[4] The population was first discovered in Southwest Chad, Central African Republic (CAR), North Cameroon, and Northeast Nigeria.

[11] Like most black rhinos, they are believed to have been nearsighted and would often rely on local birds, such as the red-billed oxpecker, to help them detect incoming threats.

The native countries of the black rhino included Angola, Botswana, Cameroon, Chad, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Rwanda, South Africa, Tanzania, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.

[13] There were several subspecies found in the western and southern countries of Tanzania through Zambia, Zimbabwe and Mozambique, to the northern and north-western and north-eastern parts of South Africa.

[13] The western black rhinoceros was hunted heavily in the beginning of the 20th century, but the population rose in the 1930s after preservation actions were taken.

[18][19] In 2006, for six months, the NGO Symbiose and veterinarians Isabelle and Jean-François Lagrot with their local teams examined the common roaming ground of Diceros bicornis longipes in the northern province of Cameroon to assess the status of the last population of the western black rhino subspecies.

For this experiment, 2,500 kilometres (1,600 mi) of patrol effort resulted in no sign of rhino presence over the course of six months.

[20] In 1999, World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) published a report called "African Rhino: Status Survey and Conservation Action Plan."

This report recommended that all surviving specimens of the western black rhino should be captured and placed in a specific region of modern Cameroon, in order to facilitate monitoring and reduce the attack rates of poachers.

WWF supports accredited training in environmental and crime courses, some of which have been adopted by South Africa Wildlife College.

Special prosecutors have been appointed in countries like Kenya and South Africa to prosecute rhino crimes in a bid to deal with the mounting arrests and bring criminals to face swift justice with commensurate penalties.

In the 1950s, Mao Zedong effectively encouraged traditional Chinese medicine in an attempt to counter Western influences.

In modern times, horns of other rhinoceros species are very valuable and can cost up to $100,000 per kg in places of high demand (e.g. Vietnam).