Rhino shot dead by poachers in India hours after royal visit

Animal is killed and its horn removed after Duke and Duchess of Cambridge’s safari at Kaziranga national park

Caroline Davies

Thursday 14 April 201614.38 BST

Last modified on Friday 15 April 201600.20 BST

Poachers shot dead and de-horned a male rhino in India’s Kaziranga national park less than 10 hours after the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge enjoyed a jeep safari there during a visit to highlight conservation, Indian media has reported.

The royal couple visited Kaziranga in Assam and the nearby Centre of Wildlife Rehabilitation and Conservation (CWRC) on Wednesday, and were staying around 12 miles (20km) away at the time of the incident at around 11.10pm.

“Our forest guards who rushed to the spot on hearing gunshots were engaged in an exchange of fire with the poachers, but the culprits managed to escape under the cover of darkness,” the Kaziranga divisional forest officer Subhashis Das told

It is said to be the sixth rhino killed by poachers in the 480 sq km park this year.

It was reported that as many as 105 empty cartridges from AK-47 weapons were found strewn near the spot. The paper quoted sources saying ordnance factory marks on the cartridges had fuelled suspicions that the weapons could have been among those snatched from security forces by rebel groups in the adjoining Karbi Anglong district.

Kazinranga is home to more than 2,400 one-horned rhinos and poaching has become a major issue.

Additional security was deployed during the royal visit, during which the couple helped feed rhino calves with bottled milk at the CWRC sanctuary. 

Another rhino had been killed by poachers three days before the arrival of the duke and duchess. Prince William was said to be appalled when shown footage of its mutilated remains. He spoke to the head of the park about the issue and is to help fund training and equipment for rangers through his charity United for Wildlife.

Source …

South Africa stabilises rhino poaching as threat spreads across the region

South Africa today announced its first decrease in rhino poaching since 2007, but this slight improvement was offset by an alarming increase in the number of rhinos killed in neighbouring countries.

South Africa’s Minister of Environmental Affairs, Edna Molewa, revealed that 1,175 rhinos were lost in South Africa in 2015 – slightly down from the record 1,215 in the previous year.

However, at least 130 rhinos were poached in Namibia and Zimbabwe during the same period – up almost 200 percent from 2014.

“After seven years of increases, a decline in the rate of rhino poaching in South Africa is encouraging and the result of the government's leadership and the tireless efforts of so many committed people,” said Carlos Drews, WWF Director, Global Species Programme. “However, the rate remains unacceptably high – and soaring poaching levels in Namibia and Zimbabwe are cause for serious concern”.

While poachers are still focusing primarily on South Africa, official figures from Namibia and Zimbabwe suggest that criminal networks are expanding their reach across the region – targeting rhinos in previously secure areas.

In Namibia, 80 rhinos were lost to poachers in 2015 – up from 25 in 2014 and just 4 in 2013. In Zimbabwe, 50 animals were killed – more than double the previous year’s total.

These three countries are home to nearly 95 per cent of all remaining African rhinos.

Continued …

Unofficially it’s 365 rhino killed so far in 2015

Posted on April 17, 2015 by Kevin Heath

With officials figures hard to come by and a change from regular monthly reports to ‘quarterly or so’ reports its difficult to find out the current situation on rhino poaching in South Africa. Even with reports and statistics now being published on a quarterly basis the South African government is still finding excuses not to publish the figures.

This is so with the first set of rhino poaching statistics due to be published for 2015. The press conference and publication due today has been postponed because the departments that were to be involved in the press conference had ‘timetable clashes’.

With a current investigation going on that will probably lead to South Africa asking for a legal rhino horn trade market at next years CITES meeting it is obviously beneficial to cloud the waters where the scale of the poaching epidemic is concerned.

With official figures hard to come by then unofficial reports need to be used as an indication about the effectiveness of anti-poaching activities.

Continued ...

SA rhino poaching record set in 2014

22 January 2015 Last updated at 13:06

A record 1,215 rhinos were poached in South Africa in 2014, a 21% increase on the previous year, officials have said.

