KZN battles radical rise in rhino slaughter

THE slaughter of rhino in KwaZulu-Natal has drastically increased over the last year‚ with nearly 40% more killed for their horns than in 2015.

Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife rhino security manager Cedric Coetzee said yesterday that 161 rhino had been poached last year at state and private reserves, compared with 116 the year before.

The ongoing slaughter has caused reserves to take drastic measures‚ including dehorning rhino to ward off poachers.

Coetzee said there was no single reason for the increase‚ other than the fact that there were more poachers operating than ever before.

“Syndicates are getting bigger and moving around more. They are getting more professional and more organised‚” he said.

Another theory is that increased anti-poaching efforts in the Kruger National Park – including the involvement of the military – was leading to targets being hit in other areas that were perceived as being softer.

“There is that theory‚ and we are definitely catching people from that [Kruger] area‚ from Gauteng‚ Mpumalanga and Limpopo. Whether it’s that or not‚ we’re not quite sure.

“It could very well be‚ because they do have a lot more resources [than syndicates in KZN]‚” he said.

Coetzee said that anti-poaching in KZN was tricky because there were more smaller reserves with rhino‚ rather than one big reserve like Kruger.

“We’ve got to work a lot closer with a number of reserves‚” he said.

One of the methods being used to try to deal with the poaching crisis is the dehorning of rhino.

Coetzee said Ezemvelo was implementing this in some of its reserves and investigating it in others‚ but would not provide further details.

Tala Private Game Reserve general manager Armand du Toit confirmed that five rhino at the reserve near Pietermaritzburg had been dehorned in the middle of last year. This was after an incident in which two rhino were killed in 2014.

“The decision was made to dehorn all rhinos to prevent any further possible incidents or threats. There is never any positive feedback because people would like to see animals in their natural environment with horns‚ but we had to make a decision on how to go forward in protecting our species,” he said.

“In saying that‚ despite the public response‚ with the help of RAVE [a private rhino protection unit] … we are feeling positive. The dramatic increase in rhino deaths just made us aware off the fact that we must do something.”

Gwahumbe Game Lodge manager and Derrick Grofe, a former manager at Tala‚ said similar measures were being implemented at Gwahumbe.

“It is the way to go. I would rather have them alive and with no horn. In these small reserves they do not have to have territorial battles‚ so it [not having a horn] is not a problem‚” he said.