Tag archives for rhinos
Worsening Rhino war Strains Countries’ Relations
Posted by Leon Marshall of Environmental Journalist, News Watch South African Contributor on April 30, 2013 
The growing incursion of rhino poachers from Mozambique into South Africa’s flagship Kruger National Park is beginning to strain relations between the two countries. South African security operatives trying to stem the relentless killing of the enigmatic animals speak of it as a “border war”. They are getting increasingly fed-up with Mozambique’s security agencies for not doing more to clamp down on the poachers and the rhino-horn smugglers on their side of the boundary.
Record 618 South African Rhinos Poached for Horns in 2012, so far
Posted by Leon Marshall of Environmental Journalist, News Watch South African Contributor on December 11, 2012 The number of rhinos killed for their horns in South Africa so far this year has shot up to 618. This is well past last year’s shock record of 448 and substantially more than the tally of 550 predicted at the beginning of 2012. And still there is no sign of the onslaught letting up.…
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Four white rhinos were poached for their horns in a privately owned nature reserve in South Africa this week, taking the total number of rhinos killed illegally in the country this year to around 400. The total number of rhinos poached in South Africa in all of 2011 was 448, compared with 333 in 2010.
Posted by Just how bad is a rhino’s eyesight? Here was the plan, if you can call a crazy off the top of your head idea that no one in their right mind would consider doing a plan, we were going to get out of our vehicle and see how close we could get to a…
Record 443 Rhinos Killed by Poachers in South Africa in 2011
Posted by Leon Marshall of Environmental Journalist, News Watch South African Contributor on December 14, 2011 It has been a bad year for rhinos in South Africa. Many more got killed than in 2010, the 333 toll of which was described with words like “shocking” and “outrageous”. Most thought it couldn’t get worse.
It’s got much worse. The tally for 2011 is at least 433. It could end up being higher, for even as the year drew to a close, reports kept coming in of more dead rhinos found with gruesome wounds or just stumps left where their horns had been.
South African Court Jails Rhino Horn Smugglers
Posted by Leon Marshall of Environmental Journalist, News Watch South African Contributor on August 8, 2011 A South African court effectively threw away the key when it jailed two smugglers convicted of trying to smuggle rhino horns out of the country. But the slaughter of the country’s pachyderms for the spurious healing power of their horns continues unchecked. A new scheme allegedly involves sex workers posing as trophy hunters seeking to harvest rhino horns through a legal loophole.
South Africa’s Rhino Slaughter Rages on
Posted by Leon Marshall of Environmental Journalist, News Watch South African Contributor on July 23, 2011 
The shadow of rhino poaching keeps darkening the magnificent landscape that places South Africa among the most biodiverse countries in the world. Already the figure for the year so far stands at about 200 rhinos killed. This has conservationists fearing that the toll for the year could end up exceeding the shocking 333 killed last year.
A serious poaching upsurge in South Africa, Zimbabwe and Kenya, prompted Africa’s top rhino experts to meet to assess the status of the horned pachyderms across the continent and to identify strategies to combat the crisis.
