Monday, July 25, 2011

South African troops fight back as poachers kill hundreds of rhino

KRUGER NATIONAL PARK, SOUTH AFRICA—They used to rely on snares, poison and shotguns to kill rhinos for their horns. Now international crime syndicates are arming poachers with night-vision goggles and AK-47 assault rifles as the price for rhino horn surpasses gold.

When the crackle of gunfire signals the death of yet another rhino, radios squawk to life here in South Africa’s flagship Kruger National Park and soldiers ready for pre-dawn patrols.

“They’ve become very aggressive,” Ken Maggs, head of the South African government environmental crime investigation unit, said of the poachers.

“They leave notes for us written in the sand, warnings. That indicates it is an escalating issue . . . They are coming in prepared to fight.”

The government of South Africa, home to 90 per cent of the rhinos left on the continent, is fighting back. Since more than 140 troops were deployed in April, the number of rhinos killed in Kruger has dropped from 40 in March and 30 in April to 15 in May and just two in June. Fifteen alleged poachers also have been killed this year, and nine suspects wounded in gunfights.

Still, rhino carcasses with mutilated faces are becoming a common sight in African wildlife parks. The hacked-off horns are destined to be smuggled to China and Vietnam, where traditional medicine practitioners grind them up for sale as alleged cures for everything from fevers to arthritis and cancer.

The horns have become so valuable that thieves this year started stealing rhino exhibits in European museums. The going rate is up to $93,000 Cdn a kilogram, according to the London Metropolitan Police department.

Conservationists have failed to persuade traditional Chinese medicine practitioners and consumers that rhino horn has no medicinal value. Some link the upsurge in rhino poaching to a 2007 Chinese government decision to promote traditional medicine as alternative medicine grows increasingly popular in the West as well. Until then, South Africa was losing about 10 rhinos a year to poachers.
Members of the South African National Defence Force walk through grasslands during a media visit to clandestine positions at the Kruger National Park, July 20, 2011. South Africa's military has deployed troops in the park near its border with Mozambique to cut down on rhino poaching, which kills several hundred of the animals a year, with their horns being sold on the black market for hundreds of thousands of dollars.


Trophy hunting in South Africa is compounding the problem. More than 100 white rhinos were killed under permit here last year. The Department of Environment did not respond to questions about permits issued this year.

So tempting are the rewards that veterinarians and game ranchers — the very people supposedly dedicated to conserving wildlife — have been arrested in recent months for alleged involvement in the rhino horn trade.



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19 comments:

  1. This is insane! I hope they can find a way to bring an end to this poaching, can't believe its come to getting the army involved

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  2. yeah! i love your posts, they are really interesting!

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  3. Ugh poachers are the worst. Glad the army is stepping in to do something about it. Hopefully they don't take bribes.

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  4. Dude...that's horrible. Humans can be so greedy...why don't they just invest money in the stock market or something. That's just stupid, risking yourself and killing animals. Ah well...some people just weren't spanked when they were kids. Nice post :D

    sevenfoldsin.blogspot.com

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  5. It's time to weaponize the rhinos.

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  6. lol, I agree Banacek. Make them smarter rise of the apes style, and give them back mounted turret guns!

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  7. WTF, hundreds of rhinos? something is very very wrong with mankind. F'ing kill those fckers. Seriously thats unacceptable.

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  8. South Africa is doing a really nice thing to protect those rhinos.

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  9. Wow the human race is a very violent species "[ but its good what their army is doing!

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  10. I am glad to see these countries finally stepping up and doing something about all of the poaching. Before long there will be no more exotic wild animals if this doesn't stop!

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  11. dang that's crazy. i bet someone will make a movie

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  12. What we need to do is set up a market for poacher's bones. Thus free market forces would work to discourage the act of poaching.

    + Followed

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  13. Poor rhinos.. For what reason are they even being hunted if their horns don't even serve a medicinal purpose? smh, this is like 10 different types of wrong.

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  14. Good the people help there own environment and save those rhino's

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  15. I just don't understand the people who pay so much for rhino horn. It is just tightly wound specialized hair.

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