Rhino Poaching 2013

[Gipetto]

Hi chaps, I have not yet received an answer, so I do think it is all ok. But was this a problem in the past?

[Scipio]

Gipetto, your approach is refreshing. It might not go down well some places, but good luck in your search.

[Richprins]

Mr Mabunda said that there were internal threats as well. They were not all with SANParks. There were wolves dressed in sheepskin. Some game rangers and other officials were involved in illegal activities. This was widespread. Conditions of service had been changed despite resistance from the unions. Integrity tests had been conducted. One area on the Mozambique border had experienced losses of over thirty rhino annually. After changing management, this had stopped altogether.

There were a limited number of South African Police Service (SAPS) and South African National Defence Force (SANDF) personnel to police the border. When there had been an onslaught on elephants in the 1992, there had been six companies of SANDF troops deployed, but now there was less than half a company. DEA deployed 450 game rangers, and outnumbered SAPS and SANDF members. More people were needed to monitor the boundary.

The Chairperson asked about the fence.

Mr Mabunda said that there was a 40km stretch where there was no fence. There were 30 breaches over a 400 km frontier. The 40 km length had been taken down as part of the transfrontier park.

The Chairperson said that 450 rhino had disappeared through the border. Until Mozambique could provide adequate measures to protect the rhino, the fence must be restored. This was the main problem.

Mr Mketeni said the issue was before Cabinet.

Ms Ngcaba said that President Zuma was meeting his Mozambican counterpart on the issue. Restoring the fence was one option.

The Chairperson felt that the fence must be kept intact on the South African side. Transfrontier parks would not work if the same measures were not taken on both sides of the border.

Please read here! Very important stuff!



viewtopic.php?f=197&t=2169

[Penga Ndlovu]

205

A mother and her calf killed in the nWanetsi area.

[Toko]

Mozambican rhino poachers cash in

Wednesday 10 April 2013 05:54
SABC

Mozambican rhino poachers are seen as benefactors by their communities. This is according to Regional Ranger, Louis Olivier. Olivier says poachers build mansions for themselves in their villages with the money they make from rhino poaching in the Kruger National Park.

Olivier says the poachers share their wealth with the village once they get paid for poached rhino horns. He says it is custom for a poacher to slaughter a cow if he has been successful and to invite up to 200 people to share in the feast.

Poachers have meanwhile killed more than 203 rhinos in South Africa so far this year. The Environmental Ministry says the Kruger National Park remains the hardest hit, with dozens of raids by poachers. Fifty incursions were recorded by rangers in just 12 days last month. Last year, just 668 rhinos were killed.



The fight against rhino poachers has been hampered by the breakdown of the genetic analyser machine, RhODIS
The fight against rhino poachers has been hampered by the breakdown of the genetic analyser machine, RHODIS, used to link confiscated horns to poaching sites with DNA.

This provides prosecutors scientific evidence to link rhino horns to specific incidents. The profiling is being done by the Faculty of Vetenariry Science of the University of Pretoria. The database contains DNA of six-thousand rhinos so far. The machine crashed due to huge pressure of the DNA project.

Sanparks spokesperson, Rey Thakuli says: “There are some challenges in terms of servicing the machine and obviously it is a machine that is quite expensive, therefore we need all sorts of help that we can assist the University of Pretoria to operate the machine”.

Thakuli says all South Africans are called to join hands to make sure the machine is operating.

[Mel]

Olivier says the poachers share their wealth with the village once they get paid for poached rhino horns. He says it is custom for a poacher to slaughter a cow if he has been successful and to invite up to 200 people to share in the feast.

Now that is helpful to get hold of the poachers. Not.

[Toko]

Anti-poaching is now “guerrilla warfare”

Date: April 10, 2013 | Posted in Nelspruit News

Rangers in the Kruger National Park (KNP) are engaged in what the park’s new head of anti-poaching calls a “full-blown guerrilla war” against the poachers who have claimed the lives of over 150 rhinos this year alone.

