The South African National Parks (SANParks) K9 anti-poaching unit has become a game changer, with a success rate of over 90% in arresting poachers in the Kruger National Park. Warden Kally Ubisi said the anti-poaching program launched seven years ago attributed some of its success to the dogs and their handlers. Ubisi said well-trained German Shepherds and Bloodhounds were used to track poachers in the field and detect explosives, firearms, ammunition and wildlife passing through park gates. “The dogs use their greater sense of smell and hearing to do things that humans can’t,” Ubisi said. Since…
The South African National Parks (SANParks) K9 anti-poaching unit has become a game changer, with a success rate of over 90% in arresting poachers in the Kruger National Park.
Warden Kally Ubisi said the anti-poaching program launched seven years ago attributed some of its success to the dogs and their handlers.
Ubisi said well-trained German Shepherds and Bloodhounds were used to track poachers in the field and detect explosives, firearms, ammunition and wildlife passing through park gates.
“The dogs use their greater sense of smell and hearing to do things that humans can’t,” Ubisi said.
Since the program’s inception, Ubisi said the initiative had acquired more dogs and had further success in apprehending poachers.
“These dogs were purchased when after intensive research and also discussions with other stakeholders who are in the same field of anti-poaching as we are, we saw that they were needed,” he added.
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While visiting the K9 facility, a dog handler demonstrated how a dog tracks down poachers, with some journalists hiding to show how quickly the dog would find them.
SANParks spokesman Isaac Phaahla said that while poaching in the national parks remained a major conservation challenge, the dogs were integral to their success fighting it in the Kruger National Park.
“We have also decided that in the intensive conservation areas we should dehorn most of the rhinos that are there, because that’s where the hope of stabilizing the animals comes from,” he said.
Meanwhile, the success of the anti-poaching programs continues and the team recently tracked down two poachers in the park accused of possessing a firearm and ammunition and intent to commit a crime.
According to Phaahla, the ongoing case was also proof of how various anti-poaching initiatives have contributed immeasurably to the fight to save wildlife. He also said they were conducting an investigation to find out how some initiatives, such as dehorning, have worked out.
“When we dehorn, we put a chip on the rhino’s body so that when we find the carcass, we can see if it’s dehorned or not.”
Some of the other rhino conservation initiatives included caring for calves whose mothers had been injured or killed.
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“We take the animals, usually the orphans who are older than a year, the ones that can feed themselves, and keep them here,” says SANParks vet Lufuno Netshitavhadulu.
“The injured animals kept here are mostly black rhinoceroses because they adapt easily to the boma situation.”
Netshitavhadulu said the facility also helped find foster mothers for the orphaned calves until they were ready to be let out in the wild.
There were some dehorned rhinoceroses with calves less than five years old in the facility. The vet also said the facility had released two rhinos raised there back into the wild in the past two years.
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