Conservation RedList

CONSERvation

BOOTS ON THE

GROUND

Saving the Rhino

From Extinction One step

at A time

Welcome to Conservation

RedList

T

his documentary magazine is dedicated to raising awareness and encouraging support of the most critical wildlife protection and conservation efforts.

RedList is the term used by the IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) to classify threatened species.

All five remaining Rhinoceros are on this RedList.

At the top of the IUCN’s RedList are the critically endangered species, those which face imminent extinction.

Three of these five Rhinoceros species are classified here.

This edition of RedList Magazine has been produced to aid an amazing initiative, led by Angie Raab, called ‘Boots on the Ground’.

Boots’ is directly involved in supporting all those who are working hard to save the Rhinoceros from being systematically killed by poachers.

If this mass killing; the butchering of these magnificent beasts for their horns, is not halted, soon there shall be no wild Rhinoceros.

None.

RedList highlights the Rhinos situation, gives you insight into the amazing people involved in the fight to save the Rhino and show what a sterling task

BOOTS ON THE GROUND are doing as they continue their efforts and endeavour to film, in documenting the current crisis.

It is even possible that Boots on the Ground may capture the image of the last wild rhino ever to walk the earth.

Yes, it is that critical.

Before we start, s Since 2008 poachers have killed at least 5,940 African rhinos......

A record number of rhinos were killed by poachers across Africa last year, driven by demand in the far east for their horn.

Rhino poaching is currently at a crisis point. By the end of 2015, the number of African rhinos killed by poachers had increased for the sixth year in a row with at least 1,338 rhinos killed by poachers across Africa in 2015.

South Africa has by far the largest population of rhinos in the world and is an incredibly important country for rhino conservation. However, rhino poaching levels have dramatically escalated over recent years.

The graph shows the exponential increase in poaching from 2007 - 2015.

some information

The number slaughtered in their heartland in South Africa, which has four-fifths of the continent’s rhino, dipped for the first time since the crisis exploded nearly a decade ago.

But increases in the number of rhino poached in Nambia and Zimbabwe offset the small signs of hope in South Africa, leading to a record 1,338 to be killed continentwide. A total of 5,940 have been poached since 2008.

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S ON THE GROUND

Meet the R

Photo. Paul White

White rhino.

Synonym: Square-lipped rhino Scientific name: Ceratotherium simum "cerato" meaning "horn" "therium“, meaning "wild beast" and "simus“ meaning "flat nosed" in Greek Two subspecies: Southern Ceratotherium simum simum approximately between 19,682 and 21,077 individuals exist Northern Ceratotherium simum cottoni (only three

animals remain) White rhinos feed on grasses and their broad upper lip is adjusted to this type of food (hence the synonym square-lipped).

hinoceros The white rhino is the larger of the two African species.

It has a bigger head, due to the muscles that support its neck, as the animal feeds from the ground with its head lowered for much of the day.

Adult males weigh between 1,800 and 2,500 kg and females 1,800-2,000 kg. Weight at birth: 40-60 kg.

The colour of their skin is grey. There is no difference in the skin colour of white and black rhinos, despite their names.

The horn: Horns are used as weapons against predators and for dominance and threat displays in contact with other rhinos. White rhinos have two horns: The Northern White Rhino's larger front (anterior) horn is usually between 37" - 40" long, whereas the Southern White Rhino's can reach 79"; while the smaller rear (posterior) horn of both subspecies reaches up to around 22". As with all rhino species, the horns grow from the skin and consist of compressed strands of keratin (like fingernail fibres). They are not attached to the skull, but rest on bone pedicels at its dorsal part. The horns are continuously growing and if broken away, will subsequently grow back.

Longevity: up to 50 years.

Threat of Extinction: Although the Southern White Rhino is one of the more prevalent species, with their population estimated as currently being between 19,682 and 21,077 individuals, the Northern White Rhino is critically endangered. The sub-species was declared extinct in the wild in 2008, and there are only three individuals remaining in Ol Pejeta Conservancy in Kenya.

The Southern white rhino can be found mostly in South Africa, with smaller translocated populations found in Kenya, Namibia and Zimbabwe.

——————————————————————— Common name:

Black rhino

Synonym: Hook-lipped rhino Scientific name: Diceros bicornis: “Di" meaning "two", "cerato" meaning "horn" in Greek and "bi" meaning "two", and "cornis" meaning "horn" in Latin.

There are four subspecies of the black rhino: Southern Central black rhino Diceros bicornis minor Eastern black rhino Diceros bicornis michaeli South Western black rhino Diceros bicornis bicornis Western black rhino Diceros bicornis longipes

(declared extinct in 2011)

The horn: black rhino have two horns, which grow continually from the skin at their base throughout their life (like human fingernails). Rhinos from different areas can have horns of different shapes and sizes also vary.

