Rhino poachers are back after SA eases lockdown restrictions

Rhino poaching is on the rise again in South Africa since the government loosened coronavirus restrictions, following a year-long lull due to the pandemic, wildlife parks say.

The strict limits on travel, including international travel, imposed in March last year had the happy side effect of keeping poachers at bay. In 2020, 394 rhinos were poached, 30 percent fewer than the year before and the lowest yearly tally since 2011.

But then South Africa began easing international travel restrictions in November. "Since November, December last year and into 2021, this landscape and particularly Kruger National Park has been experiencing serious numbers of rhino poaching incidents," said Jo Shaw, the Africa Rhino Lead for WWF International Network.

She declined to say how many incidents had occurred. "There is a very real and realised threat as poaching pressure has increased since lockdown perhaps to meet the demand from the international markets," she said.

Rhino poaching often involves both local poachers and international criminal syndicates that smuggle the high value commodity across borders, often to Asia where demand is high. Their methods are cruel: The rhinos are usually shot with a tranquiliser gun before the horn is hacked off, resulting in the animal being left to bleed to death.

Reserves, which have been battling tighter budgets amid a coronavirus-induced lull in tourism, have also been forced to cut back on antipoaching patrols, compounding the threat to rhinos. Some reserves use dehorning as one of the methods to prevent armed poachers from taking advantage of easier cross-border travel.