Rhino-collaring success for Olli
With increasing focus on the role of private game reserves to protect dwindling rhino numbers, Nelson Mandela Bay conservation organisation One Land Love It (Olli) funded another successful rhino-collaring exercise on a reserve in the region.
The exercise on the reserve, which is not being identified for security reasons, prefaced the government’s release on Sunday of a long-awaited report on the management of elephant, leopard, lion and rhino.
It also comes amid renewed poaching pressure as Covid-19 lockdown restrictions relax and reserve anti-poaching units, hollowed out by a year without tourism funding, battle to meet the surge.
Olli co-founder Nikki Bolton said yesterday the collaring event had gone well.
“When a rhino is darted, it runs a bit and then becomes disorientated and off-balance as the sedative takes effect.
“It’s always a relief, when it goes down, that it does so without injury and in an accessible place.
“In this case, the rhino went down fine and Will [wildlife vet Dr William Fowlds] quickly fitted the collar — which contains a satellite device that ensures the animal can be monitored by the reserve’s rangers — around the animal’s front right ankle.
“It was an awesome experience and a great success.
“We have now raised and spent R70,000 on dehorning and collaring exercises and the funding drive goes on.”
Poaching of rhinos for their horns erupted in 2008 in SA, which is home to 80% of the global rhino population.
More than 1,000 animals were poached in SA between 2013 and 2017 and the slaughter peaked in 2015, with 1,349 animals slaughtered that year.
Bolton said the finding in the report released by environment minister Barbara Creecy that rhino poaching in SA had declined 33% last year was good news. “It’s also encouraging that this is the sixth year reflecting a downward trend, with 394 rhinos poached for their horn in 2020 compared with 594 in 2019. This is dramatically different from the situation in 2014-2015.”
She said it was clear lockdown restrictions had helped, with trade routes and park gates being closed and nationwide policing and roadblocks put in place during this period.
“This analysis is further supported by the resurgence in rhino poaching towards the end of 2020 as lockdown levels eased.”
She said another negative was the revelation of the destruction at the Kruger National Park, which had lost 67% of its rhinos in the past decade.
“Currently Kruger, custodian of the largest rhino population, has only 3,529 white rhinos and 268 black rhinos, a combined population of less than 4,000.”
She said while the drought had played a role, the predominant cause of rhino losses was relentless poaching by international syndicates.
“In the face of such startling statistics, the glaringly obvious question is could the decline in poaching figures reflect the decline in population and that quite simply there is less poaching because there are fewer rhino left to poach?”
Olli co-founder Wayne Bolton said though rhinos were becoming an economic millstone for private reserves because of the huge security required, a large percentage of SA’s rhinos were privately owned.
“Funding derived primarily from tourism has all but dried up as a result of Covid-19.
“Yet private reserves are doing an outstanding job of protecting their rhinos, with only 37 of the 394 poached in 2020 being in private hands.”
He said rural communities, including those living adjacent to protected areas, were at the same time faced with unemployment and financial insecurity as a result of the lockdown.
“It is inevitable that consumption poaching for basic survival will increase and desperate people living alongside reserves are easy targets for poaching syndicates with their eye on a much bigger prize.”
He said Olli was therefore working on multiple fronts.
“Besides our dehorning and collaring drive, we provide community care packs and eco-conservation outreach through our ‘nourishing tummies, nourishing minds’ initiative.”
Bolton said even while solutions to finally quash poaching were being sought, it was important to keep debate alive on the myriad issues around sustainable rhino management, not least whether to allow trade in rhino horn.