The Mafikeng Game Reserve has lost one of its biggest rhino bulls to poaching. It is one of 30 rhinos lost to poaching in the nature park since 2010.
Safeguarding its more than 4000 hectares with only 12 rangers has proven nearly impossible.
Mafikeng Game Reserve was boasting 56 rhinos in 2010; it is now left with only 20.
A gruesome discovery was made this weekend.
Number 51, one of the reserve’s biggest bulls of almost 30 years old, was killed and dehorned. Number 6, a cow with a 2-year-old calf, also wounded.
Rhino 911, a non-profit organisation that assists wounded and orphaned rhino across the province, responded, “We looked at the wounds, and assessed that it was a clean wound as it went right through the animal. Luckily it didn’t damage any bony structures; it was more soft-tissue damage. We flushed it out. We cleaned it out. We treated it with antibiotics, gave her some anti-inflammatories. As you can understand, it’s quite a painful injury,” says Volunteer for Rhino 911 Dr Gerhardus Scheepers.
Rhino 911 has visited more than 80 rhino poaching sites since January 2017 – 16 of them in the last 10 days.
Aerial response is vital in saving wounded rhinos. The helicopter’s fuel costs about R1200 per hour, making Rhino 911’s aid, invaluable to state reserves like this one.
“If we lose a rhino, we lose Forex. If we lose Forex, we lose money that comes in from tourism that builds schools, that gives education. We simply cannot lose these animals,” says Founder of Rhino 911 Nico Jacobs.
Each rhino poaching scene, hits the rangers, hard.
“It’s not nice. They’re like your children because you grew up with them for the many years that I’ve been on this reserve. Some of them, we’ve notched since they were youngsters. You see them grow up; you see them become adults; and you see them have babies; then you get to the places where they’re lying dead or their horns removed. Sometimes you just shut yourself off but carry on doing your work,” says Reserve Manager Louis Coetzee.
It was announced in June that 529 rhinos had been slaughtered across the country since January.
