I know the practice of cutting off the horns to take away the profit margin has somewhat backfired as the poachers are killing them anyway so they don't waste time tracking that animal again.

When the horn is removed couldn't the track be modified (grind an "X" on a pad or two, cut part of a toe, etc.) so the tracks are consistently and obviously different on the dehorned animals?

It seems this would have been thought of already. Why didn't it work?

Do the poachers still kill the animals out of frustration or for the tiny remaining amount of horn stump?

Kyler

Hi Kyler - Just returned from a de-horning exercise in the lowveld of zimbabwe...Our experience here is that de-horning has proved remarkably effective, and by placing a transponder in the stub of the horn it has further reduced the appeal.

When we first started the de-horning process in 1993, the poachers kept killing the rhino for a short while - they were trying to sell the horn stubs in lusaka but met resistence. Once they had worked out that there were very few rhino with horns left, they gave up. Every shot fired by a poacher is a gamble with death. They are often marginally armed and not infrequently somebody in their gang gets squashed by a wounded rhino, and also shots have the nasty effect of bringing armed people to the scene. Not worth it for no reward. A good poacher relys on stealth and there is no point in killing a dehorned rhino out of spite- in a couple of years that horn will re-grow. Poachers that are not that professional end up dead.

The save conservancy has recorded the highest known population growth rate for both black and white rhino over the last decade. They recently lost a couple of rhino to poaching as the economic situation here has driven parks, police and army personell to look for extra income. By dehorning all the rhino, including the "tame" ones that hang arround the lodges and are reasonable tourist attractions we will remove the reward and leave only the risks for the poachers.

All the rhino are easily identifiable by their spoor. The rhino monitoring scouts and rangers can all look at a track and tell you which rhino you are following. Good poachers will also know the tracks

quote:

Originally posted by Ganyana:
The rhino monitoring scouts and rangers can all look at a track and tell you which rhino you are following. Good poachers will also know the tracks

Great news Ganyana. I appreciate the clarification.

Thanks,
Kyler

As for your question on marking the track, this is done during the operation so the less skilled trackers don't waste time following an already de-horned rhino. However they can't cut to deep without injuring the animal and causing infection.These marks cut into the feet fill up with mud and dirt as well as wear thin after the miles walked by the rhino so they only tend to last for a while. The team has resorted to painting a number on each beast so the spotter plane can quickly identify the animal.