More than two-thirds were killed in the famed Kruger National Park.

The last few years have all seen new records set, with poaching fuelled by the belief in countries like China and Vietnam that horns have medicinal properties.

The lucrative market has attracted criminal gangs who use sophisticated technology to kill their quarry.

South Africa's environment minister Edna Molewa said more than 100 rhinos had been moved to "more secure locations" - some of them in neighbouring countries - in a bid to protect the animals.

"Through this method we aim to create rhino strongholds, areas where rhino can be cost-effectively produced," she said.

Despite successes through the re-location programme, Ms Molewa said the figures killed each year remained "worryingly high".

Continued ...

Net closes on the Groenewalds as rhino poaching reaches 899

Kevin Heath / 2 days ago

As the net closes in on the Groenewalds and their safari company Out of Africa Adventurous Safaris the South African government has announced that the latest rhino poaching stats for the country stands at 899. With just 10 weeks left in 2014 the number is set to beat last years record 1004 rhinos killed for their horn.

Yesterday the Groenewald brothers were charged in the United States with a range of indictments including fraud and selling illegal rhino hunts to US hunters and also the illegal trade in rhino horns.

The brothers have a long history of dubious rhino hunts with claims that they have worked with land grabbers in Zimbabwe to take hunters into the country on illegal big game hunts including rhino hunting. This was despite being banned from operating in Zimbabwe in 2004.

Continued ...

Indian rhino populations up over 25% in last 7 years

Posted by: Leya Musa / 19 hours ago

After a surge in rhino poaching this year at Kaziranga National Park the forestry department has released a paper to allay fears for the species. The paper shows that despite an increase in poaching of the one-horned rhino the population in Assam is up by 27% since 2006 and the state is on target to meet the Indian rhino vision target of 3000.

The ‘White Paper on Wildlife Conservation in Assam’ was released today by the Environment and Forest Minister Rockybul Hussain. It shows that the current population of one-horned rhinos is 2544. This is up from the last census of 2006 when the state of Assam had 2006, giving a population growth rate of 4.6% a year. This is above the target of the Indian Rhino Vision of 3.25%.

The Kaziranga National Park, the stronghold of the species, now has 2329 with the remaining 215 rhino living in other parts of the state.

Continued

Former Kruger ranger and police arrested as rhino poaching hits 419

Posted by: Kevin Heath / 3 days ago

Latest figures for rhino poaching in South Africa shows that so far this year 419 rhinos have been killed for their horns. The press statement also revealed that a former wildlife ranger and 2 police officers based at the Skukuza police station in the Kruger National Park have been arrested in connection with helping rhino poachers.

The arrests, made yesterday, followed an intelligence-led operation and resulted in the arrest of a former SANParks sergeant in the ranger service and two police constables based at the Kruger National Park.

Members of South African HAWKS – the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation – where out on a patrol with park rangers when they found a black rhino that had been killed and de-horned. Following on the spot investigations they received information about a police van that had been seen in the area.

The van was found and pulled over. Investigators discovered that the van was carrying a suspected poacher and a hunting rifle with a silence, ammunition and other poaching equipment. The constables in the van could not provide an adequate reason for carrying the suspected poacher and were arrested.

Continued

Rhino poacher shot dead in Kenya

March 2014: A suspected wildlife poacher was shot dead at Lake Nakuru National Park on 18 March 2014. Police recovered weapons from the body, including a bow, four poisoned arrows, and a spear. Two of the man’s accomplices escaped and were able to flee with one horn. However the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) were able to recover three horns from the scene of the crime.

Lake Nakuru has been hit hard by rhino poaching. Four rhinos have been lost in the Park since the start of 2014. On a national level, 16 rhinos have so far died in Kenya; 13 were killed by poachers, and three were lost to natural causes. During the course of 2013 a total of 59 rhinos died in the country.

Where poaching crimes have been committed, KWS have undertaken work to bring those responsible to justice. Last year their work lead to the arrest of 1,549 offenders, the recovery of 68 fire arms, 2,630 rounds of ammo, 10,106kg of bush meat, and 13.5 tonnes of contraband ivory.

