April 10, 2009 -- Illegal poaching has escalated to such a degree in Zimbabwe that some rhinos there are now under round-the-clock armed protection, Discovery News has learned from conservationists who are attempting to defeat poachers equipped with automatic machine guns and ammunition belts.
See footage of the protected rhinos here.
Although it is illegal to shoot a rhinoceros in the landlocked African country, poor enforcement of the law, combined with a downward spiraling economy and a new, deadly poaching technique, are leading to multiple rhino deaths.
"We are losing rhinos at an alarming rate," Johnny Rodrigues, chairman of the Zimbabwe Conservation Task Force, said. "We have lost 15 this year alone."
Rodrigues recently filed a report, on behalf of the task force, documenting the losses.
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According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources, several rhino species are critically endangered. Illegal poachers seeking the animals' horns, which are used in traditional Asian medicine, have reduced some populations to just a few hundred individuals.
At Imire Safari Ranch, conservationists Judy and John Travers have been forced to house their rhinos in segregated areas surrounded by electric fences, armed guards and national park rangers. If an animal is released into the wild, they suggest, its death or horrific injury is nearly certain.
John Travers said last week that a released rhino named Cleopatra "was drugged" and "dehorned by literally scalping her...Cleopatra is now faceless."
"How cruel," Travers asked, "has man become?"
Producer Anne Sommerfield, who is working on a documentary called "There's a Rhino in My House" for the Animal Planet network, which is owned by Discovery Communications, Inc., spent time at Imire and confirmed the bloody conditions there.
Sommerfield told Discovery News that at one point, poachers broke into the conservancy, "tied up and assaulted the guards, and proceeded to kill three rhinos in their pens." Only a young rhino named Tatenda, which weeks beforehand had its horns removed to protect it from attack, survived.
"So at just six weeks old, Tatenda was found cowering in the corner of the pen covered in his mother's blood," she said. "With the escalating poaching problems, it appears Tatenda may be facing the same fate his mother did, and her mother beforehand."
Sommerfield puts the blame on the demand for rhino horn, which she believes involves international trade.
Rodrigues said poachers are now using dart guns because the guns produce "no noise and it is much easier for the poachers to get away."
"Autopsies have been done on the rhinos killed with a dart gun, and it was found that the drug is of Chinese origin, so we believe, and in fact we have heard from a reliable source, that the Chinese are buying the rhino horn," he added.
Sommerfield hopes her forthcoming program, along with related media coverage, will "place a massive international spotlight on the poaching problem" in Zimbabwe and encourage government officials to assist animal conservationists at Imire and elsewhere. At present, the Travers are seeking funds to increase security for the Imire rhinos.
Travers described the present situation as "international warfare against the rhino."
Rodrigues echoed those fears.
"The only thing I can think of that would help these animals," he said, "is to put as many of them as possible under 24-hour armed guard."
Related Links:
Imire Safari Ranch and the Black Rhino Fund
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