Zululand Observer - Monday

Local reserve embraces new rhino technology

- Ronelle Ramsamy

AS part of its ongoing protection of rhinos, Thula Thula Private Game Reserve dehorned five of its herd and fitted specialise­d GPS collars in a successful operation last weekend.

Conducted by Dr Trevor Viljoen from Mtubatuba Veterinary Clinic, the operation included Heligistix which was involved in the darting of the rhinos, Project Rhino that helped to locate the rhinos with their plane as well as Mfezi Security and the Thula Thula antipoachi­ng team.

“It was an intense morning, a day full of emotions and scary moments ending up with all our rhinos safely trimmed and collared, all for their protection,’ said owner of Thula Thula Private Game Reserve, Françoise MalbyAntho­ny.

“This does not stop the 24/7 monitoring by our game rangers and anti-poaching unit, above all with the planned expansion of a further 1000 hectares in May.

“The protection of our rhinos is our priority at Thula Thula.”

Malby-Anthony said the set-up of the GPS collars installed on each rhino (three females and two males) was ‘quite a new revolution­ary instrument’.

“The GPS allows us not only to locate them as we are expanding the game reserve soon of a thousand hectares with community land, but also the collars record certain movement and unusual behaviour of the rhino.”

Rhino collars

Many rhino-carrying reserves in South Africa, have partnered with Rouxcel Technology, a conservati­on company specialisi­ng in the design and deployment of rhino collars which detect and transmit abnormal rhino behaviour in real-time.

The Rouxcel collars are solar powered and can last many years without any maintenanc­e.

 ?? ?? The GPS collars were fitted on the rhinos by Dr Trevor Viljoen from Mtubatuba Veterinary Clinic
The GPS collars were fitted on the rhinos by Dr Trevor Viljoen from Mtubatuba Veterinary Clinic
 ?? ?? Project Rhino helped to locate the rhinos together with Mfezi Security and the Thula Thula anti-poaching team
Project Rhino helped to locate the rhinos together with Mfezi Security and the Thula Thula anti-poaching team
 ?? ?? The Rouxcel collars are solar powered and can last many years without any maintenanc­e
The Rouxcel collars are solar powered and can last many years without any maintenanc­e
 ?? ?? The operation included Heligistix, which was involved in the darting of the rhinos
The operation included Heligistix, which was involved in the darting of the rhinos

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from South Africa