1952. Since that time, not even tracks have been reported.
Still present in the total reserve of Bubashi, but it is a small number. In Bubashi, the local rangers believe that they are between 10 and 15 animals. One animal, possibly from Kenya, was illegally shot near Afmedu in 1955 and a skull was found south of Afmedu in 1953.
