Rhino Poaching in South Africa

Rhino Poaching in South Africa
Number of Rhinos poached
800
653
600
448
333
400
Rhino Species
200
There are two rhino species in Africa:
• The black, or hook-lipped, rhino (approx. 4,800)
• The white, or square-lipped, rhino (approx. 20,165)
And three other remaining rhino species:
• Indian rhino (approx. 2,850) in India and Nepal
• Sumatran rhino (less than 200) in Sumatra
• Javan rhino (less than 50) in Indonesia
13
83
122
2008
2009
0
2007
2010
2011
2012
Why the increase?
•
One of the reasons is thought to be the announcement in 2008 that a
Vietnamese official had been cured of cancer by using rhino horn.
•
Black-marketeers are stock-piling horns to control the market and in the
hope that rhinos will be extinct in 10 or 20 years time so they can name
their price.
•
It also believed that many privately owned horns were sold in the mid
2000s and the supply has now dried up.
•
Rhino horn in some parts of Asia is worth more than US$65,000 per kilo.
This is higher than both gold, platinum and cocaine. Currently the rewards
from poaching outweigh the risks.
•
You could be the last generation to see a live rhino. If rhino poaching
continues at the current rate, rhino populations will quickly decrease,
leading to the risk that rhinos that you have so enjoyed observing, simply
won’t be around for your children or grandchildren to enjoy.
Rhinos have been an important part of a wide range of ecosystems for
around 50 million years.
Rhinos are an umbrella species, which means that while protecting rhinos,
other species which share the same habitat benefit from those
protections.
Rhinos are the second largest land mammals. They encourage visitors to
areas where local communities benefit from the funds brought into the
area.
2012 population figures
How do rhinos use their horns?
•
•
•
•
Defence: female rhinos will protect their young against predators.
Attack: male rhinos will use their large front horns as weapons when
fighting for dominancy.
Greeting: black rhinos often rub horns to greet one another.
Guiding: female rhinos will use their horn to guide their calf.
What is rhino horn made of?
Rhino horns are largely made up of keratin, a similar material to our hair and
nails, and to animal hooves. The centre of the horn contains dense mineral
deposits of calcium and melanin. They are similar in structure to a horse’s
hoof.
The market in rhino horn
Why should you consider helping?
•
Historic uses:
Yemen: for the handles of curved daggers, or ‘jambiya’,
presented to boys at the age of 12.
•
China: from at least 7th century a.d. rhino horns have been
used to carve into ceremonial cups, buttons, belt buckles,
hair-pins and paper weights.
•
The trade now:
Many Asian countries: used in Chinese traditional
medicine, ground into powder and dissolved in boiling
water. It is used to treat a number of ailments including
fever, rheumatism and gout, as well as ailments as diverse
as snake bites, hallucinations, typhoid, headaches,
vomiting and food poisoning. It is not, as is commonly
thought, used as an aphrodisiac.
What we are doing and what you can do to help
How we have been
affected
In 1998, when we first introduced rhinos to
Ant’s Nest, we could not have foreseen the
implications of the national rhino poaching
problem that we have seen since 2009.
It was in 2010 that rhino poaching became
a national issue and rhino poaching began
in the Waterberg area. We were aware of
the problem and began doing regular
fence patrols at that time.
In December 2011 we suffered our first poaching. At that time, our fences
were dropped with our neighbour and our rhinos liked to roam the plains
which bordered the Ellisras Road at Ant’s Hill. Poachers entered the farm and
shot one of our beautiful rhino cows, Split Horn, and her eleven month old
baby. The baby survived for 24 hours and we drafted in help from the
renowned rhino expert, Karen Trendler. Unfortunately the bullet had done
too much damage and the calf was lost.
We immediately stepped up fence checks and patrols, and monitored the
location of our rhinos every day and in May 2012 we hired two security
guards.
In a property of this size, however, two guards cannot cover the whole area
(for a property of this size we would ideally have 6-8 security guards) and we
were hit again in August 2012, when another of our cows, Banana Horn, was
shot. Her eighteen month old calf, Max, escaped and can often be seen at
Ant’s Hill.
***Please do not be alarmed. There has never been an incident involving a
guest at a lodge or in a National Park, nor involving guides going about their
daily work. Poachers remain hidden and do not engage in aggressive action
against people.***
The Cost of Security
After both poaching incidents we had a choice.
We could either dramatically increase the
security over the whole reserve or we could sell
all of our rhinos and make this a rhino-free
reserve. If you have spent any time with our
rhinos you will be aware that we know them all
personally and would do almost anything to keep
them here.
The cost of securing our rhinos is around R60,000
per month (at time of writing that equates to
around £4255 or €5230 or US$6840).
Founding of Save the Waterberg Rhino
Alongside the two incidents at Ant’s, we were also aware of a number of
other incidents of poaching in area. At that time, we decided that we wanted
to do something to protect rhinos in the whole Waterberg area.
As the plan developed, and we heard from experts in the field, we learnt that
securing the area in general is essential to securing rhinos in the Waterberg
and individual rhino owners cannot make a difference by themselves.
We managed to unite the community in this aim and Save the Waterberg
Rhino was founded in November 2012. It is Non Profit Organisation, under
the umbrella of the Waterberg Biosphere Reserve and supported by Stop
Rhino Poaching.
The charity was given a kick start by a very generous donation made by Mark
Knopfler of Dire Straits, allowing us to implement many of the above
protections.
What we still want to do
As well as the ongoing costs of securing our rhinos through the employment
of security guards, we still want to buy a number of items to support our
efforts against poaching:
• Thermal vision equipment (approximately £6000)
• Bullet proof vests (to protect staff doing patrols)
• Quad bikes to enable the security guards to patrol more of the reserve
• Camera traps to secure the fence-lines
Any funding received once we have achieved our aims at Ant’s will be
provided to support other rhino owners and to rhino security in the area.
What can you do to help?
What we have done
•
•
•
•
•
•
Since the second incident, we have hired two armed security guards to
work alongside one of the original security guards we employed.
Our staff still do regular patrols and fence checks in addition to the work
of the security guards.
We have had our rhino horns treated with an ecto-parisiticide and pink
cash-in-transit dye, to deter poachers, in order to make the horns
unsaleable.
We have attached a tracking device to Erwin, our bull, to monitor his
movements.
We have introduced a Conservancy Fee, similar to that charged in many
National Parks and Private Game Reserves, in order to support our work in
protecting rhinos and managing the animals within the reserve.
We feed our rhinos daily at Ant and Tessa’s house so that we can keep an
eye on them (guests are welcome to have sundowners there and watch
the rhinos, although we cannot guarantee they will turn up every day).
• Ask for more information from your guide or host at dinner. We will
happily speak to you about the issues surrounding rhino poaching.
• Add your voice. Speak to your friends and family about the issue.
• Leave a donation in our donation box in the lodge for Save the Waterberg
Rhino, a non profit organisation dedicated to protecting rhinos in the local
area.
• Take home a poster and put it up in your office
• Buy a t-shirt or bumper sticker in our curio shop.
• Become a friend of Save the Waterberg Rhino for R1,500 per year
• Visit the website www.waterbergrhino.com to see what they are doing and
make a donation via our website.
• Sign up for the newsletter via the website to get updates on progress.
• “Like” the Save the Waterberg Rhino page on Facebook.
Interesting Reading
Killing for Profit: Exposing the Illegal Rhino Horn
Trade by Julian Rademeyer
The Rhino Keepers: Struggle For Survival by Clive
Walker and Anton Walker