The shape of the horn also differs between sexes: with males tending to have thicker horns, and the females often longer and thinner ones. The horn is comprised of thousands of compressed hair-like strands of keratin (like hair and fingernail fibres), making it extremely hard and tough, but it can be broken or split during fighting.

The front (anterior) horn is longer than the rear (posterior) horn, averaging at around 50 cm long.

Under threat Poaching history: During the 19th century, as European influence over land use and trade strengthened, the black rhino, which was the most numerous rhino species with several hundred thousand animals, was hunted relentlessly across most of Africa.

By 1970 there were an estimated 65,000 animals left.

Today, the black rhino remains a rare sight due to an increase in poaching.

Chinese medicine: Poaching pressure escalated during the 1970s and 1980s as a result of the rising demand for rhino horn in Asia and the Middle East.

Between 1970 and 1992, the black rhino suffered a 96% reduction in numbers, with total numbers dipping as low as around 2,400.

Poachers remain the biggest threat to the black rhino.

However, with strict protection and effective biological management, black rhino numbers are slowly recovering and currently there are approximately between 5,042 and 5,455 animals (according to figures published by IUCN in 2016).

Common name:

Greater one-horned rhino Synonym: Indian rhino Scientific name: Rhinoceros unicornis: "uni" meaning one and "cornis" meaning horn in Latin Under threat

Poaching: The biggest threat that greater onehorned rhinos face is human harassment / encroachment. Since centuries ago, rhinos were hunted for sport and for their horn. The horn is used in Asia as a medicine against fever and pain. In the early 19th century, the greater one-horned rhino was almost hunted to extinction. The remaining animals were only found in protected reserves, where under the monitoring of certain organisations, populations are currently being brought back from the edge of

Protection in the wild: With strict protection from Indian and Nepalese wildlife authorities, greater onehorned rhino numbers have recovered from under 200 last century to around 3,333 today. However, poaching has remained high and the success is precarious without continued and increased support for conservation efforts in India and Nepal.

Other worrying threats: habitat destruction and loss are further threats to the rhinoceros population.

As Greater one-horned rhinos live in areas with very fertile soil, humans use the same land for farming purposes. Conflicts between humans and animals are inevitable, and consequently damaging ——————————————————————— Common name:

Sumatran rhino.

Synonyms: Asian two-horned rhino or the Hairy rhino.

Scientific name: Dicerorhinus sumatrensis, from the Greek “di”, meaning "two", “cero”, meaning "horn" and “rhinos”, meaning "nose"; “sumatrensis”, from Sumatra.

Poaching: The biggest threats for Sumatran rhinos is poaching. Sumatran rhinos are poached for their horn, and the loss of their habitat occurs for human ag-

The horn is used in Asia as a medicine for fever and pain, and trade in rhino horn between Borneo and other source areas in SE Asia and China has been reported since before more than 2,000 years ago.

Over the centuries, the Sumatran rhino had been exterminated over most of its range, though in many places suitable habitat remains. This continued until 1995, when there were only about 2-300 left worldwide: largely in the places where they are still found today, and only in National Parks or Wildlife Reserves.

Since then, the decline has stopped thanks to the concentrated efforts of dedicated anti-poaching teams called Rhino Protection Units (RPUs) in all major rhino areas.

Common name:

Javan rhino

Synonym: Lesser one-horned rhino Scientific name: Rhinoceros sondaicus; from the Greek “rhino”, meaning "nose" and “ceros” meaning "horn".

Sondaicus derives from "Sunda," the name for the western part of Java, but the word is also used to indicate the main chain of Indonesian islands, the “Sunda islands” Size: The Javan rhino is a smaller and lighter relative of the greater one-horned rhino. It stands at 1.4 to 1.7 metres tall at the shoulder. There is not much difference in size between the males and females, and from information gathered in Ujung Kulon and from museum skeletons, there is a possibility that females are slightly bigger.

Javan rhinos are estimated to live an average of 35 to 40 years in the wild.

The horn: Javan rhinos have a single horn, grey or brownish in colour, usually less than 20 cm long. Males have larger horns and many females, especially in Ujung Kulon, have no horn or just have a small knob on the nose. The longest horn ever recorded is only about 27 cm long and is now in the British Museum in London. Rhino horn has the same horn structure as the hooves of horses and re-grows if broken off. It is not used for fighting, but for scraping mud from the sides of wallows, pulling down food plants, and for protection of the head and nose when breaking through dense vegetation Under threat Small population size: The biggest threat to the Javan rhino is the very small size of the remaining populations. This leads to inbreeding and loss of genetic variability and vitality. The two habitats where Javan rhinos occur are secure, but much too small for long-term survival of the species.

