Rhino Poaching: Arrests, Prosecutions & Sentencing

[Mel]

Have you also heard by any chance, where those rhinos come from and what type of bulls they are supposed to be?
Like old and sick and / or aggressive ones only as in part of a kind of culling system?

[Toko]

Most likely the famous "surplus males" will make up big part of a farm herd as these are now also removed in most reserves with growing population.

[wynand]

Where will these bulls come from?

I was told that there is an offer on the table (with strings attached, obviouly) from a major conservation agency. I googled for info substantiating this and came up with naught. So, I might be repeating stuff out of turn.

Certainly, it sounded like an honest and well-meaning offer.

At a December 2013 DEA Parliamentary Committee debate, the "Increased involvement of communities, including community ownership of rhino and benefit-sharing by communities" was only one of the "proposed solutions", meaning these are early days yet.

[Richprins]

Thanks, wynand! How many white rhino do you think there really are in Kruger?

viewtopic.php?f=197&t=489

This community involvement idea is the way to go..not necessarily just giving them rhino, but a big information campaign to remind them of the long-term financial tourist benefit rhino bring.

[wynand]

How many? I don't know.

The quest for an answer to that will always be frustrated by inexactitudes of surveys and estimation techniques, and poor reporting in the press, even by parliamentarians, followed by the cherry-picking of numbers that are meaningless out of their context. Results are presented with uncertainties, rightly, numbering in the thousands (the so-called "confidence intervals" which I do not understand the meaning of in a statistical sense. One would have to see the original paper for an explanation).

An accurate number is unobtainable and not important. It's the trend estimates I'm interested in.

[Penga Ndlovu]

Not too sure about that whole community thing.

Lets play the devils advocate here for a moment.

Suppose it benifits them for a few years and the poaching subsides.
In the meantime they have grown reasonably fat and placid and then cannot get any money out of them anymore.

What then?

It is IMHO a short term solution with a recipe for desaster on long term bases given the history of placidness of the average African.

Eish.!

Difficukt question altogether.

[Flutterby]

Busy weekend

Rangers in the Kruger National Park made contact with 6 suspected poachers on Saturday, 18/1/2014, and a shoot-out ensued. 3 Alleged poachers were killed and 3 were arrested.
A 4th suspected poacher was shot and killed near Crocodile Bridge, in the south of the park, on Saturday.
On Sunday, 19/1/2014,4 suspected poachers were arrested near Hoedspruit, in Limpopo province. Police said they found the alleged poachers in possession of a hunting rifle, a firearm silencer and ammunition. The four men, aged between 33 and 46, were due to appear in the Phalaborwa Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday, 21/1/2014.
There were also social media reports of a poaching incident near Vaalwater, in Limpopo province. 1 Rhino was reportedly shot, but was still alive and would be treated.

[Tshukudu]

KNP rangers, soldiers kill 7 poachers
2014-01-21 20:58

Johannesburg - Eleven rhino poachers have been killed in the Kruger National Park (KNP) since the beginning of the year, SA National Parks (SANParks) said on Tuesday.

Seven of them were killed on Friday and Saturday, SANParks spokesperson Reynold Thakhuli said in a statement.

Four hunting rifles, ammunition, poaching equipment and a pair of horns were seized.

The poachers were killed by park rangers and members of the SA National Defence Force, in an attempt to curb rhino poaching in the park, Thakhuli said.

"They [poachers] operate in groups of four to six and are aggressive and engage and shoot at the rangers on sight, creating a daily life-threatening situation."

Thakhuli said two other poachers were arrested and eight firearms were seized in January.

"Up to 15 heavily armed groups operate in the KNP at any given time, especially during the full moon period," he said.

Forty rhino have been killed in the KNP in the past year.

"This has brought more resolve from the Rangers' Corps to double their efforts to keep the species alive," he said.

Ranger commander Major General Johan Jooste said he was optimistic about the park's long term poaching prevention strategy.

He said that 123 people were arrested in connection with poaching activities in 2013.

"It is now up to the prosecuting teams, investigators and the [SA Police Service] to conclude what we have started," Jooste said.

- SAPA

[Bushcraft]

It makes me wonder what will happen if one of these heavily armed groups bump into a tourist and who will be held accountable if the result isn’t a peaceful meeting

[RobertT]

Specially if an ellie had to get shot because they could possibly have had recurring issues and didn't want to take chances with tourists and the publicity thereof.