Despite having lost 76 rhinos due to poaching at the Kruger National Park (KNP), the dehorning of the beast has made an impact in the world-renowned tourist destination.
The park embarked on the project of dehorning the animals from 2021 as a means to counter illegal hunting.
Between 2022 and 2023, the park reported about 180 cases of rhino poaching, a 45% decrease from previous years.
The park’s Cathy Dreyer, speaking on the sidelines of a media excursion to the park this week, told “The Star” that the dehorning project was in phases, initially focusing on animals that were around the border of the park.
“Animals were right along the fence and very easy to access and it was very difficult for us to counter poaching … So we focused on the animals around the boundary.
“We then focused on females predominantly because the female rhino are much more valuable than the male rhino, because they produce offspring,” she said.
Dreyer, who made history in the park by becoming the first female head ranger, added that the park eventually identified four areas where the officials knew they had a high density of rhino.
“We have intensively dehorning since 2021 focusing on those core area.” However, she said dehorning on its own was not going to counter poaching but was part of other measures that they were implementing, including technology, upskilling the rangers and cameras.
“But we are not where we want to be. We still lost 76 rhinos last year which is more than what we want, but we have seen the impact of dehorning in the park and it makes us focus on other things now that the poaching is not as rampant,” she said.
Asked how they kept up with the migrating animals, Dreyer said every year the park embarked on a census to count the rhino.
“The census starts in August and it takes about six weeks. We use helicopters and we count the rhino in the park and the majority of the rhino had been dehorned.
“So a lot of our dehorning now is maintaining them and that means that there are animals that have been done for a second time or a third time because it grows back like your fingernails grow, which is about 10cm a year,” she said.
Spokesperson Ike Phaahla said the park also had dogs trained to hunt poachers. He said they had been found to be adept at sniffing out poachers, which had led to more than 90% of the arrests.
Some of the other measures included security cameras which were installed.
The park said it had installed three systems, which had infrared technology, to detect any movement of the animals at night.
Rhino, and many other species, including lion, leopard, elephant and buffalo, have been decreasing.
The Star