Poachers were successfully intercepted by two Ezemvelo field rangers at Ndumo on Wednesday at 7.30pm. The field rangers were on routine patrol when they came across fresh sets of spoors. Simultaneously they heard the sound of gunshots and followed the sounds and intercepted the poachers. The poachers managed to flee... the scene but thanks to the quick-witted thinking of the field rangers, a .375 heavy calibre rifle was found on the scene along with three rounds of ammunition. The white rhino poached was found with its horn still intact as the poachers did not have enough time to cut off the horns after being intercepted by our dedicated field rangers. A case has been opened and the SAPS and National Prosecuting Authority are investigating the matter. No arrests have been made yet.
In another incident, two white rhino carcasses were spotted from the Bantam by Ezemvelo’s Section ranger, Corporal Nsibande at Noma West iMfolozi on Thursday. The two carcasses were found 300 metres apart from each other. Rhino Security Intervention Co-ordinator, Jabulani Ngubane, said, “One carcass was in the valley with both horns intact and the other had its horns missing. The SAPS, Hawks and Crime Intelligence Unit are investigating the matter.”
So far this year five rhinos have been poached and a post mortem will be done on the 6th rhino to establish the cause of death. Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife is in a process of forming a specialised reaction team of field rangers solely for the purpose of reacting to incidents and following up on leads and other information.
Rhino poaching statistics will soon be made available on Ezemvelo’s website which is currently being upgraded. Ngubane has reiterated that Ezemvelo is continuously instituting numerous strategic measures to curb rhino poaching. “Ezemvelo’s stance and commitment to preserving our rhinos is always our priority and we will therefore continue to intensify our investigations with regards to rhino poaching as we aim to root out the criminal elements involved with this heinous crime. We are also aware that we are facing formidable resistant dark forces.
As a result Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife has implemented a very vigorous and credible intervention plan that has resulted in 13% reduction in rhino poaching in the Province in 2011. From January this year there has been a 85,3% reduction to date but it is still too early to judge. “The intervention among others involve security risk assessment that was done in all rhino reserves, implementation of Standard Operating Procedure, deployment of new field rangers, purchasing of sophisticated equipment and the establishment of informer networks and intelligence, coordinating and uniting the private sector which gave birth to KZN Project Rhino, the use of a helicopter and a bantam.”
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