When is rhino wars on

Botswana wildlife authorities have refuted reports the country's rhinoceros population is on the verge of extinction due to poaching.

The southern African country has battled a rise in poaching, with more than 60 animals killed in the last two years. Department of Wildlife and National Parks Director Kabelo Senyatso said both rhinoceros and elephant poaching remain under control.

In a statement addressing poaching concerns, Senyatso said the government is committed to protecting the key species. He added that, while isolated reports of poaching both the rhino and elephant continue to be reported, the government's anti-poaching efforts are making progress. But conservationist Neil Fitt said poaching incidents could have dropped due to the decrease in the number of rhinoceroses in the Okavango Delta.

In a bid to stem the poaching tide, government security forces have killed more than 20 poachers in the last two years as part of a zero-tolerance campaign that Botswana has enforced since Somewhere along the way, they will become valuable enough to kill for, and die for.

T he would-be rhino poachers apprehended at Somkhanda in March were not from the area—one was from Mozambique, and the other was South African but not local, according to Prinsloo. But locals do hunt illegally on the reserve. On my patrol with Myeni and his anti-poaching unit, one of the rangers notices a snare, probably intended to catch bushmeat.

One afternoon, the unit calls in a gruesome discovery: a field of critically endangered white-backed vulture corpses, poisoned by feeding on a baited impala carcass.

Fifteen vultures are already dead when we arrive, and although the vets frantically try to save the four survivors, two more die within hours. The goal was probably to harvest their heads for use in local traditional medicine , says the senior ranger Nkosinathi Mbhele. One afternoon, Mbhele takes me to visit some of the families in the surrounding villages. We spend hours in the truck driving from place to place, and Mbhele fills the time by patiently explaining the intricacies of Zulu land ownership, leadership, and family responsibility.

He delves into each subject with depth and clarity, illustrating his points by acting out little sketches in which he plays all the roles. Our first visit is to Voyi Gumbi. Born in , Gumbi has lived here all his life, and witnessed the return of the land to the community and the creation of the reserve.

His homestead—a cluster of traditional huts—is bustling with chickens, goats, and grandchildren. The rhinos, he says, were there long before he was born, and preserving them is an important part of preserving his cultural heritage. His son Vincent, employed by the reserve as a field ranger, is living his dream.

He has never been inside; he would love to take a game-watching tour. Additionally, the reserve has hurt the local cattle. Cows are so beloved and so central a part of Zulu culture that the word Nguni refers to the primary cattle breed raised by Zulus, the group of languages to which isiZulu belongs, and the group of peoples that includes Zulus.

Research from Somkhanda reports that some people know their dozens of individual cattle by name. Phowa Dlamini, our second stop, is less ambivalent than Gumbi. She sits comfortably on the ground at her homestead, surrounded by babies of all kinds—her grandchildren, kittens, a cluster of baby goats.

When Mbhele and I arrive back at the reserve gate, I gasp in recognition. Mbhele chuckles at my reaction and calls over one of the other rangers milling about near the gate—Vincent Gumbi, who is the spitting image of his father, Voyi. Pumlani, Vincent, and their families are among the fortunate few. Though the reserve offers jobs, training, and infrastructure, there are thousands of people surrounding the reserve and only a handful find jobs there.

And there is discontent with how the community trust that owns the land distributes the benefits among people. More than a decade into the rhino-poaching crisis, South Africa is still figuring out how to achieve justice for rhinos and people at the same time.

The sunny field is pumping with loud music and excited spectators. Two teenagers photobomb my selfies; a section ranger, glowing from his soccer game, tells me how happy he is with his job. By the time the tournament winds down and I catch a ride with Mbhele back to camp, darkness and chill have settled in. We huddle in the cab of the safari truck and bounce over the rough gravel road. Nothing is visible in the gloom beyond the headlights.

Just as the singer screams in imitation of a train horn— WHAA WHAA —and the drums build to a crescendo, a gigantic animal crashes across the path ahead of us and pauses for a moment. My brain takes a second to resolve the shape of its hindquarters in the headlights. No, rhino. The first wild, conscious rhino I have ever seen. The living battleground on which countless lives are being lost and destroyed.

