via Gawker: It’s a bleak landscape for the mighty black rhinoceros. The WWF announced this week that 353 of the endangered mammals, whose horn is incorrectly thought to have cancer-curing powers, have been poached this year alone, already exceeding the number poached in 2010. Current estimates put the total population of the species at 4,240.

In this July 19, 2011 photo, a leopard attacks a forest guard at Prakash Nagar village near Salugara, on the outskirts of Siliguri, India. The leopard strayed into the village area and attacked several villagers, including at least four guards, before being caught by forest officials, according to news reports. The leopard, which suffered injuries caused by knives and batons, died later in the evening at a veterinary center. (AP Photo) INDIA OUT

Joplin, MO tornado aftermath (courtesy of Christian Science Monitor)

A delegate dressed in robes takes a photograph on Tiananmen Square after leaving the opening ceremony of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, March 3, 2011. REUTERS/David Gray

A resident walks near burning oil tankers which were set ablaze by an bomb explosion in Peshawar, northwest Pakistan February 8, 2011. REUTERS/Fayaz Aziz

Transit officers are reflected on the hearse after a memorial ceremony for their slain colleagues at the police headquarters in Monterrey. Two officers were gunned down late Saturday by hitmen after stopping a vehicle for an inspection, according to local media. At least 100 people, including 18 policemen, have been killed in drug violence in the city and its environs since New Year’s Day.
REUTERS/Tomas Bravo

Indian Navy sailors are reflected in a puddle as they take part in a ceremonial parade during the Republic Day celebrations in the southern Indian city of Kochi January 26, 2011. Image has been rotated 180 degrees.
REUTERS/Sivaram

Poetess Armine Arjona stands near the site where human rights activist and poetess Susana Chavez was found murdered two weeks ago in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, January 16, 2011. Chavez was the creator of the phrase “Not one more,” used widely in a campaign to end a wave of killings aimed specifically at women since 1993.
REUTERS/Gael Gonzalez

Members of Japan’s Self-Defense Force are carried by a rope from a helicopter at an annual military exercise in Funabashi, east of Tokyo January 9, 2011.
REUTERS/ Photo by Kim Kyung-Hoon

Farm crops are seen flooded near the town of Theodore in Queensland, Australia January 2, 2011. Large parts of Australia’s coastal northeast were flooded on Sunday in a spreading environmental disaster as thousands of residents fled their homes to avoid the runoff from a Christmas deluge.
REUTERS/Daniel Munoz

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