Can Africa put an end to the billion dollar rhino horn smuggling?

Last year, a record number of rhinos were illegally slaughtered for their horns in South Africa's Kruger Park. They were killed by poachers, most of them from poor communities in neighbouring Mozambique. The horn is trafficked to East Asia, where it can command a higher price than gold or even diamonds.

Now South Africa is cracking down - 42 poachers were shot last year.

Reporting for BBC World News' Our World, I set out to discover whether hunting the poachers can save the rhino.

Here are 15 things I learnt:

1. Rhino horn is one of the world's most expensive commodities. Demand from East Asia, where it's falsely believed to have medicinal properties, has made it worth more than diamonds and gold.

2. Rhino horns can fetch $60,000 per kilo. A poacher can earn $5,000-$7,000 per horn.

3. The illegal wildlife trade is the 4th biggest international crime in the world, worth $19 billion a year.

4. Last year a record 1,215 rhinos were killed for their horns in South Africa, where most of the world's rhinos live.

5. Baby rhinos suckle from their mothers for 18 months and stay with the mother for up to four years. Those orphaned by poachers often die in the wild.

6. Depending on where a rhino horn is cut, it can grow back.

7. Directly under the horn are the sinuses of a rhinoceros.

8. Veterinary physicians in South Africa managed to carry out pioneering facial reconstruction surgery on a rhino who survived a poaching attack. They performed the first skin graft on a rhino, using skin from behind its ear. They then used dental materials to plug the open wound.

9. The rhinoceros in South Africa and Mozambique was brought to the brink of extinction during colonial times by European hunters.  

10. In South Africa, breeding programmes mean there are now around 20,000 white rhinos and around 5,000 black rhinos.

11. Rhinos are extinct in Mozambique. Most were killed by European settlers and then during the chaos of the civil war (1977-1992). The survivors were wiped out by poaching.

12. Most of South Africa's poachers come from neighbouring Mozambique. Over half the population there lives on less than $1 a day.

13. Forty-two poachers were killed by South African forces last year.

14. Mozambique poachers often travel in groups of three. One man shoots the rhino, one cuts off the horn, and a third acts as look-out.

15. Poaching wasn't a crime in Mozambique until the middle of last year. After international pressure, it is now illegal.

(Our World: Rhino Wars with Leana Hosea will broadcast on BBC World News this weekend, on Saturday, April 4 at 4pm and Sunday, April 5 at 9am and 10pm.)