Poachers kill 65 elephants, 30 rhinos in Zimbabwe: official

(AFP) - 3 hours ago

HARARE - An international crime syndicate is behind an escalation in
poaching in Zimbabwe which has slaughtered 65 elephants and 30 rhinos this
year, a wildlife official said Monday.

"From January to October this year we have lost 65 elephants through
poaching," Vitalis Chadenga, operations director of the Zimbabwe National
Parks and Wildlife Authority told journalists.

"In the same period we have lost 24 black and six white rhinos. It is true
that we have witnessed an escalation of poaching nationwide, particularly on
private farms."

The black rhino is listed as critically endangered by the International
Union for Conservation of Nature and the white rhino is categorised as "near
threatened."

"We do have a group of international gangsters, who are funding poachers
around this part of the world and taking away many horns and it is a major
problem," Chadenga said.

He could not provide numbers from last year, but said poaching was on the
rise.

"We have arrested 2,500 poachers in the same period, ten poachers have been
shot dead since the beginning of this year," Chadenga said.

Zimbabwe has a population of nearly 100,000 elephants, which Chadenga said
has been growing over recent years, and is banned from international ivory
trade.

The southern African nation has 26 tonnes of ivory in its stocks and four
tonnes of rhino horns.

Last year, Zimbabwe auctioned four tonnes of ivory to buyers from Japan and
China getting 487,162 dollars (380,268 euros). During the same period,
Namibia, Botswana and South Africa sold a total of 102 tonnes of tusks.

The four countries are home to 312,000 elephants, and their government
stocks of tusks came from natural deaths or the culling of herds to keep the
population under control.

The black rhino are the real loss. Getting closer to the brink.

quote:

The black rhino are the real loss. Getting closer to the brink.

30 black rhino is comparable to 70,000 ele!!!

It just amazes me that as a group, we don't do something to stop the loss of Black Rhino!

Wouldn't that be the ultimate hunt - hunting the poacher? Ethics aside...ok, w a y aside, someone should do it.

quote:

Originally posted by ledvm:
It just amazes me that as a group, we don't do something to stop the loss of Black Rhino!

The verious game depts in Namibia and SA, Particularly KZN game dept in SA are doing a great deal to try to save them...... largely financed by permitting old males that are past breeding age and often attacking younger males to be hunted at extremely high trophy fees.

Which is exactly the same way that white rhino were saved from extinction.

However, if anyone would like to make a donation towards saving this spiecies or the giant sable, please feel free to contact me and I'll be very happy to put you in touch with the relevent project head.

quote:

Ethics aside...ok, w a y aside, someone should do it.

I see nothing unethical about shooting poachers of Black Rhino!

quote:

The verious game depts in Namibia and SA, Particularly KZN game dept in SA are doing a great deal to try to save them...... largely financed by permitting old males that are past breeding age and often attacking younger males to be hunted at extremely high trophy fees.

Which is exactly the same way that white rhino were saved from extinction.

That works on the replenishment.

I want to work on the loss of the existing.

As previously discussed by Ganyana...those Black Rhino from the Zambezi Valley possess genetic ability to produce immunity to trypanosomiasis. That is a feat necessary for a Rhino to once again roam the Fly Belt. As Ganyana stated we may be down to 4 or 8 of these left. And the worst part is that these may be poached with in the next few months the way things are going!

It just seems like a DAMN shame!!!

quote:

Originally posted by ledvm:
It just amazes me that as a group, we don't do something to stop the loss of Black Rhino!

What do you suggest?

quote:

Originally posted by ledvm:

quote:

Ethics aside...ok, w a y aside, someone should do it.

I see nothing unethical about shooting poachers of Black Rhino!

Taking a life when the penalty for poaching is not a death sentance is the same as murder. There are other ways to stem to the tide of rhino poaching.

We (Westerners) see poaching as a horrific crime and some advocate death to poachers, yet we turn a blind eye to man on man murder in our own countries. We ban the death penalty and allow appeals for horrible crimes to last for decades. We are not a good example for the fledging democracies in West Africa.

The black rhino was not necessarily poached to its present stage. It was market hunted by the likes of our early day African hunting heros. The same with older, big male elephants. We glamourize the poaching/hunting of Selous, Bell, and others, yet they set the standard for mass filling of elephants and rhinos for profit. The black and white rhino's were shot out of places in Africa in favor of white settlers being able to have cattle, sheep, goats, coffee and whatever else could be coaxed out of the ground. The rhino was a nuisance as are "PAC" animals today. There is no easy solution other than setting aside large tracts of land to support the rhino and employ the poachers to take care of the various animals. It works, but is expensive. Are you willing to pay that price?

