A rhino killed every 33 hours in KZN

14 Jun 2017

Poachers are now slaughtering one rhino every 33 hours in KwaZulu-Natal, most of them in the flagship Hluhluwe-Imfolozi Park, where Africa's white rhinos were rescued from extinction in the 1970s.

Recently, Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife rangers tracked two men, their clothing splattered in fresh rhino blood, as they fled from the park. Local community members noticed the suspicious behaviour and appearance of the two men and alerted Ezemvelo's anti-poaching units.

The provincial wildlife agency's spokesman, Musa Mntambo, said the men were arrested about 2km from the park's boundary fence.

"Their clothes were soaked in blood. They admitted poaching a rhino and voluntarily led the antipoaching unit to where they had hidden the horn."

Mntambo said investigators and sniffer dogs were searching for the weapon and horn-cutting tools.

Despite the arrests of suspected poachers, the rhino death toll in KwaZulu-Natal is 119 for this year alone - an average killing rate of one rhino every 33 hours.

Last year 162 rhinos were killed and 116 in 2015 - when the killing rate was one animal every 75 hours. In 2008, only 18 were poached.

Earlier this week, anti-poaching units arrested a poacher in the Makhamisa section of the park.

Shortly after 1am on Monday, 12 June, gunshots were heard and when armed rangers investigated they came under fire from a group of poachers.

The rangers immediately returned fire, wounding one of the poachers. He was arrested, but his two accomplices fled into the night, leaving behind a .375 rifle, a silencer and 14 rounds of ammunition.

Ezemvelo CEO David Mabunda said 80 suspected rhino poachers had been arrested this year.

Source: The Times

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