What's Happening to Africa's Rhino?

 

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

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

 

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

The number of rhino poached since the beginning of the year has reached 350, the environmental affairs department said on Thursday.

"The Kruger National Park continues to bear the brunt of the poaching, with 242 rhino having been killed in the national park since the beginning of the year," the department said in a statement.

 

"In the North West province a total of 29 rhino have been poached, while 28 have been poached in Limpopo, 33 in KwaZulu-Natal, and 17 in Mpumalanga."

 

Gauteng lost its first rhino to poaching this year in the past week.

 

The number of people arrested in connection with rhino poaching had risen from 98 to 106.

 

"The majority of these, 101, were at the level of poacher, with the rest being receivers," the department said.

 

In 2012, 452 rhino were poached in the Kruger, bringing the total for the year to 668 nationally.

 

The department urged members of the public to report any incidents of rhino poaching.

A father and son team from Orange County in California, described by prosecutors as being “at the apex of the rhino horn smuggling pyramid within the United States”, have each been sentenced to more than three years in jail on federal smuggling and money laundering convictions.

http://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2013-05-17-rhino-horn-smuggling-bosses-jailed-in-us/#.UZzOD7XVCSp

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.