Poaching: Javan rhinos are poached for their horn, which is used in Asia as a medicine against fever and pain. A Javan rhino in Vietnam was found poached with its horns removed in April 2010. Later DNA research on dung samples indicated that this was the last rhino remaining in that population.

Habitat loss: Apart from poaching, habitat destruction and loss for agriculture and development are further threats to the rhino populations. Though officially all rhino habitats are strictly protected by legislation, in practice many areas are subject to large-scale encroachment by poor and landless communities, and the park management usually does not have the means and the political support to counter this pillage.

Habitat is still not a limiting factor overall, but neither of the two remaining habitats are large enough to allow significant growth of the rhino population, now or in the future. Re-establishment of Javan rhinos in areas where they have been exterminated and rejuvenation of their habitat in these areas are vital components of the conservation strategy for this species.

Photo: Angie Raab

Why rhinos matter Rhinos have been around for millions of years and play a crucial role in their ecosystem.

They’re important grazers, consuming large amounts of vegetation, which helps shape the African landscape.

This benefits other animals and keeps a healthy balance within the ecosystem.

Local people also depend on the natural resources within rhino habitat for food, fuel and income.

As one of Africa’s ‘big five’, rhinos are a popular sight for tourists. Ecotourism can be an important source of income for local people.

By helping protect rhinos, we’re helping to conserve their habitat for the benefit of people and wildlife, helping support local communities and making sure natural resources are available for generations to come.

Poaching The greatest threat facing African rhinos is poaching for the illegal trade in their horns, which has soared in recent years.

The number of rhinos poached in South Africa alone has increased by 9,000% since 2007 - from 13 to a record 1,215 in 2014.

Rhinos were once abundant throughout Africa and Asia with an approximated worldwide population of 500 000 in the early twentieth century. However, despite intensive conservation efforts, poaching of this iconic species is dramatically increasing, pushing the remaining rhinos closer and closer towards extinction.

The Western black rhino was declared extinct by the IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) in 2011, with the primary cause identified as poaching.

In fact, all five remaining rhinos species are listed on the IUCN Redlist of threatened species, with three out of five species classified as critically endangered.

The current poaching crisis is attributed to the growing demand for rhino horn in Asian countries, mainly Vietnam and China.

Vietnam has been identified as the largest user country of rhino horn. Although rhino horn has no scientific medical benefits, consumers are using it to treat a wide range of conditions, from cancer to hangovers, and due to its high value it is now also used as a status symbol by wealthy individuals.

The high price fetched for the horn has attracted the involvement of ruthless criminal syndicates who use high-tech equipment to track down and kill the rhinos.

Law enforcement plays a crucial role in deterring poachers, however there is no single answer to combat the current poaching crisis.

Photo : Angie Raab

A variety of strategies are needed to combat poaching including rigorous anti-poaching and monitoring patrols, community conservation and environmental education schemes, captive breeding, translocations and demand reduction projects in Asia.

Rhino poaching has escalated in recent years and is being driven by the demand for rhino horn in Asian countries, particularly Vietnam. It is used in Traditional Chinese Medicine but more and more commonly now it is used as a status symbol to display someone’s success and wealth. As South African is home to the majority of rhinos in the world it is being heavily targeted by poachers.

The scarcity of rhinos today and the corresponding intermittent availability of rhino horn only drives the price higher, and intensifies the pressure on the declining rhino populations. For people whose annual income is often far below the subsistence level, the opportunity to change one’s life by killing an animal that they don’t value is overwhelming.

Poachers are now being supplied by international criminal gangs with sophisticated equipment to track and kill rhinos. Often they use a tranquiliser gun to bring the rhino down and hack of its horn leaving the rhino to wake up and bleed to death very painfully and slowly. Poachers are also often armed with guns making them very dangerous for the anti-poaching teams who put their lives on the line to protect rhinos.

Photo : Angie Raab

What is rhino horn?

Rhino horns are similar in structure to horses’ hooves, turtle beaks, and cockatoo bills. They are made of keratin – in rhinoceros horn it is chemically complex and contains large quantities of sulphur-containing amino acids, particularly cysteine, but also tyrosine, histidine, lysine, and arginine, and the salts calcium carbonate and calcium phosphate.

