South Africa has experienced an increase in rhino poaching following a lull during the Covid-19 lockdown. Earlier this month, the country's Department of Forestry, Fisheries, and the Environment reported that 259 rhinos had been poached during the first half of 2022. This is a four percent increase in the number of animals killed during the same period last year. Rhino poaching incidents appear to be moving away from South Africa's national parks and into private wildlife conservancies where roughly 40 percent of the country's rhinos are found. The poaching increase also correlates with the recent assassination of the Timbavati Private Nature Reserve's lead ranger, Anton Mzimba. His murder is the first assassination of a ranger in South Africa believed to have been carried out by a rhino poaching cartel.