Horns of a dillemma

Anti-poaching rangers Vusi Monareng and Austin Ngomane
are happy to undergo routine lie-detector tests to prove they have
not been bribed by rhino horn smugglers.

SO desperate are game rangers with rhino in their care now that two of them told me they’d welcome it if poachers would just contact them and ask to buy the horn direct, despite this being illegal.

One ranger, who cannot be named while government is still lending its collective ear to rhino horn smugglers who want to keep supply low and prices high, said he’d let any poacher have a horn for R5 000. 

That way he would cover the cost of tranquiliser and the helicopter to find the rhino, but more importantly, he would keep his rhinos alive, instead of every week finding a new one slowly dying in

the veld with half its face hacked off.

The rangers’ views were endorsed by veterinarians, who told me instead of banning a trade in rhino horn, the South African government would — again — be able to raise revenue by selling rhino horn.

The biggest danger during a rhino dehorning is that chainsaw
so close to all the human hands and faces.

But this time rangers do not want to allow rhino trophy hunting, but instead want to follow the late Ian Player’s suggestion to trade in rhino horn by using the DNA of each rhino to create a controlled stockpile and selling base, like De Beers does for diamonds.

To date, this sound idea has just been answered by vague fears that a legal trade in rhino horn may spark an unsustainable level of demand from the East.

So instead of seeing a rise in rhino numbers as was the case when game farmers could shoot rhinos for the horn, we now have on average one rhino wounded, its face hacked off and the animal left to die an agonizing death EVERYDAY.

Between 2008 and 2015 an estimated 5 500 rhinos were slaughtered this way in South Africa and the rangers in Hoedspruit predict this year would see 1 800 rhino killed if current trends continue.

This will be double the number of rhinos killed in 2014. Is it any wonder then that desperate rhino rangers are now offering to aid and abet the smugglers?

My finger in the dyke

Trying to stem this bloody tide of slaughter, I last week drove an Isuzu to the Blue Canyon Conservancy in Hoedspruit in the Limpopo Province. I had in mind sundowners and glamping.

Instead I got to put shoulder to the rhino and told to keep this oxygen in that nostril as I learned amid the ticks and dust how much effort and money go into keeping these gentle giants safe in the centre of SA’s rhino poaching epidemic, where at least one rhino poaching is reported daily.

Isuzu into the breach

Not to play paintball with, but to shoot a dart into rhino skin at 13 bars.

This is why Isuzu supports Nkombe Rhino, a non-profit organisation that funds de-horning of rhino to secure them against poaching. The process takes place every 18 to 24 months as the horns grow quite rapidly.

Talk of war, and we are losing

The night before the de-horning, the grim talk around the fire could have come straight from SA’s border war in the 1980s.

As a lion huffed a lot too close for my comfort, I heard how the anti-poaching rangers had made two contacts the day before — with “contact” defined by a heavy calibre gun battle — how a different group of poachers had shot at the little Robinson helicopter, how more intel is needed about new insurgents from Mozambique.

Our hosts, a group of experienced rangers and veterinarians, explained to us city slickers their aim is to find 25 rhino in the conservancy over a three-day period, tranquilise each one from a helicopter and cut off the horn in a few minutes before waking up the animal again.

The sedated rhino is fed oxygen, while its two horn stubs are quickly trimmed off with a small chain saw and filed flat using an angle grinder.

While being put to sleep and waking up hornless is certainly a strange experience for the young calves, is a lot better than being shot by a hunter or poacher.

The horn then takes about two years to grow back to a size the poachers want, but with rhino horn selling for close to R1 000 a gram in the Orient, even the stubs have to be guarded while local communities are educated and told of the lack of horns inside the fence.

Why Isuzu does this

Isuzu brand manager Mlungisi Nonkonyana said they support the de-horning process because it works.

De-horned rhinos in certain Zimbabwean conservancies appear to have a 29% better chance of surviving than horned animals. And when the Blue Canyon Conservatory saw one rhino poached last month, the neighbouring Kruger Park reported six rhino killed in the same day.

Isuzu’s support comes in the form of funds to track and dart the prehistoric creatures and a fleet of KB 300 4x4 double cab bakkies as support vehicles in the operation.

Nonkonyana can rightfully boast about Isuzu’s long history of providing real solutions to issues that affect communities within Southern Africa, starting with Operation Rachel in 1993 and Operation Mandume in 2007, which were very effective campaigns against the proliferation of illegal firearms in Southern Africa.

“Today we are lending a helping hand to Nkombe as a partner in the fight against Rhino poaching. Without concrete action to prevent further loses, we are likely to lose this animal forever,” said Nonkonyana.

Help get some sense into gov't!

• To help lobby for a lift on the ban of rhino trade, link up with www.rhinoAlive.co.za, where rhino owners and conservationists say why government’s decision to ban legal trading of rhino horn is wrong.