Convicted rhino poachers share their story
Environment Writer
September 08 2008 at 10:40AM

Two convicted rhino poachers, brothers from Bronkhorstspruit, have outlined tell-tale behaviour of rhino poachers that they say the public should look out for when visiting national parks.

In an interview with journalist Ian Michler, conducted in the Kroonstad prison and published in the latest edition of Africa Geographic, the brothers said: "We never liked doing what we did and telling our story will help the public to be aware of how to catch other poachers."

The brothers were jailed in July 2007 after they entered into a plea agreement with the state and admitted having sold rhino horn to a syndicate at R127nbsp;000kg.


Michler wrote: "The brothers who are sitting in jail were the bottom feeders... they were taking instructions, and the cash, from middlemen higher up.

"Among those arrested and charged in relation to this case are a number of well-known members of the South African hunting community... a prominent captive-predator breeder from the Free State and a private investigator."

The brothers, known as "Rhino One" and "Rhino Two" in jail, claim to have shot 19 white rhino: 18 died and one was wounded. Sixteen were adults and three calves, "killed because they were milling about their dead mothers".

Michler writes that eight were shot in southern Kruger National Park, two in Hluhluwe-Imfolozi and the rest on private farms owned by people known to syndicate members.

Every animal was shot within 100 metres of a road, some as close as 15m and all during broad daylight, he says. Killing them was the easy part; hacking off the horn and getting it out was more difficult.

"In the beginning, Rhino Two used a large panga to remove the horn, but switched to a smaller and sharper butcher's knife. With the panga, it took 20 minutes of grunt work to dislodge the horns, but by the end he was completing the process in less than a minute, using the same technique employed to cut abalone from its shell," Michler wrote.

Behaviour they warned park visitors to look out for included: lone drivers doing U-turns along park roads; lone drivers hanging out at rest stops; vehicles parked at the side of the road for long periods; and occupants sitting in vehicles reading.

The brothers told Michler the park authorities did not search them. In all cases, they carried rifles or bows in the back of the vehicles and wet rhino horn under their seats. They never carried any luggage.

"Rhino Two believes he was recruited by members of the hunting community to do the shooting because of his marksmanship and his tracking skills. Using a variety of weapons, mostly illegal loans from gun shops and fellow hunters, he pulled the trigger on every rhino killed.

"His choice of weapon for the first few operations was a compound bow, but he found its benefit of silence was outweighed by the need to get extremely close, and he switched to a light rifle fitted with a silencer."


This article was originally published on page 6 of Cape Times on September 08, 2008