“This is a full blown war, with close combat guerrilla tactics and fights to the death against fearless insurgents, the Kruger is under siege,” said retired army Major-General and KNP’s co-ordinator of anti-poaching activities, Johan Jooste.
Jooste was speaking at Skukuza camp in the south of the KNP on day one of a four day media tour, from 8-12 April, behind the scenes of the escalating crisis which has plagued South Africa’s largest national park for the past few years.
Employed in December 2012, Jooste’s 35 years in the infantry are a testament to Kruger’s new stance on rhino poaching.
At Skukuza, the headquarters of the park’s anti-poaching squadron, staff employ military tactics similar to those used on battlefields around the globe.
In co-ordination with air response teams, sniffer dogs and sophisticated technology, rangers specifically trained in military combat spend days at a time scouring the bush for signs of poachers.
Incursions usually take place on the Mozambique border, with 179 such incidents occurring this year. Groups of two to four poachers engage in hit and run strikes in the south, recruiting internal collaborators.
“In Mozambique, the government does not have the same concern for rhino poaching as South Africa does,” said Ken Maggs, head of Environmental Crime Investigation in the KNP.
The South African National Defense Force (SANDF) and South African Police Service (SAPS) have been roped in to help, but even armed with R75 000 night vision binoculars, R45 000 thermal imagers and R1 assault rifles, rangers still struggle to apprehend poachers.
“These guys are unafraid of the dark, unafraid of wild animals and unafraid of sentences,” Maggs said.
Jooste explained that poachers are desperate and hungry, governed by no rules and have superb bush skills, making them ever the more difficult to apprehend.
“We do not have a ‘shoot to kill’ policy, and unless the rangers’ lives are in danger, we have to physically lay a hand on these poachers and arrest them,” he said.
These are just a few of the many challenges faced by anti-poaching teams.
Over the Easter weekend, air response teams filmed a shocking slaughter of a female rhino close to Skukuza. The footage showed that the badly wounded rhino was still alive, despite having its horn, nose and mouth removed.
“Such incidents show the ruthlessness of poachers,” said Mark Greef, an independent contractor brought in to train rangers. “They are criminal saboteurs, sabotaging the welfare of our country.”
Greef said that normally he would be required to work in war zones such as Iraq or Syria, but that the rhino poaching crisis had reached a “warlike” status which necessitated his involvement.
Jooste’s strategy going forward is multifaceted.
“It’s a very complex issue and we have a huge amount of work to do,” he said.
This work reportedly includes developing the readiness of the Ranger Corps, improving reaction times, using sophisticated technology and building the fledgling doctrine on rules governing anti-poaching activities.
Huge investments in training and equipment are needed, in addition to increased intelligence, while root causes such as poverty, greed and massive demand for rhino horn in the Asian market also need to be addressed.
“This is syndicated, organized crime at its best. We need to focus on all these issues and usher in a new era of parks management. South Africa’s reputation is at stake and our wildlife tourism under severe threat,” Jooste concluded. – The Write News Agency

[Richprins]

These reports are largely correct, and don't necessary include naughty details. It is good to see an admission that "internal colaborators" exist in Kruger.

The Mozambiquan connection/syndicate extends onto the Western side of Kruger and other parts of the country too, as syndicates there import Mozambiquans as expert "footsoldiers".

I don't mind disagreeing with the "starving, desperate" part...these guys are not subsistence poachers by any stretch of the imagination, and want more money to show off!


The rhodis machine story...beware of Thakhuli/SP asking for money on Onderstepoort's behalf...gov can pay if it's a problem.

[PennyinSA]

How long will it be before the poachers think that someone needs to be silenced as they have perhaps seen too much - eish! http://www.iol.co.za/capetimes/scary-ni ... WV_naLviSo

[Richprins]

Cape Times:

Scary night for couple amid poachers

April 10 2013 at 04:08pm

Cape Town - A Cape Town couple spent an unnerving night in the Kruger National Park after their car got stuck in a riverbed.

When they were rescued the next day they discovered they were in the midst of an anti-poaching operation and the carcasses of rhinos, which were shot by poachers, were a mere 500 metres from them.

The rhino horn poaching crisis has now claimed 203 rhinos in the first 93 days of this year - a record killing rate of one animal every 11 hours.

Meghan Opperman, 22, from Table View and her boyfriend, Keegan Steward, 21, from Blouberg were on their way back from the Baobab tree to the Skukuza camp site last Wednesday when their car got stuck near the Orpen Rocks.

“We were on our way back at about 4pm. Two of the roads were closed so we made our way onto a public road, where we got stuck.

We decided to wait for others cars. We tried putting branches under the wheels, but nothing worked.
KNP him drama

and Keegan Steward spent the night in their car in the Kruger National park after their car got stuck in a dry river bed. Picture Jeffrey Abrahams

“It rained so much that night. We could hear the water running below the car. We were so worried about being caught in a flash flood,” Opperman said.

The next morning, Opperman said they saw a helicopter circle nearby.

“We thought that our parents or the camp site had sent them. Because there was no network, we couldn’t call anyone. Keegan jumped on the roof to try and get their attention, but it just passed us. When the helicopter came back at around at 3pm we managed to flag them down,” she said.

Opperman said the pilot had told them that four rhino carcasses were found 500 metres from them.

“When the pilot told us there were poachers about a half a kilometre from us we realised how dangerous that night was. They took us back to Skukuza.

“The people at Skukuza told us they usually called visitors who were late to check in, but there wasn’t anything on our phones,” she said.

Steward, a nature conservation student who has been going to the Kruger with his family since he was five, said he realised the danger they were in being nearby to carcasses.

“If the road was properly marked or we were given a warning that poachers were now coming closer to camps, we would’ve been more cautious. We were very lucky,” he said.

Last week, game rangers found a mutilated rhino cow that had to be shot. The park has had 145 rhino poached this year.

Major-General Johan Jooste, anti-poaching commanding officer in the Kruger National Park, said poachers would avoid tourists so they were not concerned about people being injured as a result of poaching activity.