From Leon Marshall in Johannesburg The assault on South Africa’s rhino population has continued unabated into 2011. After last year’s massacre of 333 of the country’s rhino herd, the death toll since the beginning of 2011 already stands at a disheartening 71 of the seriously endangered species. This is higher than at the same time…
From Leon Marshall in Johannesburg Rhino poaching keeps taking on such alarming proportions in South Africa that the country’s defence force has now been called in to help fight the ruthless killers who are mostly using assault weapons and often other sophisticated equipment to carry out their crime. The request has come from South African…
From Leon Marshall in Johannesburg Faced with mounting outrage at the rhino-killing spree that has hit South Africa this year, the country’s government has finally come up with plans aimed at tackling the scourge on a wider front and in a more coordinated way. The two-pronged scheme includes the establishment of a National Wildlife Crime…
An international partnership is “racing against the clock” to ensure the survival of the last 48 Javan rhinos on Earth by carving out a safe haven in the dense jungles of Indonesia’s Ujung Kulon National Park, the International Rhino Foundation (IRF) said today. “The species’ entire viable population, living on the island of Java, is…
Conservationists are celebrating the arrival of the first rhino calf to be born in Bardia National Park, Nepal, since poaching was halted almost two years ago, the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) said today. The greater one-horned rhino calf was spotted with its mother by conservationists on a recent elephant-back patrol, ZSL said in a…
A white rhino was found dead with both horns removed in a wildlife sanctuary on the South African side of the Mozambique border today, according to South African media reports. “The rhino had been caught in a cable snare that seemed to have been deliberately set for big game, such as hippo, buffalo or rhino,…
The international conservation charity, WWF, is asking people everywhere to make September an action month to stand with the world’s embattled rhinos and the “rhino warriors,” the men and women who struggle to protect the pachyderms from poachers. September solidarity with rhinos is to culminate with “Make Noise for Rhinos Day,” during which people are asked…
An association of 1,500 private landowners with an interest in wildlife in South Africa today called for controlled legal trade in rhino horns as a way to help address the country’s rhino poaching crisis. The notion of legalizing trade in rhino horn is likely to be as controversial as calls to legalize and control the…
South Africa’s authorities and its conservation community are co-ordinating a comprehensive counter-offensive against the rhino poaching crisis scourging the country. Law enforcement agencies, South African National Parks, conservation and wildlife organizations, and the media gathered this week to develop a strategy to stop the surge in rhino slaughter, believed to be fueled by demand for rhino…
The war on South Africa’s rhinos continued yesterday when an armed gang held up farm workers before proceeding to shoot two rhinos for their horns. The brazen daylight attack was unusual, in that most reports of the 300 rhinos believed to have been poached in South Africa since the beginning of last year suggest the attacks were more like…
By David Braun Circulating on Facebook today is a news report that purports to come from the “Bangkok Star,” a newspaper that doesn’t seem to have a website. “A woman mourns over the body of her deceased husband after he had purchased apparently purposely contaminated Rhino horn on the open market in Bangkok,” says the…
The slaughter of South Africa’s rhinos continues unchecked. At least two more white rhinos fell under poachers’ guns this week and their horns were removed. As many as 300 rhinos may have been felled in South Africa over the past 20 months. The following account about the latest atrocities is compiled from reports from the…
By Leon Marshall Johannesburg, South Africa–Rampant rhino poaching is casting a dark shadow over the pride of southern Africa’s ambitious transfrontier-park program. Rhino killers are ruthlessly exploiting the open international boundary running through what is known as the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park to carry out their dirty work. Poachers typically down a rhino in South…
The alarming escalation of rhino poaching in South Africa has placed authorities on high alert, says the chief executive of South African National Parks (SANPArks), David Mabunda. “Perhaps it is no longer appropriate to refer to this spate of illegal killing of rhinos as poaching given the levels of sophistication, violence, precision and the money…
By Rhishja Larson A young rhino was killed Friday night at a resort near Pietermaritzburg, South Africa, by poachers who shot him with an AK-47 assault rifle, the South African media reported. According to News 24, the eight-year-old rhino was found on Saturday morning, with both horns missing and an AK-47 cartridge nearby. The game manager at…
By Rhishja Larson A female rhino in South Africa’s Krugersdorp Game Reserve is the latest atrocity in the illegal rhino horn trade–killed by poachers who crudely slashed off her horns. And there is another victim of this shameful crime: Her helpless nine-month-old calf is without a mother. According to Independent Online, employees of the reserve found the…
Supermodel Elle Macpherson put her foot in the rhino dung about a comment she made to a newspaper journalist earlier this year. “Works for me,” is what she was reported by The Times about eating rhino horn. Here’s the relevant excerpt: Witter: You’re said to be a great fan of Chinese medicine. What does powdered rhino horn…