Traditional Chinese Medicine According to traditional Chinese texts, such as Li Shihchen’s 1597 medical text “Pen Ts’ ao Kang Mu”, rhino horn has been used in Chinese medicine for more than 2000 and is used to treat fever, rheumatism, gout, and other disorders. It also states that the horn could also cure snakebites, hallucinations, typhoid, headaches, carbuncles, vomiting, food poisoning, and “devil possession.”

Rhino horn, is shaved or ground into a powder and dissolved in boiling water and consumed by the patient.

Aphrodisiac

There is a belief in the West that rhino horn is used as an aphrodisiac and sexual stimulant but this is not correct and seems to have been misunderstood or misinterpreted by Western media. However, research

has shown that people in Vietnam are starting to believe this rumour as they are consuming it for new reasons.

Even without aphrodisiacal properties, however, rhino horn is one of the mainstays of TCM, and its collection has been responsible for the death of tens of thousands of rhinos around the world.

Make no mistake: those people who use rhino horn to cure medical ailments really believe it works. That’s what drives up the demand on which the poachers thrive. As Ann and Steve Toon commented in 2002, “For practitioners of traditional Asian medicine, rhino horn is not perceived as a frivolous love potion, but as an irreplaceable pharmaceutical necessity.”

VietNam – new uses for rhino horn There has been a recent surge in demand for rhino horn in Viet Nam, where it is being touted as a hangover cure and treatment for terminal illnesses plus many more uses.

As Richard Ellis, author of "Tiger bone and rhino horn" wrote in 2005 for the EAZA Rhino Campaign's Info Pack: "It is not clear that rhino horn serves any medicinal purpose whatsoever, but it is a testimony to the power of

tradition that millions of people believe that it does. Of course, if people want to believe in prayer, acupuncture or voodoo as a cure for what ails them, there is no reason why they shouldn’t, but if animals are being killed to provide nostrums that have been shown to be useless, then there is a very good reason to curtail the use of rhino horn. There are five species of rhinoceros and, with the exception of one subspecies of African white rhino, all are in danger of being hunted to extinction for their horns. Rhinos as we know them have been around for millions of years, but Dr H. Spaiens has created a predicament from which they might never recover. It is heartbreaking to realise that the world’s rhinos are being eliminated from the face of the earth in the name of medications that probably don’t work."

A survey carried out by TRAFFIC in 2013 identified that the motivation for consumers buying rhino horn is the emotional benefits rather than medicinal, as it reaffirms their social status among their peers. Image and status is important to these consumers, they tend to be highly educated and successful people who have a powerful social network and no affinity to wildlife.

Rhino horns are sometimes bought for the sole purpose of being gifted to others; to family members, business colleagues or people in positions of authority.

The International trade in rhino horn is banned under CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Fauna and Flora). In South Africa particularly there is a call to legalise the trade in rhino horn. Read more about this in legalising the horn trade thorny issues.

In some locations, where normal law and order has broken down – particularly in war zones or where there is political instability – it has become much easier for the poachers to kill rhinos and other endangered species.

Particular examples of places where political conflict has been matched by a rise in poaching include the Democratic Republic of Congo, Zimbabwe and Nepal.

TRAFFIC is a joint programme of WWF and the World Conservation Union (IUCN) that monitors the global wildlife trade. TRAFFIC also works in close co-operation with CITES.

The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) is an international agreement between governments, that aims to ensure that international trade in specimens of wild animals and plants does not threaten their survival and it accords varying degrees of protection to more than 33,000 species of animals and plants.

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A Rhino Horn can It was in most respects a typical heist that happened in Dublin last month.

But this was not art or jewellery that was stolen. The contraband, instead, was four rhinoceros’ heads. Or, more specifically, their horns.

This was not the first time such a raid has been recorded.

A rhino-head heist spree swept Europe in 2011, as thieves raided museums and auctions houses in seven countries, prompting 30 investigations by Europol, 20 of which are ongoing.

Similar heists have also been on the rise in Africa, as well as in American towns.

What is driving this "highly organized" criminal activity?

If you guessed "China" you were wrong.

The answer is Vietnam.

The country's appetite for rhino horn is so great that it now fetches up to $100,000/kg, making it worth more than its weight in gold. (Horns average around 1-3 kg each, depending on the species.)

The surge in Vietnamese demand is fairly recent.

cost $300,000. Why? Though rhino horn elixirs for fevers and liver problems were first prescribed in traditional Chinese medicine more than 1,800 years ago, by the early 1990s demand was limited.

Trade bans among Asian countries instituted in the 1980s and early 1990s proved largely effective in quashing supply, with some help from poaching crackdowns in countries where rhinos live.

Meanwhile, the removal of rhino horn powder from traditional Chinese pharmacopeia in the 1990s had largely doused demand. In the early 1990s, for instance, horns sold for only $250-500/kg only around 15 rhinos were poached in South Africa each year from 1990 to 2007.

