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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 …

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.

Cape Town - A third prisoner who escaped from custody in Makhanda last week has been rearrested. Trymore Chauke was nabbed on Sunday after police received information about a possible escapee who was alleged to have been asking people for food in the farming community of Seven Fountains in Makhanda. A police task team immediately followed up on the lead and within 30 minutes Chauke was rearrested, police said. He escaped from the facility through a window with six other inmates last week. He was held in custody for rhino poaching.

SA National Parks (SANParks) says it is investigating a suspected poisoning incident in the Kruger National Park after the discovery of a buffalo carcass which appeared to have been laced with poison last Thursday. More than 100 dead vultures and a dead hyena likely to have fed off the carcass were also found on the scene.

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.

Rhino populations are being hammered by poachers, steeping Africa in blood and pushing the species ever-closer to extinction to satisfy the demand for rhino horn in Vietnam and other countries - a demand largely based on the myth of the non-existent medicinal properties of rhino horn. For the record, rhino horn is entirely composed of keratin, also the chief component in hair, nails and animal hooves; you’ve as much chance of curing cancer by biting your nails as you have by drinking powdered rhino horn.

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.