Poaching

One night I suddenly sat straight up in my bed. Being a city person I first thought it was fireworks that I heard, but I rejected that idea immediately. What I heard were definitely gunshots! And they were not far away!

I could clearly hear the snapping sound of the bullets exiting the gun barrels. For a moment my senses were sharpened as you learn after a while in the bush. I could notice that there were two parties shooting against each other. From the tent next to mine I could hear Sander shout my name. “Poachers”! I yelled back at him. The anti-poaching units had found poachers in Manyeleti and were now trying to kill each other. I could hear, though, that they were not close enough to form any danger for us. Nevertheless, in the minutes that followed I listened closely if it would...

The next day I heard that the poachers had been successful in escaping from the anti-poaching unit, without killing a rhino. Normally though they do succeed in killing... In 2014 a new record was established. Not a nice record, like being able to crash as many eggs with your head in a minute, but the amount of rhinos that have been killed by poachers. 1020 rhinos were already killed before November 2014 in South Africa alone in comparison with 1004 in 2013. As you probably know the rhinos are killed for their horns which are sold on the black markets of Asian countries, especially China. These consumers believe that the substances in the horn work as an aphrodisiac (exactly the same substance as our nails!) and that is why it is now the most valuable and thus sought after substance in the world!

Currently, there is an arms race going on in South Africa between the immensely powerful and rich Asians which support and benefit from poaching and the South African government. A while ago the poachers used helicopters to enter the nature parks, track and shoot the rhinos from the air, land, dehorn the rhino and fly away again. However, helicopters are easy to see and follow so now highly specialized trackers (poachers) enter the nature parks through weaknesses in the fences. In Kruger the poachers predominately enter from the Mozambican side, as their fences are poorly maintained. After entering they stay in the bush for days until that have tracked a rhino. Than they kill it with silencers, dehorn the rhino and leave the park without anyone noticing them. Especially in big nature parks like Kruger it is very hard to fight this. Imagine protecting an area the size of Switzerland against poachers. The South African government doesn't have the money, capabilities or even intentions to try this.

The only solutions, though, involve the government. One such is solution is farming rhinos in highly protected sanctuaries where they dehorn the rhinos without killing them so that they can sell the horns legally and the horns grow back again. However, businessman who have already started such enterprises have trouble convincing the government to legalize this kind of trade. I to have my doubts if legalization would be a good thing. The preservation of rhinos in their natural environment will only succeed if these rhinos farms can supply the demand, which will only grow with legalization. Time will tell...

Another solution is that the government steps up like the government in Botswana did. There they implemented the shoot-to-kill policy and place the death penalty on everyone related to poaching. This manifested in a current overpopulation of elephants in Botswana. I hope the same policies will be executed over the entire globe as poaching will not stop until there is nothing left to poach. Such is sometimes the nature of men...