 Your new post is loading...
KwaZulu-Natal - The fight against rhino poaching is heading into the future. A Johannesburg based company is taking surveillance technology to new heights, and it’s all locally made. Drones are being used to keep watch from the skies, allowing for faster incident response. The pilot project has already yielded positive results at the Hluhluwe iMfolozi Game Park in KwaZulu-Natal, who haven't had a poaching since February. eNCA.com went to witness the project in action. CLICK here to watch VIDEO: http://www.enca.com/south-africa/fight-against-rhino-poaching-gets-hi-tech
Via Wildlife Margrit
Armed groups in central Africa are using powerful weapons, some of which may be left over from the civil war in Libya, to kill elephants for their ivory, the United Nations said on Monday.
Via Marcus Clarke
Arrests for rhino poaching in South Africa increased considerably this week, with 11 alleged poachers arrested in the eastern half of the country. SANParks said eight of the 11 people arrested this week were caught during joint operations. Since 1 January 2013, 292 rhinos have been poached. The Kruger National park continues to be the worst hit, with 216 rhinos poached. 23 rhinos have been poached in North West Province, 20 in KwaZulu-Natal, 19 in Limpopo and 14 in Mpumalanga. Since January, 94 people have been caught for poaching rhino and smuggling rhino horn. 44 alleged poachers have been arrested in the Kruger National Park, 20 in Limpopo, 13 in KwaZulu-Natal, 8 in North West Province, 6 in Mpumalanga and 3 in Gauteng....
Via Wildlife Margrit
Good intelligence is at the heart of every successful military operation and efforts to tip the balance in favour of those fighting to prevent the wholesale slaughter of rhinos are being boosted by..
Via Wildlife Margrit
China’s small traditional trade in carving uses ivory acquired through legal auctions and in no way encourages or worsens the problem of elephant poaching in Africa, a senior Chinese official said on Tuesday....
Via Marcus Clarke
JOHANNESBURG - A rhino poacher has been wounded in a shootout with rangers in the Pretoriuskop section of the Kruger National Park. Three poachers were confronted by rangers on Tuesday night which led to a shootout after which two poachers were caught and the third managed to escape. SANPark's Ike Phaahla said, “A rifle, ammunition and an axe were found in their possession. The third suspect unfortunately managed to escape.” The two men will appear in court on Thursday. Over 200 rhino have been poached since the beginning of 2013. On Monday, three men appeared in court in KwaZulu-Natal for rhino poaching. The trio was arrested last week in the Nisela Nature Reserve after an unlicensed firearm and 10 rounds of ammunition were found in their vehicle. At least 668 rhino were poached throughout the country during 2012.
Via Wildlife Margrit
A war is on in the South African bush for what is on the nose of one of the Big 5 — the horn of the rhino. After losing more than a thousand rhinos to poachers in the last three-and-a-half years, South Africa has brought in Johan Jooste to fight what the former Major General calls “a full-blown war involving close-combat guerrilla tactics and fights to the death.” Well-armed, well-funded, well-equipped, and well-informed, rhino poachers have turned South Africa’s Kruger National Park and game reserves into rhino killing fields. With the horn fetching thousands of dollars in East Asian markets, the stakes are very high and poachers utterly ruthless. As Reynold Ray Thakhuli, General Manager, Media, Events and Stakeholder Relations, South Africa National Parks, repeatedly says: “We are fighting a low-level guerrilla war with a sophisticated enemy who is better armed, uses GPS and insider information to get the horns.” He is pained at the ruthlessness of the poachers who often leave the animal severely maimed. “To see the giant lying in the bush, horribly mutilated is heart rending,” he says.... http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/features/its-a-fight-to-finish-at-rhino-killing-fields-of-south-africa/article4740042.ece
Via Wildlife Margrit
William and Charles go to war...to save Kate's romantic paradise as African idyll where Royal couple got engaged is besieged by poachersPrince William described the months he spent at Lewa, Kenya during his gap year in 2001 as one of the ‘happiest times of my lifeDuchess of Cambridge described her trip to the country as 'so romantic'Prince William is said to be 'sickened and saddened by the rhinos being killed'... The informer called at noon. He said five poachers would shortly be entering a forested corner of the Lewa wildlife conservancy in northern Kenya, close to where a rhino and her calf were shot in February. Silea Legei, deputy commander of Lewa’s security force, hurried to the spot with 11 rangers. They hid in the long grass beside an animal track leading from the trees, and waited. The poachers arrived shortly after 3pm. One carried a semi-automatic, another a bow with poisoned arrows. That was justification enough for the rangers. They opened fire. The armed poacher shot back. During the gun battle, a terrified rhinoceros raced past the men who had come to slaughter it. When the shooting stopped, four poachers lay dead, their blood trickling into the dirt. The fifth had fled. The jubilant rangers showed no pity for the poachers
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2326675/William-Charles-war--save-Kates-romantic-paradise-African-idyll-Royal-couple-got-engaged-besieged-poachers.html#ixzz2Trx8W7Uj ;
Via Wildlife Margrit
KwaZulu-Natal - The fight against rhino poaching is heading into the future. A Johannesburg based company is taking surveillance technology to new heights, and it’s all locally made. Drones are being used to keep watch from the skies, allowing for faster incident response. The pilot project has already yielded positive results at the Hluhluwe iMfolozi Game Park in KwaZulu-Natal, who haven't had a poaching since February. eNCA.com went to witness the project in action. CLICK here to watch VIDEO: http://www.enca.com/south-africa/fight-against-rhino-poaching-gets-hi-tech
Via Wildlife Margrit
Wild Talk Africa hosts a world-class event, which provides the perfect platform for international filmmakers, commissioning editors, broadcasters and distributors to meet, network and do business. Click here to register for the Film Festival... http://wildtalkafrica.com/
Via Wildlife Margrit
|
The three farmers, PP Mare, Chris Naude and Johannes van Zyl, were being held in the Gravelotte police cells, Beeld reported on Thursday. Their lawyer Aldo Rech told the newspaper they were tipped-off earlier in the week that poachers would target the area. They reportedly claimed they gave chase to two suspected poachers on Wednesday. One of them got away, but they caught the other one, who was injured while running through dense, thorny undergrowth, and found rhino dehorning tools. According to Beeld, they tied him up and called police to arrest him. Colonel Ronel Otto told the newspaper police found the man with a head wound, and decided to charge the farmers with attempted murder. He had since been admitted to hospital. Rech reportedly denied that the farmers had assaulted him. The farmers were expected to appear in the Phalaborwa Magistrate's Court later on Thursday.
