DALLAS (AP) — A North Texas man who paid $350,000 for the right to hunt an endangered African black rhino said he's had to hire full-time security due to death threats after his name was leaked onto the Internet. 
 
 Corey Knowlton is shown in this image from video provided by WFAA.com on Thursday, Jan. 16, 2014. Knowlton, who paid $350,000 for the right to hunt an endangered African black rhino said he’s had to hire... (Associated Press) 
 
 Corey Knowlton is shown in this image from video provided by WFAA.com on Thursday, Jan. 16, 2014. Knowlton, who paid $350,000 for the right to hunt an endangered African black rhino said he’s had to hire... (Associated Press) 
 
 Corey Knowlton told Dallas television stations WFAA and KTVT that he won last week's Dallas Safari Club auction to hunt a black rhino in the African nation of Namibia. The club says the permit was auctioned to raise money for efforts to protect and conserve the species. 
 
 An estimated 4,000 black rhinos remain in the wild, and the auction drew critics who said all members of an endangered species deserve protection. 
 
 "I'm a hunter," Knowlton told WFAA. "I want to experience a black rhino. I want to be intimately involved with a black rhino. If I go over there and shoot it or not shoot it, it's beyond the point." 
 
 Knowlton lives in Royse City, about 30 miles outside Dallas, and leads international hunting trips for a Virginia-based company, The Hunting Consortium. 
 
 He told KTVT that threats made to organizers before the auction led the Safari Club to contact him and see if he would bid. Knowlton and a silent partner raised the money to make the bid, he said. 
 
 His name was posted on Facebook and then picked up by websites that publicized his involvement in the auction. He told KTVT that since then, he's feared for his family's safety. 
 
 "They're wanting to kill me," he said. "They're wanting to kill my children. They're wanting to skin us alive." 
 
 The club says the Namibian rhino in question is older, male and nonbreeding — and that the animal was likely to be targeted for removal anyway because it was becoming aggressive. 
 
 Knowlton said he believed the hunt would be managed well and that the money would go to save rhinos in the end. 
 
 Of critics who had written thousands of comments on his Facebook page and online, Knowlton said: "They don't know who I am. They don't know what I'm about. They don't even understand the process." 
 
 Knowlton did not return phone and email messages from The Associated Press. 

 Image copyright AP Image caption Corey Knowlton said he would target a rhino endangering the rest of the herd 
 
 A Texas hunter who won an auction to hunt and kill an endangered black rhino in Namibia has said he has received death threats from animal lovers. 
 
 Corey Knowlton bid $350,000 (£212,000) for a permit auctioned by the Dallas Safari Club, which said it would help fund future conservation. 
 
 Namibia is home to some 1,500 black rhino, a third of the world's total. 
 
 'Scientific process' 
 
 Mr Knowlton said his name had been posted on Facebook and threats had been made to harm both him and his children. 
 
 He said he had been speaking to the FBI about protecting his family. A number of people posted abuse on his Facebook page, calling him "cruel" and a "barbarian". 
 
 Image copyright Reuters Image caption Fewer than 5,000 black rhino remain in the wild, with an estimated 1,500 in Namibia 
 
 But he said those criticising him had failed to understand that the idea behind the hunt was to target an old, non-breeding male rhino that was endangering the rest of the herd. 
 
 "We're just not going in there and saying 'hey we're on a rhino hunt and, here, have a beer we're going to find a rhino,'" he told ABC TV affiliate WFAA in Dallas. 
 
 "No, it is a scientific process and we're going to make sure we get the ones that are causing the most problem." 
 
 Namibia issues three hunting permits per year, and this is the first time an auction has been held outside the southern African nation. 
 
 However, tens of thousands of people signed online petitions against the auction, and animal rights groups condemned as "perverse" claims that the hunt was really about conservation. 
 
 The money raised from the 11 January auction will go to the Namibian government and will be earmarked for conservation projects, according to the Dallas Safari Club. 
 
 "It takes money for these animals to exist. A lot of people don't recognise that," club executive Ben Carter told NPR radio. 
 
 Experts say that growing demand for rhino horn in Asia is driving up instances of poaching. 
 
 It is being fuelled by the belief in countries like China and Vietnam that powdered rhino horn has medicinal powers and can impact diseases like cancer. Horns can sell for around $65,000 a kilogram.
– The winner of a controversial hunting auction in Texas has had to hire security after hearing from a lot of people who want to do to him what he plans to do to one of the world's last 4,000 black rhinos. While he admits he will get a thrill from the hunt, Corey Knowlton says the people threatening him and his family misunderstand the purpose of his trip to Namibia, where he plans to kill an old, non-breeding male rhino that has become aggressive enough to endanger the rest of the herd, reports the BBC. "We're just not going in there and saying 'hey we're on a rhino hunt and, here, have a beer we're going to find a rhino,'" Knowlton says. "No, it is a scientific process and we're going to make sure we get the ones that are causing the most problem." Knowlton paid $350,000 to win the Dallas Safari Club auction for one of the three rhino hunting permits Namibia sells every year, and the money will be used for conservation projects, the AP reports. (Also imperiled: A new survey has found lions are on the verge of extinction in West Africa.)