[1] The southern white rhino was nearly extinct near the end of the 19th century having been reduced to a population of approximately 20–50 animals in KwaZulu-Natal due to sport hunting and land clearance.

[13] An approximate 15% decline in estimated numbers between 2012 and 2017 was primarily due to reductions in populations within South Africa's Kruger National Park.

Poaching rates peaked in 2014 and as of December 2017, there were an estimated 18,064 southern white rhino in the wild with populations being assessed as Near Threatened since 2002.

[16] The southern white rhinoceros has been reintroduced into the Ziwa Rhino Sanctuary in Uganda,[17] and in the Lake Nakuru National Park and the Kigio Wildlife Conservancy in Kenya.

In 2010, nine southern white rhinoceroses were imported from South Africa, shipped to the Yunnan Province in southwestern China, where they were kept in an animal-wildlife park for quarantine and acclimitisation.

In March 2013, seven of the animals were shipped to the Laiyanghe National Forest Park, a habitat where Sumatran and Javan rhinoceros once roamed.

[19] In 2023, African Parks, supported by foundations such as those of Howard Buffett and the Walton Family, has launched a major conservation initiative by purchasing the largest privately-owned herd of southern white rhinos, consisting of 2,000 animals from a distressed operation in central South Africa.

This effort aims to relocate 15% of the global southern white rhino population to protected areas within their historical ranges, in response to the severe threats posed by over a century of hunting and poaching, which has drastically reduced their numbers to about 13,000, mostly in South Africa.

However, reproductive rates are fairly low among captive-born female southern white rhinoceroses, potentially due to eating a different diet than would be consumed in the wild.

Ongoing research, through San Diego Zoo Global, is hoping to not only focus on this, but also on identifying other captive species that are possibly affected and developing new diets and feeding practices aimed at enhancing fertility.