Last month I travelled to Namibia in Southern Africa. I was lured to Etosha National Park by the spectacle of its abundant wildlife.

Elephants were one of the highlights of the trip, in one day I saw more than 150. But Etosha is truly special for another reason. It is the best place to see the endangered black rhino in the world.

Historically, black rhinos have been hunted to near extinction for their horn. It is a time-honoured component of Chinese medicine.

But in Etosha they have made a comeback from just 15 individuals back in the 1960s to a current and growing population of 600 black rhinos in an area slightly larger than Yorkshire.

It is winter in Etosha now and their dry season. Water is scarce in this desert landscape, so the wildlife action is based round water holes, as all the large animals need to drink daily.

It is rare to see black rhino during the heat of the day, although I did manage to see one on one occasion browsing on leaves and bushes.

It was at night that black rhino could be seen. As dusk fell, they would come to drink.

I stayed in three different camps in Etosha National Park during my two-week visit and each camp had a floodlit water hole.

It was tremendously atmospheric watching herds of elephant rushing in to drink and creating clouds of white dust that lit up against the black sky.

Then out of the gloom, the rhinos would appear. They are solitary animals but I saw up to eight individuals at once one night. This was more than I had ever seen in all my eight trips to Africa put together.

As the rhinos appeared they would greet each other with grunts and growls. Some were obviously rivals and approached each other with great caution.

If neither gave way, they would duel with their horns – which to poachers are worth more than their weight in gold.

Surprisingly for a creature of their stature, they were wary of elephants and would often linger in the shadows until the herd had left.

If the younger elephants spotted them they would enjoy chasing and tormenting them, which made for great viewing.

In the past, I have raised more than £1,000 for Save the Rhino and arrived home feeling very positive about their future.

But that night on the 10 o’clock news it was revealed that rhinos are facing an entirely new threat. A new breed of rhino poacher has developed. National parks are no longer dealing with people with crude snares made from fencing wire.

Poaching rhinos is now organised by criminal gangs, who are armed and equipped like soldiers.

Modern day poachers track rhinos on foot with GPS systems and night vision equipment for days. Once the positions have been certified, a second team fly into the park on helicopters to dart them with tranquilisers.

The criminals land and saw off the horns with a chainsaw, before flying off with the horn and leaving the creature to slowly bleed to death.

Rhinos in neighbouring South Africa have been hit hard. Last year 122 rhinos were slaughtered for their horns and this year numbers are on track to double.

And despite of an international ban, 1,500 rhino horns have been traded in the last three years all headed for the two main markets of the Middle East and the Far East.

Increasingly strong trade links between Africa and the Far East has further facilitated the supply chain, making it shorter and less risky.

Conservationists are at a loss over how to respond. But one thing is for sure, we have brought them back from extinction once, and we must not allow for the risk of a repeat of the same situation again.