Faced with rising rhino poaching, South Africa will try a new method to stem the scourge - - maths, authorities said on Wednesday.

A five-day conference bringing together mathematicians from the UK, Russia, India and Australia will be convened at Wits University in Johannesburg next week to present an equation to help win the fight against rhino poaching, organizers said.

The mathematicians will work with rhino role-players to come up with mathematical solutions to the increasing threat to South Africa's rhino population, focusing on white rhinos, the supply and demand for rhino horn and the steps being taken to prevent poaching, said Professor Montaz Ali of the applied mathematics department at Wits University.

Other factors that will be considered will be the costs of managing wild rhino populations and the argument for re- establishing a legal trade.

"There would be various scenarios that we will have to look at when trying to come to a mathematical solution, such as what is the job of the rangers, what is the responsibility of the government, rhino breeding and loss of rhino and what scientific method can be used efficiently," Ali said in remarks published by the Daily News newspaper.

"We will put all these scenarios in a model with the hope of solving a mathematical problem," said the professor.

The ultimate goal would be to provide the model to wildlife authorities as a possible blue-print to fight rhino poachers, Ali said.

At previous workshops held in South Africa, the study group investigated rock bursts, optimization in mining, traffic flow, HIV in the workplace, optimal distribution of goods, renewable energy, robot motion and image processing.

South Africa lost a total of 633 rhinos due to poaching last year which saw the highest number of rhinos poached, according to statistics released on Dec. 19 by the Department of Environmental Affairs.

In 2011, 448 rhinos were killed in South Africa, 34 percent more than in 2010, when 333 rhinos were killed, and nearly four times the 122 lost in 2009.

In the first days of 2013, three rhinos were poached in the Kruger National Park, which bears the brunt of rhino poaching.

This indicates that rhino poaching is going unabated despite intensified efforts to stop the scourge. Endi

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