NAIROBI, Kenya — The rhino population across the world has increased slightly but so have the killings, mostly in South Africa, as poaching fed by huge demand for rhino horns remains a top threat, a new report says.

The number of white rhinos increased from 15,942 in 2022 to 17,464 in 2023, but the black and greater one-horned rhino stayed the same, according to the report published by the International Rhino Foundation ahead of Sunday’s World Rhino Day.

Another subspecies, the northern white rhino, is technically extinct, with only two females being kept in a secure private conservancy in Kenya, known as Ol Pejeta. A trial is ongoing to develop embryos in the lab from an egg and sperm previously collected from white rhinos and transferring it into a surrogate female black rhino.

A total of 586 rhinos were killed in Africa in 2023, most of them in South Africa — which has the highest population of rhinos: 16,056. The killings increased from 551 reported in 2022, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

With all five subspecies combined, just under 28,000 rhinos are left in the world, compared with 500,000 at the beginning of the 20th century.

Rhinos face various environmental threats like habitat loss due to development and climate change, but poaching — based on the belief that the horns have medicinal uses — remains the top threat.

Philip Muruthi of the Africa Wildlife Foundation, said protection is key. In Kenya, rhino numbers rose from 380 in 1986 to 1,000 last year, he said. “Why has that happened? Because the rhinos were brought into sanctuaries and were protected.”