![]() Mostert, who has been a ranger for 20 years, said the animals fetch up to 1m rand (£85,000) at game auctions and cannot be insured.Ĭites has praised South Africa for its action against poachers. In the five years up to 2005, an average of only 36 rhinos had been killed each year.Ĭonservationists estimate that there are only 18,000 black and white rhinos in Africa, down from 65,000 in the 1970s. Cites said demand for them had begun to soar in recent years. The horns are also used in the Middle East to make handles for ornamental daggers. The Cites conference in Geneva in July 2009 heard that Asia's economic expansion had fuelled the market in rhino horns. ![]() The committee of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (Cites) warned last year that rhino poaching had reached an all-time high. The animal dies either from an overdose of tranquilliser or bleeds to death." We do not hear anything because our houses are too far away. They do not even need to switch off the rotors of the helicopter. The tranquilliser takes less than seven minutes to act. Then they return at night and dart the animal from the air. "They first fly over the park in the late afternoon to locate where the rhino is grazing. "The exercise takes them very little time," Mostert said. ![]() It is also close to a private airport, which may have been used by the poachers. Krugersdorp game reserve attracts at least 200,000 visitors every year. Five men were arrested there in the past week alone – four of whom were caught with two bloodied rhino horns, AK-47 assault rifles, bolt-action rifles and an axe. Mkutshulwa said poaching was also rife in the Kruger Park. Rhino horn consists of compressed keratin fibre – similar to hair – and in many Asian cultures it is a fundamental ingredient in traditional medicines. Police need to help game reserves because they are not at all equipped to handle crime on such an organised level,'' she said. "We are dealing with very focused criminals. Wanda Mkutshulwa, a spokeswoman for South African National Parks, said investigations into the growing number of incidents had been shifted to the country's organised crime unit. Her distraught calf was moved to a nearby estate where it was introduced to two other orphaned white rhinos. The gang used tranquilliser guns and a helicopter to bring down the nine-year-old rhino cow.
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