Search results

When it comes to protecting our rhinos from poachers, there's not a one-size-fits-all solution. There are several ways that national parks, game reserves and organisations are fighting rhino poaching, from fitting rhinos with tracking devices, having anti-poaching units on the ground actively monitoring them, rhino dehorning, education drives, and more. And these do not happen in isolation either, as often a combination of methods are needed to successfully deter poachers. Naturally, all of these hero organisations doing the hard work protecting our rhinos need funds to operate…

Five people found guilty of rhino poaching and related charges were handed down sentences ranging from 16 years to 18 years behind bars.

Corruption is a key enabler of the illegal wildlife trade and its effects can be seen in every stage of this crime chain. This is according to a new report by the wildlife trade monitoring network, TRAFFIC, which said by reviewing past wildlife crime court cases, the relationship between these crimes and corruption can be better understood. It noted that thoroughly investigating corruption in these cases can potentially identify higher-level individuals for investigation, arrest, conviction and appropriate sentencing, disrupting organised criminal groups to a greater extent.

Aiming an immobilizing dart at a rapidly moving animal while leaning out of an airborne helicopter seems like an absurd undertaking, but this is how wildlife veterinarians are able to sedate a charging rhino. It's hair-raising work, but can save the rhino's life. Once the rhino lies down, the helicopter lands and a team of experts from Mozambique Wildlife Alliance (MWA) race towards the immobilized animal. They gently cover its eyes with a cloth, keeping it calm.

Cape Town - Poaching continues to decimate the rhino population with 451 rhinos poached in South Africa last year, 327 of them from government reserves and 124 from private property.

South African National Parks (SANParks) today, 19 March 2022, welcomed the sentence meted out by the Skukuza Regional Court to a man convicted on 12 counts associated with poaching. The accused, Mike Nyathi, a 39 year old Mozambican man with a South African citizenship, faced 14 charges relating to two separate cases of rhino poaching.

Rural communities in the Okavango Delta in Botswana have accused the country's government of not engaging them in efforts to combat rampant poaching in the area. Since 2018, more than 100 rhinos have been gunned down by poachers in the Delta and communities in the region say the situation might have been better had the government engaged them in anti-poaching work.

Pretoria - Sixty dogs have been dispatched across the Kruger National Park to help curb poaching. The almost 2 million-hectare park has a major problem with poachers targeting rhinos, lions and elephants.

Our analysis of wildlife crimes data, supported by numerous interviews, finds evidence of systematic failure by Nigerian law enforcement and the judicial system to hold wildlife poachers and traffickers accountable.

Pretoria - The Tembisa Regional Court has convicted and sentenced 49-year-old Ping Wu to five years direct imprisonment for money laundering. Spokesperson for the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (Hawks), Captain Dineo Lucy Sekgotodi, said in April 2019, the Hawks serious organised crime investigation team based in Middelburg registered an undercover investigation into allegations of illegal trade in rhino horn. "The scope of the project was to address a syndicate in Gauteng who were illegally dealing in rhino horns," said Sekgotodi.

South Africa is deliberating over a radical review of their Meat Safety Act that wildlife activists fear could "pave the way" for elephants, rhinos, giraffes and every animal listed for human consumption.

Die oorblywende vier verdagtes sal vandag hul verskyning in howe op Gobabis en in Windhoek maak. Vier van die agt verdagtes wat vandeesweek in verband met renosterstropery en -horingsmokkelary vasgetrek is, het gister in camera in die streekshof op Otjiwarongo verskyn.

Four of the eight suspects arrested this week in connection with rhino poaching and hornet smuggling appeared in camera in the Otjiwarongo regional court on Thursday.

Four of the eight suspects arrested in connection with the alleged poaching of two rhino horns near Gobabis appeared in the Otjiwarongo Regional Court in camera yesterday.

Im Zuge der Ermittlungen in einem Fall der Nashornwilderei wurden in dieser Woche acht Verdächtigte festgenommen. Den Beschuldigten werden unerlaubte Jagd geschützter Wildtiere, illegaler Handel mit Nasenhörnern und Verstöße gegen das Waffengesetz vorgeworfen. Vier der Tatverdächtigen wurden gestern in Otjiwarongo dem Haftrichter vorgeführt und bleiben nach Aussage des Umweltministeriums vorerst in Untersuchungshaft. Heute sollen jeweils zwei weitere Verdächtige in Gobabis und Windhoek im Magistratsgericht erscheinen.

