Search results

The number of endangered rhinos poached in Namibia reached a record high in 2022 after 87 animals were killed compared to 45 in 2021, official government data showed on Monday. Africa's rhino population has been decimated over the decades to feed demand for rhino horn, which, despite being made of the same stuff as rhino hair and fingernails, is prized in East Asia as jewellery and fake medicine. The horns are worth tens of thousands of dollars in illegal Asian markets. The ministry of Environment, Forestry and Tourism spokesperson Romeo Muyunda said poachers…

Strides made with hefty sentences and fines for criminals endangering game rangers and animals. When Jimmy Mashopane of Winterveld, north of Pretoria, was arrested for shooting, killing and mutilating nine white rhino in a Free State game reserve, taking 14 horns estimated at more than R500,000, veteran prosecutor Antoinette Ferreira threw the book at him. That one of the rhino was a month away from giving birth "only enhances one's sense of abomination", judge Phillip Loubser said.

Rhino and elephant poaching continues to decline in Africa, most likely due to ongoing COVID-19 restrictions and enhanced protection efforts. This is particularly the case in Namibia, as well as Zimbabwe and Tanzania, bringing hope to a species plagued by intensive poaching over the past few decades.

Two armed poachers were shot dead at Chirisa Game Park in Gokwe over the weekend in a gun combat with Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority (ZimParks) rangers. ZimParks is now using drones to patrol its vast estate, and so far this year, 800 poachers have been detected and more than 600 arrested by follow-up patrols.

Three carcasses of lions were recently recovered in the wildlife-rich Gonarezhou National Park, south-east of the Lowveld amid fears that poachers from Mozambique were using cyanide to poison animals.

The Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority (ZimParks) has started using drones to detect poachers as part of improved and technology-based conservation strategies.

Two black rhinoceroses, whose carcasses were recently found by game scouts in Bubye Valley Conservancy, have been killed by poachers, police have confirmed.

Forestry Commission officials in Victoria Falls last week recovered oranges, cucumbers and amarula fruits in a plastic bag laced with cyanide poison. It is suspected that some poachers left them hanging on a tree in a bid to kill elephants in the forest. National police spokesperson Assistant Commissioner Paul Nyathi confirmed the incident.