Distressing news from the land of Ian Player and all those who contributed to one of Africa’s great conservation success stories – the operation to save the last southern race of white rhino in the 1950s and 1960s. South Africa’s rhino are a target once more with more than 100 having fallen to the poacher’s rifle in 2008, an increase of 1000% on 2007.
White rhino in Kruger National Park, South Africa
The Times reports that:
The number of rhinos poached within SA National Parks’ land increased by nearly 300% in 2008 (36 rhinos) compared with 2007 (10 rhinos);
An estimated 50 rhinos were poached on private game reserves in 2008 ; and
Thirteen rhinos were shot dead on Christmas Day last year, including six on a private reserve in North West.
(Ignore the comments below The Times report – they are indicative of the mindset of disaffected locals who unfortunately have the time to pollute blogs)
Rhino have been to the brink and back before. When the Imfolozi reserve was proclaimed in 1895 it was the last refuge of the southern white rhino, estimated to be as few as 20 in number. Colonial hunters had shot them out throughout southern Africa. Thanks to the efforts Ian Player and those of his ilk there are now some 14500 white rhinos and 4000 black rhinos in the wild (consider however that there were 100 000 black rhino in the wild in the 1960s).
Through successful translocation programmes they have been distributed across southern Africa in national parks, game reserves and private reserves. The black subspecies is still Critically Endangered while the white rhino is classified as “Lower Risk – Conservation Dependent”. Our Kruger National Park Google Earth layer contains a wildlife census layer which shows some interesting distributions of rhino.
The Times story advances various reasons for the increase in poaching, but most worrying is the apparent lack of protection in formal protected areas such as national parks. SANP and agencies such as Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife need to urgently step up their anti-poaching patrols and look to the integrity of their parks and reserves. But perversely it may be the successful translocation of the animals to private reserves that increases vulnerability, as these protected areas are widely dispersed islands of conservation and will often not have the resources to mount effective anti-poaching operations.
Ralph Pina is one of ecoAfrica.com’s founders
Ralph is one of ecoAfrica.com's founders. 
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This is such distressing news…of course it seems directly related to the increasing burden held by local people to not profit off the game they live with, also not complain about their loss of crops etc., and also survive during the most difficult of political and economic times! Quite a challenge for people living so close to the brink of extinction themselves (individually, that is). Telling a man his daughter is not worth the cost of a rhino for it’s horn, or a mother that the baby she wears is less important than the food she grows and that an elephant eats…very difficult crisis indeed! I know that so much effort has gone into re-educating local populations, and helping them a) recover some of the losses they incur b) make profits off leasing their land rights for travel/visitors, and c) learn how to live with wildlife more easily, but something else is missing. When I figure it out I’ll let you know lol! I believe Francois had the right approach, incorporating people in profit-generating schemes, but that requires significant capital investment – and who’s got that? It takes, of course, a lot of time, effort, communication, and money to build up well run, long lasting projects that really do bring in enough money for local groups. The universe may have to survive without the rhino – victim of … time. Not enough of it.
Hi Andy
Actually, unlike bushmeat poaching and, in some cases, ivory poaching, rhino poaching isn’t generally attributed to the poverty-stricken people living adjacent to protected areas. Rhino horns and now, lion bones, are so valuable, that the ‘harvesters’ are usually part of a highly sophisticated syndicate with hitmen being sent in and the chain of transfer of the spoils well organised before the killing. The solution? Focus on curtailing the buyers, all the way through the chain. And here you need real commitment from all echelons of Government. A recent 50/50 programme filmed personnel from the Vietnamese Embassy in South Africa accepting a consignment of rhino horn.