Africa Wild

SANParks media statement:
SECURITY CHECK POINT ALERT IN THE SOUTH.
SANParks is currently in the process of developing effective management strategies to protect our Rhino population and more effectively manage wildlife crime and conservation in the Park in general.
As part of this initiative, SANParks and the SANDF – Military Police will be setting up various checkpoints in the Southern Section of the Park. These checkpoints aim to improve area integrity and will be conducted with minimum disturbance to our guests and visitors.
We would like to inform all our guests to expect these checkpoints while travelling in the South and to encourage all visitors to adhere to the SANParks rules and regulations. Please take careful note of the speed limits applicable in the various areas of the Park and gate times must be strictly adhered to.
We would like to thank all our visitors and guests for their cooperation and continue to urge the public to report any concerns they may have or any suspicious activity to the applicable emergency numbers on the entrance permit.

Also the smallest initiatives may have importance

Kruger rangers face lie tests to catch rhino poachers

BY JANE FLANAGAN - 17TH MAY 2021 - THE TIMES UK

Lie detector tests are to be introduced for staff at Kruger National Park amid fears that international poaching gangs have infiltrated the ranger force in South Africa’s renowned reserve.

The park boasts the world’s largest concentration of rhinoceroses, but has lost two thirds of its numbers to poachers over the past decade. More than 40 park workers have been sacked for involvement in the slaughter during the same period.

Kruger bosses fear that powerful syndicates have planted moles within the 400-strong ranks of rangers who guard the park’s endangered species. “We know that our staff are approached to provide information and the sums of money involved are big,” Ike Phaahla, the park spokesman, said. “We do have suspicions that some of the rangers have been planted there by gangs, but this is difficult to prove if you don’t have clear evidence.”

It is against the South African constitution to compel a person to undergo a polygraph test unless she or he consents. Sanparks, the state authority that runs the national parks, plans to make surrendering to testing a condition of employment in all new contracts, including for the most senior management.

Phaahla added: “Internal corruption is a scourge and it severely undermines our operations in all our parks, not only Kruger. We can’t afford to lose any more rhinos and we must have people with integrity guarding our rhinos.”

With a polygraph machine, multiple signals from sensors attached to the person being questioned are recorded on a strip of moving paper. The sensors typically record the rate of breathing, blood pressure, pulse and perspiration and sometimes leg or arm movements. During questioning, a person’s signals are recorded on the paper and significant changes in vital signs can be an indication that they are lying.

Kruger’s crackdown on corrupt insiders has also led to allegations of torture, assault and racial discrimination by black game rangers against white managers who make up a minority of park employees but hold senior positions.

Sanparks has laid criminal charges against 43 staff members it found to have links to poaching, but only one has resulted in a conviction in the courts. The park, which is roughly the size of Wales and shares a 300-mile border with Mozambique, has been besieged by poaching gangs as the economies of Vietnam and China have grown and with them demand for rhino products.

Rhino horns are most coveted in Asia’s illegal markets where they fetch up to £55,000 per kilogram, as status symbols and for use in traditional medicine. In 2007 South Africa recorded 13 rhinos killed by poachers but by 2014 deaths had risen to 1,215.

Reports of a decline in poaching since 2014 had offered some hope for efforts to prevent the extinction of rhinos. However, the latest figures suggest that their growing scarcity has contributed to that downward trend as much as anti-poaching measures or a reduced demand. Restrictions on movement during coronavirus lockdowns led to a reduction in killing, but poaching rose again once these were lifted, according to South Africa’s environment ministry.

Original article: https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/krug ... -2j9d8znfl

SA researchers hope to deter rhino poachers with radioactive markers
By Reuters - 04 June 2021 - 18:29
Researchers are working on a new method to deter rhino poachers and smugglers by using radioactive markers to make smuggled horns detectable at global ports of entry.




Image: Dave Gilroy

Researchers in South Africa are working on a potentially new method to deter rhino poachers and smugglers by using radioactive markers to make smuggled horns detectable at global ports of entry and less desirable to buyers.

South Africa is home to the world's largest rhino population but has battled poaching for decades. The rhino horn is one of the most expensive commodities in the world by weight, fetching tens of thousands of dollars per kilogram.


Demand is mainly from Asia where rhino horns are believed to have potent medicinal properties and are also a symbol of wealth.

The study, a collaboration between the University of Witwatersrand and a global team of scientists and funded by Russia's nuclear agency Rosatom, is not using radioactive material on the animals yet, but hopes to if proven safe.