Continued

Rhino poaching in South Africa hits 172

Posted by: Kevin Heath / 2 days ago

So far this year (until 14th March 2014) South Africa has seen 172 rhinos killed by poachers. This means that over 15 rhino are being killed each week in the country for their horns. The average weekly rate has fallen when compared with 2013 when over 19 rhinos were being killed each week.

Kruger National Park continues to take the brunt of the killings as it has the largest population. So far in 2014 113 rhinos in the park has been killed. This means the Kruger National Park is losing just over 10 rhinos a week. But it is slightly down on last years average of just over 11 rhinos a week.

Free State has already lost 4 rhino so far this year – the same as it lost in all of 2013 – Eastern Cape has also lost 3 rhino so far this year compared with a total of 5 in all of 2013.

So far in 2014 54 people have been arrested for rhino poaching offences.

The official figures released on 14th March 2014 are:

Continued

Zimbabwe rhino poaching drops in 2013, 750 animals remain

The number of rhinos poached in Zimbabwe dropped sharply last year but decades of illegal killing have decimated the population and only 750 remain, a senior wildlife official said on Tuesday.

Poachers killed 20 rhinos in the country in 2013, a drop of 66 percent compared with the previous year, the director of the Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Authority told AFP on the sidelines of a rhino conservation meeting.

This compared with 60 killed in 2013 and 84 slaughtered in the peak poaching year of 2008, said Geoffreys Matipano.

But poaching has decimated the country's rhino population over the past two decades.

Continued

European lotteries donate £13 million in fight against rhino poaching

Posted by: Kevin Heath / 22 hours ago

Two European lotteries last night presented the Peace Parks Foundation of South Africa a combined total donation of 232 million rand (just under £13 million). The donation is the largest private sector donation made so far in the fight against the poachers of South Africa.

South Africa’s Minister of Water and Environmental Affairs, Minister Edna Molewa has welcomed the donations today from the Dutch Postcode Lottery (R217 million) and the Swedish Postcode Lottery (R15.2 million).

Minister Molewa said: “This is the largest single contribution made by the private sector to combat rhino poaching and wildlife crime. We welcome this public-private partnership to help ensure the survival of the species.”

The R217 million (€14.4 million) cheque was received from the Dutch Prime Minister, Mr Mark Rutte and Archbishop Desmond Tutu, on behalf of the Dutch Postcode Lottery, by Mr Mavuso Msimang, the government’s Rhino Issue Task 

Manager and Peace Parks Foundation board member, Dr David Mabunda, CEO of SANParks, Dr Bandile Mkhize, CEO of Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife, and Mr Werner Myburgh, CEO of Peace Parks Foundation.

Continued

Drones Enter the Battle Against Elephant, Rhino Poachers

By Megan Gannon, News Editor | February 05, 2014 02:52pm ET

To give park rangers in Africa an upper hand in the fight against poachers, conservationists are bringing drones to the places where vulnerable elephants and rhinoceroses roam.

Google gave the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) a $5 million Global Impact Award about a year ago to look for new ways to detect and deterwildlife crime.

Now the conservation group and its partners in Namibia are just about ready to implement bungee-launched drones and a host of other poacher-tracking technologies in some of the country's national parks, WWF officials say.

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Pregnant rhino poached on doorstep of the Kenya Wildlife Service

Kenya Wildlife Service trumpet about new anti-poaching ‘crack unit' whilst rhino killed in its own back yard

August 2013. A pregnant white rhino has been killed by poachers in the Nairobi National Park. Whilst hundreds of rhino have been killed across eastern and especially southern Africa this year, this particular piece of butchery is all the more shocking as it happened within a few miles of the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) HQ on the edge of the Nairobi National Park. 

The KWS HQ sits on the edge of the park, and is bristling with staff and armed rangers (though as someone whose car was broken into whilst visiting KWS HQ perhaps this should be no surprise), and much of the park is fenced so it was thought to be a very secure place for the wildlife. However the demand for rhino horn in Asia has pushed the price so high that poachers are prepared to take more and more risks, and perhaps to pass on some of their illegal gains to others to turn a blind eye.

