I know I’ve discussed the situation regarding rhino horn before, but I recently had an article published in NatSCA News that goes into a bit more detail about the thefts of rhino horn from collections in Europe, the current status of rhino populations in the wild and the huge increase in levels of poaching. I thought it might be useful to share the article a bit more widely by making it available here: The Horns of a Dilemma: The Impact of the Illicit Trade in Rhino Horn.
Normally NatSCA News articles are published online a year or so after they are published in hard copy, but the article I wrote will be out of date by then and I will have to spend the next year or so getting annoyed by newspaper articles talking about the market for horn as an aphrodisiac (which is nonsense), without being able to easily share the results of my research into the subject.
One element of my research has been a map that shows the places in Europe from which rhino horn has been stolen in the last 18 months or so (I will keep updating it):
The situation for rhinos is bad and it’s getting worse.
Zygoma 
The rhino horns stolen from Tring were resin replicas, I don’t know if you’re distinguishing between thefts of genuine horn, and thefts where museums have already replaced their displays because of the threat.
They were indeed, as were some of the others. However, the intent of the thieves and the implications for museum security and staff safety make every attempt worthy of mention. It’s a bit of a moot point that the thieves are stupid enough to steal fakes!
When I visited the Zoological Museum in Copenhagen a few weeks ago for a look behind the scenes (they have a really great osteological reference collection) our guide told us they somewhat recently had a theft of horn replicas (just as Dave mentioned for Tring). This despite clearly stating in newspapers that all actual horns had been moved somewhere the museum and uni staff didn’t even know about and that everything on display were replicas.
This is awful. Over 200 rhinos poached in South Africa this year alone. And China is trying to make it easier to sell rhino horn there. http://rhinowrangler.wordpress.com/