Agt vermeende renosterstropers en -horingsmokkelaars is oor twee dae vasgetrek. Volgens die hoof van die Blue Rhino-taakspan, komm. Barry de Klerk, is twee renosterkarkasse Dinsdag op 'n plaas in die Gobabis-distrik ontdek.

Jackson Babi, a well-known Prophet along with a police officer attached to the Very Important Persons Protection Directorate was amongst seven suspects arrested on Monday for poaching and trading in wildlife contraband. Lightning quick investigative work by members of the Protected Resources Division of the Namibian Police saw the arrest of the seven suspects on the same day that a farm worker discovered the carcasses of two illegally hunted rhinos on a farm in the Gobabis district.

Das US-Verteidigungsministerium hat vergangene Woche zwei Geländefahrzeuge an das namibische Umweltministerium (MEFT) gespendet. Einer der beiden Toyota Land Cruiser soll von dem Polizeischulungszentrum am Waterberg verwendet werden. Der andere Land Cruiser ist für Einsätze der Antiwilderei-Hundeeinheit im Kampf gegen organisierte Umweltverbrechen vorgesehen.

How technology, innovation and partnership are changing the fate of Africa's threatened megafauna.

Most people understand that the poaching of rhinos is cruel and could, quite possibly, drive rhinos to extinction. But why the inordinate fuss about rhinos? Are they special enough from an ecological point of view, that ecosystems need them to be around? Of course, no species should go extinct due to man, and rhinos are iconic symbols and tourism draw-cards.

Zimbabwe has realised a spike in wildlife poaching as the wildlife management authority has redirected efforts towards combating the spread of Covid-19 during the current lockdown period, a top lobby has said.

Between 11 and 17 May, only one new case of wildlife crime was registered with four suspects arrested and charged, according to the latest wildlife crime statistics compiled by the Intelligence and Investigation Unit within the Ministry of Environment, Forestry and Tourism and Protected Resources. Two of the suspects were arrested on rhino poaching/trafficking, including conspiracy of rhino poaching. One springbok horn was seized.

Internasionale Biodiversiteitdag word jaarliks op 22 Mei volgens die Verenigde Nasies se Konvensie oor Biologiese Diversiteit (UNCBD) herdenk.

International Biodiversity Day is commemorated annually on May 22, according to the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (UNCBD).

An extension of two weeks has been granted to the public to make submissions on the work of the high-level panel established to review policies, legislation and related practices on the management, breeding, hunting, trade and handling of elephant, lion, leopard and rhinoceros.

While the rest of the country has been locked down for a considerable time, the rangers and game guards who protect Namibia’s wildlife could not drop their vigilance for a day.

A retired police officer, a former scout and a Zambian national have been jailed for nine years for killing a black rhinoceros in Bubye Valley Conservancy near Beitbridge last year.

South African traders with China are illegally selling thousands of wild animals threatened with extinction and endangered, under the guise of legal exports, according to an investigation. Monkeys have been stolen from the wild, and together with cheetahs, tigers, rhinos, lions and meerkats, they have been trafficked to circuses, theme parks, laboratories, zoos and "safari parks", researchers found.

Four men are expected to appear in court on Tuesday after they were caught in possession of protected flora and a rhino horn. The arrests were carried out by the Malmesbury Stock Theft Unit, Vredendal Crime Intelligence and members of the Cape Nature Reserve.

The arrests were carried out by the Malmesbury Stock Theft Unit, Vredendal Crime Intelligence and members of the Cape Nature Reserve.

One of President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s sons, Kudakwashe, has been implicated in the poaching of wildlife in Nyangambe, in the Save Valley Conservancy, Chiredzi, located in the south-eastern part of the country.
Legal representative of the Nyangambe Community Wildlife Project, Farai Chauke made the allegations in his defence to the fraud charges he is facing for allegedly forging title deeds to the project, which is run by Nyangambe villagers. Chauke, who is a practising lawyer in the capital Harare, also hails from the Nyangambe area.

