Chemical tests on rhino horn have shown that it may have some fever-reducing properties, but only at far higher dosages than are found in current medicines. Alternative medicines are being promoted in countries of the Far East to reduce the demand for rhino horn, and hopefully the value of the horn will fall and remove the incentive to poach. Unfortunately the current high prices paid for rhino horn encourage an illegal trade. South African reserves practise intensive conservation management programmes which include anti-poaching patrol and intelligence activities, rhino population monitoring, translocation and maintaining genetic diversity. African Rhino Specialist Group, and has followed this group's recommendation that all countries with more than 100 rhinos draw up a national plan to direct rhino conservation efforts.
Rhino horn is made of a mass of fibres attached to the skin of the rhino's snout.
The fibres consist of a protein called keratin, which also forms the basis of human hair and fingernails, and the hooves of horses. South Africa has about 819 black rhinos and 5297 white rhinos. This means that trade in rhino products is illegal. Some people argue that trade in rhino horn should be legal. They maintain that this would encourage people to protect, or even breed rhino and sell the horn, thus removing the pressure of wild populations, and increasing rhino numbers.