Via Wildlife Margrit
Read Duke warns of poaching dangers latest on ITV News. All the Tuesday 21st May 2013 news
Via Marcus Clarke
Watch the latest breaking news, politics, entertainment and offbeat videos everyone is talking about at CNN.com. Get informed now!
Via Wildlife Margrit
Ninety-four people have been arrested for rhino poaching and smuggling rhino horn since the start of 2013, the environmental affairs department has said.
Via Wildlife Margrit
Demand for rhino horn, used in traditional Chinese medicine, is fueling a slaughter of the animals in Africa. In Vietnam, the sought-after commodity is fetching prices as high as $1,400 an ounce, or about the price of gold.
Via Marcus Clarke
The ivory of the African forest elephant is soft, easy to carve and highly prized by poachers and demand for it could lead to their extinction
Via Wildlife Margrit
If you guessed “China,” you were wrong. The answer is Vietnam. The country’s appetite for rhino horn is so great that it now fetches up to $100,000/kg, ($300,000 per horn) making it worth more than its weight in gold. (Horns average around 1-3 kg each, depending on the species.)
Via Wildlife Margrit
Daft thieves who broke into a museum to saw the horn off a stuffed rhino lost out because museum staff had replaced the horns weeks before with plaster copies.
Museum workers found that the popular white rhino exhibit had had its horns sawn off when they turned up for work at the "Museum Koenig" in Bonn, Germany...
Via Wildlife Margrit
The biggest rhino sale in South Africa this year had the feel of a clandestine gathering yesterday as potential rhino buyers secretly made their bids - to avoid their farms being targeted by poachers....
Via Wildlife Margrit
Customs officers at Ho Chi Minh City's Tan Son Nhat Airport seized more than five kilograms of rhino horn allegedly smuggled in by a passenger Monday, two weeks after Vietnam and South Africa agreed to an action plan to curb rhino poaching. D.V.S, a 31-year-old man, was caught with six pieces of horns in his suitcase after arriving on a Vietnam Airlines flight from Europe. He claimed to have brought the horns for making medicines to treat ailments and that he did not know their value...
Via Wildlife Margrit
A Port Alfred family has splashed out millions on hi-tech helicopter drones to try to save the African rhino from poachers. What started out as a fun idea by businessman Anton Kieser to attach a digital camera to his remote-controlled helicopter has turned into a R3-million investment with brother Leon and father Kees. The equipment, which includes imported drones and thermal imaging cameras, will be tested at local game reserves. Although other anti-poaching initiatives in South Africa are also using unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) drones to try and save the rhino from extinction, they are using less manoeuvrable planes, not helicopters. "We bought all this hi-tech equipment to try and combat rhino poaching before they are all gone," Anton explained. .. http://www.timeslive.co.za/thetimes/2013/05/21/chopper-drones-taking-aim-at-rhino-poachers
Via Wildlife Margrit
A war is on in the South African bush for what is on the nose of one of the Big 5 — the horn of the rhino. After losing more than a thousand rhinos to poachers in the last three-and-a-half years, South Africa has brought in Johan Jooste to fight what the former Major General calls “a full-blown war involving close-combat guerrilla tactics and fights to the death.” Well-armed, well-funded, well-equipped, and well-informed, rhino poachers have turned South Africa’s Kruger National Park and game reserves into rhino killing fields. With the horn fetching thousands of dollars in East Asian markets, the stakes are very high and poachers utterly ruthless. As Reynold Ray Thakhuli, General Manager, Media, Events and Stakeholder Relations, South Africa National Parks, repeatedly says: “We are fighting a low-level guerrilla war with a sophisticated enemy who is better armed, uses GPS and insider information to get the horns.” He is pained at the ruthlessness of the poachers who often leave the animal severely maimed. “To see the giant lying in the bush, horribly mutilated is heart rending,” he says.... http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/features/its-a-fight-to-finish-at-rhino-killing-fields-of-south-africa/article4740042.ece
Via Wildlife Margrit
|
This is fantastic! Drones/UAVs are proving to be a huge deterrent to poachers.
Let's get more of them in the skies!
http://www.nikela.org/portfolio/stop-rhino-poachers-with-thermal-camera-uav ;