rhino – praag.org

SANParks get heli to fight rhino poachers

The SA National Parks (SANParks) received a new helicopter to improve its fight against rhino poaching, it said on Thursday.

“SANParks is a proud recipient of a brand new Airbus AS-350B3e helicopter with night flying capability made available with funding from the US-based Howard G Buffet Foundation,” the organisation said in a statement.

SANParks chairman Kuseni Dlamini said his organisation got initial funding of R254.8 million in 2014 to support anti-poaching operations in the Kruger National Park.

“This incorporated the establishment of ‘Air Mobility’ capacity and included the purchase of the first helicopter in September 2014.”

Subsequent to the initial grant funding, the foundation granted SANParks an additional R37.7m to buy a second Airbus AS350 B3e helicopter, with similar night flying capability.

The organisation was using various technologies, including unmanned aerial vehicles, in the park.

According to the Wildlife and Environment Society of SA’s website, 49 rhino had been poached so far in 2015.

Rhinos to be evacuated from Kruger

Minister of Environmental Affairs Edna Molewa is expected to announce on Tuesday the removal of rhinos from the Kruger, taking them out of the poachers’ firing line.

SANParks officials were not informed of the decision.

Of the rhinos to be moved, 260 will be sold to private buyers and another 250 taken to a safe location.

The decision to move the animals comes against a background of increased poaching of rhinos in the Kruger. The Sunday Times has established that in July the Kruger Park lost 59 rhinos and another seven in the first five days of August.

A report to the SANParks board on March 26 said there had been an average escalation of 70% a year in rhino poaching. This added urgency to the decision to move some of the rhinos to ensure that the species did not become extinct. The report said that more anti-poaching efforts would not be enough to save the rhinos.

SANParks and the department are in favour of selling South Africa’s rhino horn stockpile, amounting to 20 tons and worth about R10-billion. It would help relieve the pressure on the rhino population.

Advanced Aviation Logistics has offered SANParks seven heavy-duty Russian helicopters – capable of moving three to four rhinos a day – to help with the evacuation of rhinos.

Source: timeslive

Anthrax outbreak kill 30 hippo

Thirty hippos have been killed by a bacterial virus in the Kruger National Park (KNP), the SA National Parks (SANParks) said on Monday.

SANParks said an anthrax outbreak was identified in late August and post mortem results confirmed that most of the dead hippo were infected.

The carcasses were discovered along the Letaba and Olifants rivers.

Spokesman for SANParks, Reynold Thakhuli, explained that anthrax was a highly infectious disease in animals caused by the bacterium, bacillus anthracis.

He said the outbreaks were a natural occurrence in the northern parts of the KNP and were experienced more or less every ten years.

“It is thought that the disease is spread mainly through vultures and blowflies. Vultures are immune against it and they spread the disease by consuming contaminated meat from affected carcasses and then defecating in water bodies where they regularly drink or bath.

“The toxins released by the bacteria when it sporulates are also fatal to some species, ” said Thakhuli.

“It is also closely linked to population density – when certain species like kudu and hippo reach high densities then anthrax spreads more rapidly.”

Park rangers were monitoring the rivers to check whether any more animals had died.

In a previous outbreak, around 2000 animals were killed. – Sapa