That is not to say that most people at the KWS are not dedicated to protecting the wildlife, and it must be remembered that two rangers have already lost their lives this year at the hands of poachers, and another was shot just last week at Lake Nakuru (Another centre for rhino rescue previously thought secure).

Elite Inter-Agency Anti-Poaching Unit

In an effort to step up the fight against the poaching scourge, the Kenyan Government has formed a special inter-agency crack-unit to combat poaching in the country. The anti-poaching unit named the Elite Inter-Agency Anti-Poaching Unit comprises of security officers from the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS), the Administration Police (AP) and the General Service Unit (GSU).

Read more

Help for African Rhino Poaching Survivors

June 21, 2013 — In Africa hundreds of rhinos are shot or immobilised by poachers every year to supply ground up horn for the Asian medicine market. It is reputed to make men virile and treat anything from stomach ache to cancer -- all just a myth.

South Africa has more rhinos than most other African countries because conservation and breeding have been more successful there. Consequently it has become a major target of the poaching syndicates and many of the rhinos are slaughtered and maimed. Their horns are hacked off -- usually while still alive, leaving the injured animals to die.

Many of these rhinos are too badly maimed to survive but a group of vets has taken on the often heart-breaking task of trying to rescue and treat the animals that are not killed. Although many do not charge for this, the costs of immobilising, testing and treating these animals is still enormous requiring helicopters and trucks as well as large quantities of expensive drugs.

Thousands of miles away from this rhino bloodbath veterinary pathologist Professor Fred Reyers, from the School of Life Sciences, University of Lincoln (UK), has been interpreting laboratory blood analysis data, sent to him electronically, to guide the vets who are treating the badly injured survivors.

He said: "Poachers use two approaches: shooting the rhino, with the intention of killing which requires marksmanship and a heavy calibre rifle. Many rhino are just stunned and/or wounded sufficiently to make it possible to saw or hack the horn off. They often have serious shrapnel injuries which tend to become infected and, if left lying on one side for several hours, are disposed to muscles on the lower side dying off because the sheer mass of the animal prevents blood flow. The second approach is the use of an immobilising dart gun -- however the poacher does not give an antidote.

"The septic bullet tracts, septic horn-removal lesions and dying muscles all contribute to sepsis and this can lead to secondary damage to vital organs, like the kidney, lung and liver. These syndromes are well recognised in car crash victims, explosion injuries, battlefield wounded and burn patients. The actual lesions are almost impossible to assess accurately from the outside. So, to get an idea of how serious and/or advanced these injuries are and the resulting problems, we rely on measuring a number of blood parameters that reveal the extent and stage of inflammation and organ failure. Based on the interpretation of these blood tests, the attending veterinarian can adjust the treatment protocol."

Read more

Vote now to help prevent rhino poaching

Rhino slaughter at crisis point - Help ZSL win the race to install next generation camera traps

May 2013. More than 1,000 African rhinos have been slaughtered in just eighteen months, as armed poachers cash in on soaring demand for horns. Conservationists racing to build next generation camera traps for deployment in poaching hotspots, are appealing for public support to secure crucial funds to save hundreds of rhinos and elephants over the next two years. 

£500,000 to buy camera traps - Vote Now

The Zoological Society of London (ZSL) is in the running to receive a £500,000 Global Impact Award from Google that would allow cameras, equipped with automated sensors, to be installed in Tsavo National Park, Kenya, within months; creating a safety net of eyes and ears to protect threatened wildlife. 

The cameras transmit images, detect passing vehicle vibrations and even triangulate the sound of gunshots, to provide an accurate location of poachers. Information can be sent to rangers in real-time, enabling immediate intervention. 

ZSL's field conservation director, Professor Jonathan Baillie, says: "Rhinos are being massacred daily by gangs of armed poachers. This large-scale organised crime means law enforcers are being overpowered, but our new cameras will help turn the tide and put an end to this slaughter."