I don't think you can blame the hunters of yesteryear and I don't think you can really blame the poachers, who after all are doing it because they have an extremey low standard of living by anyone's standards and are trying to feed their families.

The real culprit is the middleman and the end userwho have more money than sense and are prepared to pay whatever it takes to give them what they want........ which incidentally, doesn't work at all.

The Chinese reckon rhino horn is good for the bedroom. Well I can tell you thst I've tried it and it's a complete failure.

Every time I've tried to tie one of those bloody great horns to me, it's so heavy, it just falls off!

quote:

The black rhino was not necessarily poached to its present stage.

I disagree with you. There were Black Rhino living in places like Chewore South as short a time ago as the '80's. Places in the fly belt like the upper Zambezi Valley are not suitable for livestock. The Rhino were being poached so fast that Parks moved the last few to the "Safe-Havens" of the south. Where now they are being poached like flies.

Bell & Neichens are long since gone.

By the way...I am for the death penalty.

quote:

I don't think you can really blame the poachers, who after all are doing it because they have an extremey low standard of living by anyone's standards and are trying to feed their families.

By that logic you would have to give robber's a pass as well!

Maybe you need a deep-sea fishing harness for your Rhino horn!

Rhinos de-horned to stop poaching
http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk

Written by Lesanne Dunlop
Wednesday, 18 November 2009 13:46


Three black rhinos at Imire Safari Park have been dehorned in order to
prevent them from being killed by poachers. Imire has four black and two
white rhino, and all but one baby have now been dehorned. An estimated 200
rhino have been killed by poachers in the last three years.

MARONDERA - In August 2007: Imire lost three of their rhinos. Even
though they had been dehorned, they were brutally killed by poachers. It has
been speculated that the poachers were not aware that the rhinos had been
dehorned. However, they managed to cut off the male rhino's stub of horn, so
some believe that the massacre of these dehorned rhinos was a politically
motivated act, and that the poachers were fully aware that these rhino did
not have horns but went out and killed them anyway.
Another theory is that poachers have now resorted to killing off
rhinos for the sake of being able to cover more ground when it comes to
poaching. That way they can keep track of the rhinos that are still alive in
certain areas and can then condense the margin they have to cover when
poaching. Zimbabwe has become a hot spot for rhino poaching, and with the
demand for rhino horns ever increasing from the Asian market, the
question remains; how can these relentless poachers be stopped? Dehorning is
one solution, as it stops giving poachers a reason to kill these animals.
The Rhino are sedated, a qualified vet is brought in, and the horn is
literally sawn off. They suffer no pain, and are back on their feet in a
matter of minutes.
However the act of dehorning has been quite a controversial topic,
with the main argument being that rhinos use their horns for grazing, and
for protection in the wild. If the animals are dehorned it may affect their
entire social behavior. Reily Travis, who has lived on Imire his entire
life, and runs the volunteer programme on the farm, thinks that there is
another way
that Zimbabwe can save the rhinos and their horns. He explained that
it costs in the region of US$200,000 to capture and re-release rhinos into
safer areas, and to dehorn them. He believes this money should rather be
used on a tracking system. This involves a UV-based chip being implanted in
the rhino's horn - giving 24 hour surveillance.
"The process of dehorning has been going on for 10 years and
unfortunately has not made a big enough impact. The rate of poaching still
doubles each year," explained Travis. Another point that Travis made, was
that if these rhino did have chips in their horns, they could then also
track where and how these horns were being smuggled out of the country. This
would hopefully lead to exposing the culprits that are involved in these
illegal dealings. He added that the money used for capturing and dehorning
the rhino could also be channeled towards National Parks employees, who he
thinks have lost motivation because they are not being given enough
incentive and do not have enough equipment to protect these animals "It is
so important to keep the people on the ground happy because they are, at the
end of the day, putting their lives on the line to ensure the safety of
these rhinos," he said.
South African conservationist, Michael Eustace told the South African
TV show, Carte Blanche, recently that the solution to the poaching problem
was to flood the market. He estimated that the revenue could be up to US$90
million per annum. By flooding the market, the price of the Rhino horn comes
down, which means that the act of poaching these rhinos becomes less
attractive. National Parks have obtained an estimated 40kg of horns which
could be used to flood the market. However Travis disagrees, saying that the
market will only keep
growing and eventually Zimbabwe will not be able to meet the demands
of the consumers, and the poachers will return. He also argues that
legalizing the sale of rhino horns would have to be a national effort in
which all parties concerned would have to undertake the dehorning and legal
sale of the horns. With the high level poaching syndicate that exists in
Zimbabwe, it is unlikely that the selling of these horns would remain above
board.