"We are doing our homework at the moment and our whole aim is to find an appropriate quantity of radioactive material which will not harm the animal," said James Larkin, director at the radiation and health physics unit at the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg.

Rhinos Igor and Denver at the Buffalo Kloof Private Game Reserve in the Eastern Cape are the first to have trace amounts of non-radioactive, stable isotopes inserted in a hole made in their horns.

The study will gather samples from the animals over the next three months to understand how the isotope interacts within the horn while assessing the animals' behaviour and health, Larkin said.

Rhino poaching often involves both local poachers and international criminal syndicates who smuggle rhino horns across borders. Poachers often shoot the rhino with high-powered hunting rifles before removing the horn from the skull with a knife.

South Africa has about 16,000 rhinos located within its borders, the environmental ministry told Reuters in May.

But relentless poaching and a drought in the North-East region has hit the rhino population hard. In the Kruger National Park, the number of rhinos has plummeted almost more than two thirds in the last decade to around 3,800 in 2019 from 11,800 rhinos in 2008, according to a South African National Parks report.

The project could provide an alternative to de-horning where the animals are tranquilised before the horn is cut off to prevent poaching, which needs to be done around every 18 months. By contrast, radioactive markers would only need to be inserted every five years, Larkin said.

Despite a 30% decline in rhino poaching in 2020 due to lockdown and travel restrictions in South Africa, poachers still killed nearly 400 rhinos for their horns.

https://www.sowetanlive.co.za/news/sout ... e-markers/

Even if it works, they will still have to tranquillize each and every rhino.

Another Rhino cow poached last night in the Sabi Sands area.🥲 The calf was still trying to suckle at first light this morning. Calf has been rescued and one poacher paid the ultimate price, another still in the bush with a dangling arm after being shot.

South African National Parks (SANParks) and security partners in the Greater Kruger Region are jointly implementing a range of interventions as part of an integrated wildlife management approach to counter the effects of wildlife crime; in particular rhino poaching.
As part of several initiatives, certain entities have embarked on strategic dehorning of selected rhinos in the Greater Kruger Protected Area landscape; and these are ongoing.

Kruger National Park (KNP) has implemented a range of integrated management actions to minimise the impact of rhino poaching such as:

Strategic dehorning of rhino in certain core areas of the KNP.
Strengthening security measures by deploying more SANDF and SAPS patrols to conduct random stop and search operations within the KNP.
Specialised radar, airborne and other detection technologies to even track poachers on foot.
Highly trained tracker dogs and hounds to track suspected poachers in the bush.
Continue to brief the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) on the state of wildlife crime.
It has been established that the loss of a cow has a compound effect since it also includes the loss of a dependant calf and future calves.
The compound effect is part of various factors that affect the population growth of rhinos apart from the immediate disruptive effect of poaching.
The cows are extremely important for the overall population performance and need to be protected by introducing stiffer sentences in incidents where they have been poached for their horn and a calf is left destitute.

The parties in the Greater Kruger landscape are committed to ensuring the survival of these species and will continuously communicate and innovate for the benefit of the ecosystem and protection of key species. SANParks, Provincial Parks in Limpopo (LEDET) and Mpumalanga (MTPA) as well as other private reserves within the Greater Kruger area have approved the initiative. The Greater Kruger parties will evaluate the effect of the integrated management response on an ongoing basis, and use the results and outcomes to adapt management approaches to the poaching scourge.

"These measures are not new in the fight against the scourge of poaching but we are intensifying them to render the incursions ineffective and counter the infiltration of our Rangers Corps by criminal syndicates.
The courts have imposed stiff sentences in recent trials which is welcome as it shows the seriousness of the crimes and the threat posed by the criminal syndicates to the fauna and flora of South Africa," said the Managing Executive of the KNP, Gareth Coleman.

SANParks appreciates the tourists that have reported suspicious characters which have led to successful arrests and continue to encourage communities and other members of society to assist with information so that we can get on top of this criminality. Since the beginning of July 2021, KNP has had 10 successful arrests with 7 high calibre firearms confiscated.
It is clear that risks are increasing for poachers that dare to venture into the KNP.

Issued by:
South African National Parks - Kruger National Park

Enquiries:
Isaac Phaahla
GM: Communications & Marketing - KNP
Tel: 013 735 4363, cell 083 673 6974 or email: Isaac.phaahla@sanparks.org