Professor Baillie, adds: "We now need the public to vote for us to receive this Google Impact Award and get these life-saving cameras out to law enforcers and park rangers before it's too late."

Vote Now - Voting closes on 31st May 2013

The project is a finalist in Google's Global Impact Challenge, with a public voting window open from 22 to 31 May 2013 

Vote here

http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/rhino-vote.html

Sabi Sand poisoning all rhino horns to counter rhino poaching

A key additive to the Sabi Sand treatments is an indelible pink dye which exposes the presence of smuggled horns on airport scanners worldwide and warns consumers that the ground-up product is hazardous.

Extensive rhino horn poisoning to counter poaching upsurge

April 2013. Toxic infusions are the latest weapon to counter the thriving industry of rhino poaching in the big game areas adjoining South Africa's Kruger Park.

Consumers can become very ill
Consumers of the powdered horn in Asia risk becoming seriously ill from ingesting a so-called "medicinal product" which is now contaminated with a non-lethal chemical package. The 49,500 hectare Sabi Sand Wildtuin has launched the country's first large-scale operation to toxify the horns of its rhinos, together with an indelible pink dye which exposes the illegal contraband on airport scanners worldwide.

Many world famous safari properties on the border of the Kruger National Park are engaged in a costly struggle against relentless rhino poaching. The Sabi Sand Wildtuin Association of property owners this year will spend R6.5m on security operations to intercept and head off the incursions - a budget allocation which has tripled since 2008, when the crisis first came to the fore. These defensive strategies, undertaken with the police and SA National Parks (SANParks), are facing heavily armed and highly motivated gangs.

The poachers themselves, the starting point of the criminal traffic inside and around the Kruger Park, receive a mere fraction of the R2-2.5m value of each horn from the syndicates that plan the raids and export the material. Yet the size of their pay-offs in the neighbouring low-income communities is ample enough to keep the poachers safe from being identified.

Poaching stats
Intelligence is a prime asset in the escalating conflict. For this reason the numbers of rhino located in the area are kept confidential, as are the numbers lost to date. The national statistics are harrowing enough to the future of wildlife conservation and game tourism. The first spike in the incidence of rhino poaching was in 2008, when 88 animals were lost. This year more than double that number have been butchered in only the first three months.

Lorinda Hern of the Rhino Rescue Project, who has co-developed the ectoparasitacide treatment since 2011, measuring the horns for research purposes while Brent Leo-Smith assists.

The Sabi Sand Wildtuin Association's game-changing toxification campaign is as much about sending a message to the illegal trade worldwide as it is about rendering the rhino horns inside its perimeter both worthless and hazardous as traditional medicine.

Andrew Parker, 41, CEO of the SSWA, says that compromising the product is the most effective deterrent to the illegal market.

A key additive to the Sabi Sand treatments is an indelible pink dye which exposes the presence of smuggled horns on airport scanners worldwide and warns consumers that the ground-up product is hazardous.

Continued:  http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/rhino-horn-poosoning.html

Snake oil threat to the world's rhinos

Selling rhino horn as a cancer cure

March 2013. As the rhino poaching crisis, hits new troughs, some snake oil salesmen from South Africa want to enrich themselves by selling 'snake oil' to the Vietnamese. In this case, the snake oil comes in the form of rhino horn, which some rhino farmers in South Africa want to sell legally to Vietnamese businessmen who will sell it in Vietnam as a cure all for cancer.

A rhino calf that was severely slashed with a panga -

 Legalising rhino horn sales won't prevent this happening, 

and may well have the opposite effect. 

Photo courtesy of Endangered Wildlife Trust

Aside from the rights and wrongs for the rhinos of making them into a commodity, the ethics of selling, at vast expense, rhino horn, which is made of keratin, the same as your hair and mine, to ignorant and misguided people who believe it will cure them of cancer and various other ills, is as disgusting as any peddling fake drugs to any gullible member any public.

What are the penalties for pharmaceutical fraud in South Africa? 

