Hunting and poaching Hunting by European settlers was the main cause of the decline of rhino populations in Africa in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Reports of five or six rhinos being killed in one day by single hunting, for food, or just for fun, were common. By the 1890s, southern white rhino numbers had declined from no more than 100, and by the 1960s to fewer than individuals and 70,000 northern white rhinos to about 2000 individuals.