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South Africa's most exclusive enclave of private nature reserves reveals their hidden security nerve centre - and shows what they've done to thwart horn poachers for nearly a record year.

Snaring has surged 200% in the Kruger National Park, also causing lion extinctions elsewhere in sub-Saharan Africa.

A void left by illegal horn income may now be driving neighbouring communities to snare and shoot species such as African buffalo in the park's southwest sector. Despite the lowveld’s searing heat, thorny canopy and tough terrain, Kruger's staff and honorary rangers say they are fighting back - on foot.

Meanwhile, the police at Outjo in the Kunene region arrested a 28-year-old suspect while he was transporting a rhinohorn on Friday evening. He was apprehended when the police stopped and searched the vehicle he was traveling inbetween Outjo and Okaukuejo. The rhino horn’s estimated value is N$300,000.

Since 2020, snaring has tripled in the crown jewels of South Africa's Big Five reserves. This suggests economic hardship, although it is not the sole factor to blame. Responding to questions by the Democratic Alliance’s Hannah Winkler on the park’s snaring trends, Environment Minister Barbara Creecy reported the removal of thousands of snares: In 2020, 2,407 snares were removed; In 2021, 4,454 snares were removed; In 2022, 7,270 snares were removed.

Fifteen years after South Africa was hit by an unprecedented wave of rhino-horn poaching, the slaughter rate remains relentless - with one rhino shot almost every day in KwaZulu-Natal, the historic heartland of global rhino conservation. More than 60% of the rhinos killed in South Africa so far in 2023 drew their last breaths in KwaZulu-Natal as poachers continue to shift more of their deadly firepower and axes to the Hluhluwe-iMfolozi Park, one of the world’s last strongholds of wild rhino conservation. Latest poaching …

Nampol in Omusati thwart a rhino poaching expedition and confiscate the rifle.

The Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife conservation agency has, up till now, opted to not dehorn its rhinos to protect them from poachers. But that could change soon, following another year of relentless killings in which the Hluhluwe-iMfolozi Park emerged as the current rhino poaching hotspot, globally. The latest poaching figures released by national Environment Minister Barbara Creecy show that 244 rhinos were killed by horn poachers in KwaZulu-Natal in 2022 - the vast majority of them in the HIP.

Die ministerie van die omgewing, bosbou en toerisme het verskeie veiligheidsaanpassings in die Etosha Nasionale Park gemaak sedert die karkasse van 11 gestroopte swartrenosters gevind is. Een van die stappe is die herontplooiing met onmiddellike effek van afgetrede kommissaris Ndahangwapo Kashihakumwa, hoof van die wildbeskermingseenheid, na die park. Twee uit 'n groep van vyf verdagtes wat probeer het om renosters in die park te jag, is ook verlede week vasgetrek.

Just as the barbarity of war in Ukraine or the global climate crisis gradually lose their shock value, the unrelenting massacre of South Africa’s rhino has all but drifted from public view. Behind the scenes, however, at least 75 rhinos have been butchered for their horns in KwaZulu-Natal in the opening months of 2022.

Hulle bewandel die aarde reeds vir 80 miljoen jaar, eet miere en termiete (tot 70 miljoen per jaar!) en is skadeloos vir mense. Tog is ietermagôs bekend as die dier wat die meeste ter wêreld verhandel word en maak soveel as 20% van alle onwettige handel in wildlewe uit. Meer as ’n miljoen ietermagôs is in die dekade voor 2014 gestroop, hoofsaaklik vir hul skubbe wat geglo word ’n verskeidenheid gesondheidstoestande in tradisionele Chinese medisyne behandel en ook as ’n fynproewersdis in Viëtnam en China beskou word.

Shocking official statistics have emerged which show that the world's single-largest population of rhinos - those living in the flagship Kruger National Park - has been slashed by between 66% and 70% over the past decade, mainly due to the unrelenting wave of butchery by international hornpoaching syndicates.

A timely tip-off and a swift police deployment in the dead of the night produced yet another success story in the Namibian Police’s ongoing anti-poaching campaign in the northern regions bordering the Etosha National Park when four suspected illegal hunters were caught red-handed on Wednesday morning. The suspects – including the principal of local primary school - were arrested in the Ompundja Constituency of the Oshana Region after they were allegedly found in possession of the carcasses of four duikers, one steenbok, four springhares, one rabbit and two red-crested korhaans.…

The police are determined to get to the bottom of the rhino poaching problem regardless of the status of the people involved, Commissioner Ndahangwapo Kashihakumwa, who is leading an anti-poaching operation in the Etosha National Park and surrounding areas in Omusati and Kunene, has warned. On Wednesday, a team of investigating officers was sent from pillar to post by three suspected poachers who had pledged to give their full cooperation to the police.

The police have made significant progress in their investigation of the recently discovered mass killings of rhino in the Etosha National Park. The death toll is expected to rise, if information at the sites of buried carcasses prove to be correct. A large number of suspects have been arrested and the list includes employees within the park. The Oshana police regional commander, Commissioner Ndahangwapo Kashihakumwa, is heading a team of investigators permanently deployed in Etosha since June 1.