If a Vietnamese citizen was selling snake oil in South Africa for hundreds of thousands of dollars a go, and promising a cure for cancer et al, there would be a vast outcry and no doubt he would be jailed for many a year, and quite rightly so. So why oh why would it be ok for South Africa to sell rhino horn to Vietnamese as a cure?

South Africa's debate on ‘rhino-conomics' is preparing the ground for legal sale of horn, warns wildlife charity

South Africa is preparing to launch a campaign to legalise the rhino horn trade, warns Care for the Wild, following a debate on the merits of ‘rhino-conomics' at the CITES conference in Bangkok.

Continued:  http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/rhino-horn-sell.html

Assam demands national investigation into rhino poaching in India

Assam calls for probe into rhino poaching - Written by Nava Thakuria 

February 2013. The Assam government in northeast India has asked for the Indian Central Bureau of Investigation to investigate the rampant poaching of rhinoceros in various forest reserves of the tiny State. Assam chief minister, Tarun Gogoi, has personally made this commitment recently, and the Assam government has written to the Union government in New Delhi requesting a high level probe.

2500 rhinos in Assam
Assam's forest reserves contain more than 2500 rare one-horned rhinoceros out of a world population of around 3000, and large quantities of other rare and important wildlife. Kaziranga National Park in central Assam is the hot-spot for the rhinos, but has suffered increasingly from poaching in the last year or two. The last 13 months seem to be worst as the park has lost around 50 rhinos to natural disasters and poachers. Poachers took away more than 25 rhino horns in this period after killing the animals.

Photo credit Wildlife Trust of India

The value of a single rhino horn in the international market has sky-rocketed; as many people in China and Vietnam mistakenly believe that the horn carries an aphrodisiac quality and is a cure for cancer. Rhino horn is made from keratin, the same substance in human hair.

Students' organizations, opposition political parties and various wildlife NGOs have organised street protests, crying fouls at the inability of the State forest department to protect the wildlife. On numerous occasions effigies of Assam forest minister Rockybul Hussain have been burnt. Chief Minister Gogoi was also targeted by some angry citizens on different occasions for his callous attitude towards the issue.

Read on:  http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/assam-poaching013.html

Brutal attack on rhino calf in South Africa by poachers stuns rescue staff

Orphaned calf was slashed with a panga

January 2013. The Endangered Wildlife Trust (EWT) Rhino Orphan Response Project, in partnership with the Rhino Orphanage, was called on to assist in the rescue of a horrifically injured, two month old rhino orphan.

Said Karen Trendler, co-ordinator of the EWT's Rhino Orphan Response Project: "We found the calf in a terrible condition. The poor baby had obviously tried to return to its mother while the poachers were removing her horn and they slashed at her face with a panga and an axe repeatedly in order to chase her away."

18 lacerations
The calf survived the brutal attack and has 18 very deep lacerations across her face, one which cuts right through her stump and the other through her skull.

"It has been three days since we rescued her and she is doing remarkably well. She is still in a great deal of pain and we are monitoring her progress very carefully but we hope that she will make a full recovery. This is unfortunately not an isolated occurrence of baffling cruelty by poachers - we have seen many such incidences in the work we are doing with the orphans and victims of rhino poaching," continued Trendler.

Read more:  http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/rhino-orphan013.html

Rhino poaching: South Africa and Vietnam sign deal

South Africa has signed a deal with Vietnam to help curb the rising number of illegally slaughtered rhinos, officials announced on Monday.

The price of rhino horn - used in traditional medicine in Asian countries - has soared.

Rhino poaching is already banned under international conventions but figures show the number of rhinos killed in 2012 was nearly double the 2010 figure.

South Africa is home to about 85% of Africa's estimated 25,000 rhinos.

Conservation groups have welcomed the move as the first official co-operation between the two nations on the issue.

The trade in rhino horn has been banned by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (Cites) since 1980.

At least 618 rhinos have been poached in South Africa in 2012, nearly double the number of those killed in 2010, latest official figures show.

Most of the killings took place in the world-famous Kruger National Park.

Continued:  http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-20670012