Indy’s on the trail of the poachers in South Africa
A WELSH charity’s spaniel is sniffing out illegal poachers in South Africa – after travelling 8,000 miles to save the rhinos.
Two-year-old Indy has been specially trained as a “bush meat detection” dog to help stop poaching and wildlife crimes.
She is able to locate hidden animal carcasses that have been killed by trespassers before tracking dogs follow the scent to catch the culprits.
English springer spaniel Indy was trained by the team at Dogs 4 Wildlife – an organisation based in Carmarthen, offering antipoaching dogs to national parks.
She has now been deployed to Mankwe Wildlife Reserve in South Africa to be used as an open area search dog.
It comes after 451 rhinos were poached in the country last year – including 327 within government reserves and 124 on private property.
Darren Priddle, Founder of Dogs 4 Wildlife, said: “Indy, an English springer spaniel is currently two years old and has now been deployed to the superbly diverse Mankwe Wildlife Reserve in South Africa.
“Tasked with working alongside the reserve current anti-poaching K9 unit covering some 5000 hectares, Indy’s role ole is to locate and indicate dicate on cached bush meat eat or animal carcass hidden idden by the poachers who trespass onto Mankwe kwe to kill their precious wildlife.
“Once she has as located the recently hidden caches the unit’s tracking dogs can then follow the scent left by the poachers to hopefully arrest them and bring them to justice.
“Indy has a vital role to play in supporting Mankwe’s efforts in protecting their wildlife. Indy was bred and trained by the team at Dogs 4 Wildlife in the UK, where all of our dogs first start their journey to protect and conserve Africa’s wildlife”
Bushmeat poaching has tripled in Mankwe following the pandemic as operations manager Dr Lynne McTavish says people struggle with unemployment. Rhino Reine and her fivemonth-old baby Maegen were killed at the site as they slept last year – and their horns were hacked off.