But things started changing in 2008. That year, 83 were killed, followed by 122 the next year. By 2012, that number had hit 688. Here's a look at how many rhinos were killed, on average, each day: What happened in 2008 to prompt a resurgence in demand?

The closest guess is a rumor that swept Vietnam in the mid-2000s that imbibing rhino horn powder had cured a Vietnamese politician's cancer.

That rumor persists to this day.

Note: This has nothing to do with traditional Chinese medicine.

As Huijun Shen, the president of the UK Association of Traditional Chinese Medicine explained to Nature magazine, there's no record of using rhino horn to treat cancer in nearly two millennia worth of Chinese medical texts.

In Vietnam, however, at least some respected doctors vouch for rhino horn's cancer-curing properties. One woman who purchased $2,000 worth of horn powder on her doctors' advice.

Why are Vietnamese willing to shell out thousands for the pharmacological equivalent of chewing your fingernails?

The short answer: Wealth.

Vietnam's tally of multimillionaires has grown 150% in the last five years. The Convention on the International Trade on Endangered Species notes that this rising wealth is "inflating a bubble of demand for rhino horn".

But as in many fast-developing countries, the quality and availability of cancer care in Vietnam hasn't kept pace with the country's economic growth. "Cancer is a big problem in Vietnam. We have about 150,000 new cases a year, and the waiting list for radiotherapy is very long," Vietnamese oncologist Dr. Dang Huy Quoc Thinh told the International Association for Atomic Energy Bulletin "People die because we can't provide the treatment in time." As of 2010 Vietnam had only 25 radiotherapy machines for a population of 87 million people.

Plus, rates of cancer are also rising 20-30% a year, both because prosperity has brought increased pollution and unhealthier lifestyles, and simply because more cases are being caught and diagnosed.

However, many people still are not familiar with cancer, so that 70-80% of patients at Vietnam's four cancer hospitals are diagnosed only in late stages.

That gives Vietnam a cancer mortality rate of 73%, one of the highest in the world, according to the deputy director of a hospital in Hanoi; the average for the developing world is 67.8%, he said.

Some conservation groups, however, don't think rhino horn's newfound popularity in Vietnam has much to do with the cancer cure-all rumor. The more likely reason, they say, is that the horn powder is increasingly seen as a cocaine-like party drug, virility enhancer and luxury item--"the alcoholic drink of millionaires," as a Vietnamese news site called it.

That is partly because it is supposed to help the liver.

With alcohol consumption on the rise as living standards improve, the swinging Vietnamese now prize rhino horn as a way to let them drink more and cure hangovers faster!

Tom Milliken, an expert on the rhino horn market, reckons that a rhino-horn detox, "especially following excessive intake of alcohol, is probably the most common routine usage promoted in the marketplace"

In fact, rhino horn is now more expensive than cocaine, which has helped build its cachet. It's also ideal for greasing palms for business deals That could be partly because newly affluent Vietnamese don't have that much to spend their money on. The government has issued just 10 licenses for distributors of luxury goods.

And its small size means Vietnam is still off the radar for many luxury brands.

Rhino horn is also popular among some public officials.

"I can drink a lot of alcohol but I am still sober and strong. I don't have a headache and I do not feel tired," Tran Huy Tu, a senior policeman, told AFP, apparently fearless of any consequences. "It's not legal to buy this stuff, but in Vietnam you can buy anything with money."

Officials have been entwined in the business for a while.

The Vietnamese embassy in South Africa has been "repeatedly implicated in illicit rhino horn trade" according to a report by conservation group Traffic.

The Vietnamese rhino horn craze has caused an unprecedented surge in rhino poaching throughout Africa and Asia. The last rhino of Mozambique was confirmed dead in early May. Oftentimes, poachers saw off the rhinos' horns while they're still alive, leaving them to bleed to death.

The slaughter is such that poaching is becoming less frequent in some areas, simply because there are so few rhinos left to kill.

Paradoxically, the world's dwindling rhino population threatens only to make this worse, as diminished supply makes prices climb even higher. Given that one of the things driving demand is the perceived luxury of the item, higher prices alone are unlikely to snuff out demand.

With a single horn fetching as much as $300,000, the risk of being caught probably seems to many poachers to be one worth running.

That's probably why the fight against poaching is something of a losing battle. Though South Africa has done an admirable job of protecting its white rhinos, 668 were poached there in 2012--a 50% increase on 2011.

And as we discussed recently, other countries may soon use drones to foil poachers, so dire is the problem.

