The rhino's horn may very well be the cause of its extinction. This coveted horn has been prized for many years by traditional Eastern cultures. It has been carved into daggers and also ground into powder which is thought to have healing powers. No other large mammal has been as devastated by poaching as the black rhino. Once the most numerous of all rhino species, the black rhino has been the target of the greatest hunting pressure of all. In 1970 the world population of black rhino was 65,000. By 1980 it dropped to 15,000, and today it is thought that fewer than 3,000 remain. Most of those illegal rhino horns were shipped to the tiny country of North Yemen, where they were fashioned into the handles of daggers and other trinkets.