Much has been written about the decimation of rhino populations in Africa due to poaching. Due to COVID-19, the problem has worsened as gangs in Mozambique take advantage of the lack of tourists and guards in South Africa’s Kruger National Park, killing nine rhino already. Since lockdown, six rhino in Botswana have been slaughtered for their horn. Why do the poachers do it?

Four hundred rhinos will have their horns cut off for their protection.

In Botswana, at least six rhinos have been poached since it closed its borders to limit the spread of coronavirus.

In Botswana, which depends heavily on tourism, poachers have taken advantage of suddenly empty wildlife reserves to kill at least six endangered rhinos during the coronavirus pandemic.

The dogs, who vary from a beagle to bloodhound, began training from birth before working at 18 months-old at the Southern African Wildlife College in Greater Kruger National Park.

An elephant was shot and killed at a farm in the Ndiyona Constituency in the Kavango East Region last Wednesday, the police said. The Namibian Police crime investigations coordinator in the region, Deputy Commissioner Bonifatius Kanyetu, told Nampa on Tuesday they found the carcass of an elephant at the farm in the Ndiyona Constituency.

Wild animals are back. Kangaroos bounding through the streets of Melbourne, elephant herds passing through Indian villages, jackals in Johannesburg, leopards in Mumbai, wild boar in Bergamo and Verreaux eagles catching thermals above a silent Cape Town. And of course, inevitable cartoons of humans in surgical masks staring forlornly at animals playing on the sidewalk. Is lockdown good news for creatures - or for poachers?

Already facing extinction at the hands of rampant poachers, the endangered rhino’s future is in more jeopardy in the wake of the escalating outbreak of the coronavirus (COVID-19). Namibia’s free-roaming black rhinos, extraordinary than any other herd globally, is bearing the biggest brunt, directly and indirectly, from the pandemic. Efforts to conserve this special species in Namibia largely depend on a vibrant tourism industry. With the sector among the hardest hit by the eruption of the COVID-19, the impact on initiatives to save the animal has been adverse.…

COVID-19 has brought the world to its knees and is believed to have been caused by the consumption of an endangered animal. Now, South African Government is proposing an amendment to the Meat Safety Act which expands the list of animals that may be legally consumed by humans.
The proposed amended list classifies animals for slaughter, consumption, import, export and sale. This list now includes many threatened species in South Africa including rhino, elephant and giraffe. It also includes undefined birds, reptiles and fish.

Poaching incidents could increase during the lockdown period as criminal networks try to take advantage of the closing of parks, perceiving a reduced presence of law enforcement now dealing with the Covid-19 emergency. “We are in receipt of intelligence that known poaching organisers operating across southern Africa intend taking advantage of the current situation,” said Sarah Stoner, director of intelligence at the Wildlife Justice Commission (WJC).

Wilderness Safaris Namibia sal met hul lugpatrollies met 'n vliegtuig en twee helikopters voortgaan om swartrenosters in die Noordweste te beskerm. Wilderness Safaris se vennootskap met die Save the Rhino Trust Namibia (SRT) en die ministerie van die omgewing, bosbou en toerisme se suksesvolle teenstropery-operasie wat deel vorm van 'n veldtog wat verlede jaar van stapel gestuur is, is 'n reusesukses. 

Despite a country-wide lockdown amid the Covid-19 pandemic, South Africa’s anti-poaching rangers remain on patrol, protecting one of the country’s most valuable resources at a time when conservationists fear a lack of tourists may be putting rare animals at greater risk from illegal hunting.

South Africa’s drive to use wild animals as commercial trade goods has been ratcheted up a notch with the appointment of a high-level panel to review the policies, legislation and practices of breeding, hunting and trading of elephants, lions, leopards and rhinos. The panel’s terms of reference and the people appointed by Environment, Forestry and Fisheries Minister Barbara Creecy make it extremely unlikely to support wildlife welfare and conservation. The appointment of the panel follows the almost surreptitious listing late last year of 32 wild animals under the…