Vietnam's own nature park rangers don't have to worry, though. Their job is already done. In 2010, the last Javan rhino in Vietnam was found dead, a bullet wound in his leg and with his horn hacked off.

Phot Angie Raab

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“Initially I came to Africa to find out more about the poaching epidemic and the people who are now the last barrier between the rhino, the elephant and so many other species and the poacher.

I have never seen a wild rhino or elephant before I arrived here and never expected to fall in love with these amazing creatures the moment I laid eyes on them.

I never thought I would have the courage to leave another life behind, pack my bags and come here to join the fight. To be a voice for these animals. But more so, to be a voice for the people who have been silently risking their life to protect Africa’s wildlife.

Their passion and their determination to stop this war, got to me.

Their anger. Their sadness. Their iron will to get up every morning and go out there to stand up for the animals.

The fact, that they never loose hope in a seemingly hopeless crisis.

Their story needs to be told. And that is why I am here today.

Boots on the Ground is their story�.

ALL photographs are copyright.. Phot credits; Angie Raab, Kimberly Wood, And

UND the team

We have been on location with Anti poaching units, vets, private rhino owners and other passionate people who are fighting in this war on wildlife in South Africa, Kenya and Zimbabwe: We will be heading to Mali end of June if everything works out to highlight the connection between poaching and terrorism.

As that might be the only way to get governments interested in helping to stop the illegal wildlife trade.

My team is a group of amazingly passionate people who have been putting their lives on hold to help me create this documentary.

We are journalists, photographers, film makers and avid

dreas Maxones , Nigel Kuhn , Arno Smit , Clive van Rooyen & Braam Malherbe.

conservationists from 6 different countries: Austria, Germany, South Africa, Zimbabwe, USA and England.

Our main goal is to bring this documentary to film festival and tell the world the story about these men and women who are the last barrier between the animals and the poacher.

We need to find more support for them so they will be able to keep up with the syndicates.

Photo: Clive van Rooyen

Part of the BOOTS on the GROUND team who have been working constantly with Angie over the past few months in the field (there were admins as well) are Kimberly Wood (photographer, conservationist) and Andreas Maxones (photographer), Nigel Kuhn (journalist, photographer, conservationist, Anti Poacher).

Also, Arno Smit (go pro photos) Clive van Rooyen (photographer) and Braam Malherbe.

The organisations Kariba Conservation Program, Charara Safari Area, Zimbabwe Nigel Kuhn started Kariba Conservation out of passion for wildlife, endangered because of uncontrolled poaching, illegal activities and human greed.

KCP is the new line of defence, widening logistical support for National parks other authorities and other private anti poaching units on and around the breath-taking Lake Kariba. A dedicated and well trained team is now joining rangers during their deployments, protecting elephants, lions and other species on land and in the water from ruthless poaching syndicates.

Mount Kenya Trust, Nanyuki, Kenya Mount Kenya’s majestic peaks rise over vast forest canopies and moorland, a rich biodiversity on the doorstep of dense populations and poverty.

The trust involves not only involves local communities in their efforts to raise awareness but also supports a mounted Anti poaching unit.

These brave men and their horses protect forests, watch over the elephant corridors and monitor illegal activities, successfully deterring poachers with their presence.

Rhino Orphans, KZN, South Africa Dr. David Cooper and his team are working for Enzemvelo Parks, undertaking Game Captures and relocations.

Lately he attends more post mortems on poached rhino than he ever expected as well as dehorning and relocating rhino to safer areas.

His team needs all the support they can get to feed and take care of the orphaned baby rhino that are unfortunately casualties of the cruel war on wildlife.

The boma area was originally built for injured animals and ended up being a temporary home for poaching survivors and orphans.

"You have not been in Africa until you have heard a hyena..."

This were Clive's first words when we arrived in Wildlife College for a day of filming and scouting.

The college, situated between Hoedspruit and the Kruger Orpen Gate, trains a new kind of rangers.

Rangers, who will have the ability to fight in the war for wildlife.

"Never ever underestimate the role of a field ranger. He is the one person in conservation that literally puts his life on the line for it." says Ruben de Kock, who heads up the training program. “They are now soldiers."

Over 1200 rhino were poached last year. Their horn is

used primarily as a status symbol in different Asian countries, spearheaded by Vietnam. But it is also fabled to be a cure for cancer, a cold or even a hangover.

Poaching increased drastically over the past 8 years, with not only animals but also rangers getting killed.

A ranger worked in the bush for the love of the bush, while looking at water condition, sickness and mortality of animals as well as their health and communicate all he has been seeing to the reserve manager.

A ranger used to be just an educator as to why conserving the wildlife is so important to the land and its people.

