KNP taking back the night from poachers
Hi-tech system helping combat slaughter of the rhinos
NOT A single rhino has been lost to poachers in areas where a new multimillion-rand wide area surveillance system has been introduced at the Kruger National Park (KNP).
Named Postcode Meerkat, it is being used in conjunction with other initiatives, including an R8 million electronic security-gate access control system, which monitors the movement of vehicles and individuals entering and exiting the site.
According to the KNP’s management team, similar projects are being initiated in other sections of the park, including Phalaborwa, as the initial phase only covered its five southern gates where most rhino poaching takes place.
While emphasis is placed on the technology not being deployed to replace the work of rangers, the park’s chief ranger, Nicholas Funda, says it will undoubtedly help them to take back the night.
“There is no silver bullet to getting rid of wildlife crime, but the technology will help us reclaim the night from criminals,” he says.
A K9 unit, being run by rangers, is also one of the new projects set up recently to detect any anomalies at the park’s entrances.
Along with the access-control method, it provides a dual securitisation system.
However, the Postcode Meerkat, launched in December, has proven most effective, pointing rangers to the exact location of would-be poachers roaming the park at night. Several arrests have already been made.
The solar-powered system is reliant on radar sensors and cameras which monitor wide terrain 24/7.
Technical operations manager Mark McGill explained that it would require a significant amount of manpower to keep a constant eye on the area, making Postcode Meerkat a multipronged solution as it also protected rangers’ lives.
“Since we started deploying the system in that area from the end of January, we haven’t lost a rhino.”
The radar system was developed by the CSIR and, unlike the now-abandoned drones initiative, had proven effective, so much so that McGill said it was “impossible to outsmart”.
SA National Parks’ Tumelo Matjekane said that because of the park’s complexity, the deployment of drones had failed to meet the park’s needs in its movement monitoring and detection.
“Drones were not successful at the park because many animals move in the park, not just poachers.
“If the technology is sensitive to temperature, many animals and species in the park have the same temperature as human beings, so it will not work.
“It was an experiment. If they can improve and meet our requirements, we will use them.”
The park’s management would have to consistently improve its toolkit of solutions aimed at winning the war on rhinos, as managing 2 million hectares of land, equal to the size of Israel, was not an easy task.
Funda said the park would have to be persistent in its efforts as there was “no fence on earth that can stop a poacher”.
“You are talking about people who have strategies, who know what they are doing, coming from anywhere, that you may need 2 000 people around the fence to protect it which will lead to us losing the sense of the place…
“I don’t think that’s what people come here for,” Funda added, detailing the challenge to curb poaching.
More than 600 white rhinos were lost to poaching between 2015 and last year, while 43 black rhinos suffered the same fate, leaving the population at 400 in the Kruger National Park.