What's Happening to Africa's Rhino?

Guerrilla tactics and clandestine intelligence gathering are being used in the fight against rhino poachers in the Kruger National Park.

With AK47-wielding poachers waging an "insurgency-like war" in their hunt for rhino horns, rangers have had to adopt military-style tactics to counter the slaughter....

 

No longer just guides and conservationists, rangers are being intensively trained in counter-insurgency warfare.

 

Trained to track, ambush, gather intelligence and wage counter-assault operations, the rangers are being taught the arts of war.

 

Lemmer said the dangers of fighting poachers were huge.

 

"The rangers put their lives at risk."

 

He said so dangerous were poachers that rangers were undergoing paramilitary training to enable them to survive....

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....

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.)

 

The defenders of Africa's rhinos are battling a well-financed and well-informed enemy. Poachers clear $40,000 or more for a single rhino horn....

 

It says a lot about the state of the war against poachers in Africa that the Lewa Conservancy, a private sanctuary in Kenya with 12 percent of the country's rhinos, recently appointed a CEO who has never studied zoology or biology. Instead, Mike Watson is an ex-captain in the British army.

 

His training has already come in handy. Take, for instance, a visit to a crime scene earlier this year: a rhino carcass splayed out in the mud....

 

Read or Listen

http://www.npr.org/blogs/parallels/2013/05/14/183914773/The-Enemy-Inside-Rhinos-Protectors-Sometimes-Aid-Poachers

Tiger bones, rhinoceros horn and bear bile, oh my! Unfortunately, sometimes these things come to mind when people hear about traditional Chinese medicine. While it’s true that these have all been used as TCM herbs, thankfully in North America they are illegal to use or sell.

 

Rhino horns are thought to improve virility for men. It doesn’t. But, some things that do have similar characteristics to human anatomy do have actual physical effect on the twin part. For example, walnuts look like brains, and their omega-3 fatty acids do support brain health. The diuretic Chinese herb qu mai is the stem of a plant that looks like a urinary tube and thus, it is used to treat urinary tract infections. But rhino horns are best left on the magnificent beasts....

To legalize or not to legalize the trading of rhino horns to save the black rhino, white rhino from extinction in South Africa?

 

Despite the huge lobby to legalize rhino horn trade as a means to curb the poaching of endangered rhino and stop the wildlife trafficking and illegal trade, we at NIKELA remain opposed.

 

We are not wildlife conservationists, we do not own rhino, and we have no financial stake in whether rhino horn is traded or not. As citizens of our planet, as humans who care for wildlife and the protection of habitats and ecosystems we are fully committed to do all we can to stop the poaching and all other activities that compromise the preservation of wildlife and its environment....

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 ;

An environmental organisation has launched a mobile game to raise awareness on the scourge of rhino poaching.

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.

What do gold, platinum and rhino horn have in common? They are among the most expensive materials in the world...

 

In order to prevent poaching preemptively, the Rhino Rescue Project (RRP) was born. Its founders Ed and Lorinda Hern of the Rhino & Lion Nature Reserve in Krugersdorp developed together with veterinarian Charles van Niekerk a device that injects red dye into rhino horns.

Yes, it is exactly the kind of indelible dye that is used for ruining bank robbers’ prey and tagging the thieves. RRP’s spokeswoman Lorinda Hern didn’t want to share the exact name of the product due to security reasons, but it is known that it works similar as industry products like Disperse Red 9, which also goes under the name of 1-methylamino anthraquinone...