Early morning training in the smouldering heat of an African summer. Photo ,Angie Raab

Today these rangers have become frontline.

A lot changed since then. You’ll see them wearing chest webbing, a semi automatic combat rifle, combat boots and camouflage uniforms.

In some parks throughout Africa you will find dedicated Anti poaching units, in others you will find field rangers who applied for the job, because of their passion for the outdoors, wanting to hear a hyena’s call or a lion’s roar.

But now these men and women are finding themselves fighting serious criminals who are becoming more and more aggressive.

The sun was burning in the sky, while the hot wind swirled dust twisters around us. Heat rising from the sandy ground had us dripping with sweat in no time. We literally experienced what these rangers were dealing with every day during their training in the midst of an African summer.

I was amazed as how these rangers would march circles and circles with a never before seen discipline not getting distracted by us running in and out of their rows with our cameras in their faces.

They wanted their story to be told and showed us what they were capable off.

The “Boots” Team in action Photo Braam Mlherbe

Preparation for late night deployment

On our second day in the area we headed to the Hoedspruit Endangered Species Centre. It focuses on conservation of rare, vulnerable and endangered species.

Unfortunately it now also became an orphanage for the little rhino victims since the poaching crises began.

Four rhino calves have been hand raised so far, doing really well and remaining healthy while in the company of each other. “From the start we are making sure that the little ones do not stress much. For us it is sad to know that they lost their mother because of a myth. It is heart-breaking for us that they are all alone, especially at night when they are calling for his or her mother.

But there are always happy moments when they are released to a bigger enclosure, where they can roam, search

for grass, play, or follow their caretaker around, knowing that they will be kept safe.�

Balu is a 7 week old orphan. A lot of these babies are traumatized, not understanding what has happened.

His friend Stompie lost his tail to a hyena as he was stumbling through the veld, alone, for two days, after his mother was killed.

Photos Angie Raab

We had an unbelievable time filming and sharing unforgettable moments with these passionate conservationists and people of HESC and Wildlife College.

On our way back to Johannesburg we decided to head through Kruger National Park for a few wildlife shots and found rhino next to the road.

We stopped with a sinking feeling in our stomachs. If we could find these magnificent creatures, poachers will as well.

You literally just want to stay with them to protect them.

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S av i n g t h Kariba Conservation Program, Charara Safari Area Zimbabwe

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Mount Kenya Trus

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Rhino Orphans, K

KZN, South Africa

BOOTS ON THE GROUND De-Horning One way to deter poachers is to remove the Rhino’s horn.

As drastic as it seems it is painless. The horn will regrow over time rather like our own finger nails.

This is, however, only a temporary short term solution. It also takes a lot of time and resources to track and catch each animal.

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WHAT WILL HAPPEN AF GON We usually apply to apex predators, who can keep entire ecosystems in check and aren’t themselves subject to predation. But given their size, mature “megaherbivores” like white rhinos aren’t usually subject to predation either. If they can survive to adulthood, the main pressure on the size of their population, like for apex predators, is simply the availability of food. That allows them to exert disproportionate control over their environments, just as lions or wolves. According to new research published in the Journal of Ecology, Africa’s white rhinos (Ceratotherium simum) could be thought of as apex consumers.

The removal of apex predators from an ecosystem can be catastrophic. The oft-used examples are the Yellowstone wolves. When they were culled, the deer population exploded, which in turn meant that plant populations declined. The bears, who rely on many of the same berries on which the deer fed, also suffered from lack of food. When the wolves were reintroduced to Yellowstone, the entire community shifted back into balance.

Researchers are increasingly realizing that the removal of megaherbivores from their ecosystems can have similarly devastating impacts. In a 2009 paper in the journal Science,

FTER THE RHINOS ARE NE? paleoecologist Jacquelyn Gill argued that the extinction of North American Pleistocene megaherbivores—mammoths, mastodons, horses, sloths, camels—drove similar large-scale ecosystem changes. The diversity and populations of plant communities were altered, which led to subsequent extinctions of other species.

Most research on the effects of plant eaters on the African savannah has focused on the other massive herbivore, elephants. So researchers Joris P. G. M. Cromsigt and Mariska te Beest turned to white rhinos. Rhinos aren’t just elephants with different ivory ornamentation, they also put pressure on different plant communities. Elephants are primarily browsers, eating from trees, while rhinos are grazers. Think of them like adorable lawn mowers with pointy spikes at the ends of their noses.

Wild rhinos may be driven to extinction within the next couple decades if current poaching rates continue. What will that mean for the African savannah?

