A rhino story in the Sunday paper caught my eye. It suggests that licensed hunting can be an effective (though understandably controversial) approach to conservation.

Poachers are not known for paying taxes, but a hunter paid $350,000 for the chance to hunt a troublesome bull rhino which was too old to breed but was preventing other rhinos from breeding. "He’s killed a couple of calves, a couple of cows and a breeding bull" (the rhino, not the hunter).

Meanwhile,

While they argue that the lives of belligerent older rhinos should be spared, they [animal rights groups] are not willing to meet the estimated $10,000 cost of moving each problem animal by helicopter, and Namibia says it cannot pay that cost.

The northern white rhinos are out of luck, but the southern white rhinos were once on the brink, and have made a recovery.

How did this happen? The infographic provides a lead. A short paper tells the story.

In 1900, the southern white rhinoceros was the most endangered of the world's five rhinoceros species. Less than 20 rhinos remained in a single reserve in South Africa. By 2010, white rhino numbers had climbed to more than 20,000, making it the most common rhino species on the planet.

While southern white rhino numbers rose, populations of the other rhino species declined. This included the African black rhino and three Asian species. Why did the white rhino thrive whereas the others did not? In short, South Africa and a few other African countries adopted policies that created the right incentives for rhino conservation.