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Kruger National Park, South Africa: When Singapore airport officials investigated a suspicious shipment of furniture fittings last month, a pungent smell led them to something far more sinister. Inside the cargo from South Africa were 20 rhino horns weighing 35.7kg and worth around S$1.13 million (US$870,000), along with 150kg of other animal parts including bones, teeth and claws.

INTERPOL recently executed the largest-ever edition of its annual series of coordinated of raids to dismantle criminal shipments and networks of trafficked and poached wildlife. Called Operation Thunder, some 30,000 live animals were seized in 4,620 raids across 134 countries, 30% more than last year. INTERPOL identified 1,100 suspects and issued 69 notices of criminal activity to participating nations’ police forces. Operation Thunder took place between September 15th and October 15th.

Wildlife poachers can now be located and arrested across the central African forests thanks to state-of-the-art AI listening technology. A network of microphones has been deployed across the rainforests to detect gunshots from illegal poaching of elephants and other animals, and American scientists are using AI to ensure the network can distinguish gunshots over the din of the jungle environment. The web of acoustic sensors was deployed in Gabon, Congo, and Cameroon, creating the possibility of real-time alerts to the sounds of gun-based poaching.

A legal international trade in rhino horn is not about to immediately lift off, but a recent judgment raises issues that point to the direction that contestation in this terrain may take. The Northern Cape Division of the High Court in Kimberley, on Friday, 31 October, ruled that rhino horn harvested from registered captive breeding operations can be exported for sale, as such facilities are devoted to conservation and not commerce.

The Northern Cape Division of the High Court in Kimberley, on Friday, 31 October, ruled that rhino horn harvested from registered captive breeding operations can be exported for sale, as such facilities are devoted to conservation and not commerce.

A couple of things come to mind from this state of affairs. The first is that some provincial governments did not do their jobs. The second is that there are concerns about past overestimates. After two consecutive years of growing numbers, the population of white rhinos in Africa declined significantly in 2024 in the face of poaching and other factors such as drought and past overcounts, according to a report by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

Kasungu is in Malawi but borders Zambia, and more than 260 elephants were translocated to the park more than two years ago in an operation spearheaded by Ifaw and African Parks, despite the glaring fact that there is no fence on the international frontier and much of the Malawian side. "It is with great concern that Ifaw has learned that five elephants have been found dead in Kasungu National Park between May and September 2024," Ifaw's statement read. It was also posted on Ifaw's site but not prominently.

"White rhino populations in South Africa are on the rise despite poaching," the report says. Curiously, the report does not mention private ownership of the species, which has been one of the driving forces behind this trend. The report notes that by 2012, there were more than 21,000 white rhinos on the planet, capping a remarkable comeback from the brink of extinction. A century earlier, there were fewer than 100.

South African National Parks has confirmed that lions have been targeted in a poisoning campaign in the northern Kruger Park by poachers seeking the animals’ body parts, presumably for the muti trade. The numbers are not huge, but in the wake of the rhino poaching onslaught, the targeting of another charismatic species in the iconic park will set off alarm bells among conservationists.

The Wildlife Justice Commission has published details of a rhino horn trafficking case that includes the use of frozen seafood and 'mishandled baggage', as well as the failure of authorities not to publicly report their seizure of the horn. 

Private and communal lands now conserve at least 50% of Africa's rhinos, according to a newly published paper in journal 'Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment', highlighting the need for 'adaptive policies' to build on this success. These trends have policy implications as debates rage about rhino-horn trade and trophy hunting.

Rhino poaching declined sharply in South Africa last year, according to the latest official data, and the data also shows that rhinos on state land were far more vulnerable than those in private hands. In South Africa, if you are a rhino on a state reserve, your chances of getting whacked by a poacher are about nine times greater than if you roam a private one.