In an instant, the rhino is gone. Skip to content Site Navigation The Atlantic. Popular Latest. The Atlantic Crossword. Thankfully, poaching numbers have decreased across the continent since the peak of 1, in Yet, a rhino is still killed every day: there is a lot more to do. At recorded poaching incidents in South Africa in , poaching numbers have declined significantly in recent years, but are still too high. Thankfully, the numbers show a substantial decrease compared to the previous year rhino poaching dropped by one third.

However, this positive — and very welcome — decrease does not mean rhinos are now thriving. On average in the country, a rhino is killed for its horn every 22 hours. And, the latest numbers show that rhino populations, particularly in key strongholds such as Kruger National Park, in South Africa, have fallen dramatically. The long-term impact of the poaching crisis, and the extended periods of drought, are taking their toll.

Without urgent action, their numbers could dwindle. One of the challenges that the ongoing poaching crisis brings is that it diverts attention from other actions that are important for rhinos to thrive in the future. South Africa has by far the largest population of rhinos in the world and is an incredibly important country for rhino conservation. Kruger consistently suffered heavy poaching loses, and so in the last few years, the government and international donors have channelled ever more funding and resources into securing the Park.

And neither will I. In Deon's brother Andre, who worked for a prominent safari operator named Gert Saaiman, asked if he was interested in taking down a rhino. Deon had never hunted rhinos before and began researching the animal.

Male white rhinos stamp around in their own manure to spread their scent and mark their territory, he explained. Limiting the sound of the kills was crucial, so he experimented with compound bows and crossbows. Even a perfect shot to the lungs with weighted arrows wouldn't always bring down a rhino.

So he built a silencer out of a metal pipe with washers soldered inside and fitted it on the barrel of a. The brothers traveled the breadth of South Africa, taking rhinos from national parks and private reserves.

Due to successful breeding programs, rhinos were plentiful, and security was lax or easy to evade. After a kill, they would pass the horns to others to sell. In the end Deon's discontent with his cut led to his arrest. He killed a rhino on his own and was caught selling it. Now Deon is the one being hunted. Police have pressured him to testify against Saaiman and others. He is clearly fearful of the prospect.

Just a few days after Deon's arrest, Saaiman's wife was shot in the throat in her driveway and died in front of her children. Six months ago, Deon's ex-wife was raped in their home. She and their four children have since gone into witness protection.

He hasn't decided if he will cooperate with police when he is released in four months. Visiting time ends, and a guard calls to him when he lingers, "Rhino, it's time. Javan rhinos once proliferated in the Vietnamese forests and floodplains, but in poachers killed the nation's last wild rhino.

Yet Vietnam has no shortage of rhino horn. The illegal horn trade once revolved around markets in China, Taiwan, South Korea, Japan, and Yemen, but now it centers on Vietnam, with more than a ton of horn likely to have entered the country last year alone. In South Africa several Vietnamese nationals, including diplomats, have been implicated in plots to smuggle horns out of the country.

Not all rhino horns enter Vietnam illegally. In a Vietnamese hunter flew to South Africa and killed a rhino on a legal safari. Many of these hunters are believed to work for syndicates. The triggers for this gold rush are difficult to pinpoint.

Rumors about famous users, rising black market prices, and dwindling numbers of Asian rhinos are all feeding the mania. But behind the hype is a renewed interest in the horn's alleged healing power. For at least 2, years, Asian medicine has prescribed rhino horn—ground into powder—to reduce fever and treat a range of maladies. The handful of studies conducted over the past 30 years on its fever reducing properties have proven inconclusive, yet the edition of a Vietnamese traditional pharmacopoeia devotes two pages to rhino horn.

The newest and most sensational claim is that it cures cancer. Oncologists say that no research has been published on the horn's efficacy as a cancer treatment. To gain insights into the popularity of rhino horn in Vietnam, I traveled the country with a woman I will call Ms. A mammogram had revealed a spot on her right breast; a sonogram showed a worrisome shadow on an ovary. The attractive and irrepressible year-old planned to seek modern treatment but also wanted to consult traditional doctors.

I asked her if she believed rhino horn might help cure her. Our travels took us from cancer hospitals and traditional clinics in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City to herbal shops, boutiques selling exotic animal skins, and private homes in small towns. We found rhino horn every place we looked. Most of the users we met belonged to Vietnam's fast-growing middle class and included Western-trained doctors, a bank executive, a mathematician, a real estate salesman, an engineer, and a high school teacher, among others.

Often families would pool money to buy a piece of horn and share it. Some donated it to gravely ill friends who couldn't afford it.