Rhinos were driven out of South Africa’s Kruger National Park by 1896 due to hunting, and were reintroduced beginning in the 1960s. The reintroduction was a massive success: by 2010, there were some 10,000 to 11,000 individuals within the park. But they aren’t equally distributed.

This presented Cromsigt and te Beest with a natural experiment. They compared parts of the park in which rhinos have grazed for several decades to other areas which have been only recently recolonized. To measure the ways in which rhinos exert pressure on the environment, they measured the quantity of short grass lawns within high- and low-density rhino areas and the surface area covered by those lawns.

Both measurements revealed more short grasses in highdensity rhino areas compared with spaces that have only

recently seen rhino activity. In the African grassland, short grass cover is a useful metric for botanical heterogeneity. The more short grass lawns, the more diverse the landscape.

At first this might seem counterintuitive; if rhinos are intensely grazing the land, shouldn’t plant communities suffer? The key is to think of them less as lawnmowers and more as… selective lawnmowers. “In many grassland and savannah systems,” Gill explained to me, “grazers increase biodiversity, by selectively eating certain kinds of plants over others.” In her own research she’s found that North American bison eat grasses and ignore forbs. (Sunflowers and milkweed are both types of prairie forbs.) By trimming the grasses, the bison allow the forbs, which normally can’t compete for light and water, a fighting chance to survive. “There is a lot of research that suggests that [grazers are] really important for maintaining diversity, as well as the coexistence of trees and grasses, by creating a shifting patch mosaic on the landscape,” she says.

Take away the rhinos from the landscape and, according to this research, the landscape will suffer. Cromsigt and te Beest say that their study highlights some of the indirect, yet important, effects of the rhino poaching crisis. “Not only is rhino poaching threatening the species conservation status,” they write, “but also the potentially key role of this apex consumer for savanna ecosystem dynamics and functioning.” – Jason G. Goldman | 19 February 2014 Source: Cromsigt J.P.G.M. & te Beest M. (2014). Restoration of a megaherbivore: landscape-level impacts of white rhinoceros in Kruger National Park, South Africa, Journal of Ecology. DOI:10.1111/1365-2745.12218

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frican landscapes may become very different places if rhinos aren't there to diversify plant life and create prime grazing spots for other animals some large animals influence their surroundings more than others. Elephants are known as ecosystem engineers for their tendency to push over trees and stomp shrubby areas in the savannah into submission. This keeps forests at bay, which otherwise would overtake open grasslands. Wolves, on the other hand, are apex predators. They keep other species like deer in check, preventing herbivore populations from getting out of hand and eating all the plants into oblivion. Both elephants and wolves are keystone species, or ones that have a relatively large impact on their environment in relation to their actual population numbers.

African rhinos, it turns out, also seem to be a keystone species. According to a recent study published by Scandinavian and South African researchers in the Journal of Ecology, rhinos maintain the diverse African grasslands on which countless other species depend.

Surprisingly, prior to this study no one had looked closely rhinos’ roles in shaping the ecosystem.

FTER THE RHINOS ARE ontinued researchers focused on elephants instead. Suspecting that these large animals influence their environment, the authors took a close look at rhinos in Kruger National Park in South Africa.

Today, around 10,500 white rhino live in the park, but that was not always the case. In 1896, rhinos went extinct there due to overzealous trophy hunting. In the 1960s, conservationists began reintroducing the animals back into the park. The population rebounded over the decades, although the rhinos haven’t distributed themselves around the 7,500-square mile area equally. As a result, Kruger acts as a sort of “welldocumented natural experiment,” the researchers write, showing what happens when an animal is excluded from and then put back into an environment.

The authors first examined a 30-year aerial survey record (beginning in 1980) of where the rhinos did and did not live around Kruger. This record also showed how rhino distributions varied over time as they slowly expanded into new areas. So, by studying these surveys, the researchers could identify and compare places where rhinos had inhabited the longest or the shortest.

Photo Paul White After pinpointing high- and low-density sites, the authors went into the field and recorded the plant species found along 40 sections of the park, totaling just under 20 miles. They built a statistical model to analyze the results and controlled for factors such as soil content and the presence of other large grazers, including impala, warthog and wildebeest.

The places where the fewest rhinos lived, they found, had 60 to 80 percent less short grass cover than places where rhinos frequently hung out. "Short grass" is a catch-all metric commonly used to approximate plant diversity in grassy areas in Africa, referring to a number of munchable species. Rhinoinhabited areas also had about 20 times more grazing lawns, or patches where specific grass species grow that are prime eating for not only rhinos but also smaller grazing animals such as zebra, gazelle and antelope.

Based on these findings, the authors think that the rhinos are probably playing a role in controlling the make-up of the park’s grasslands. Rhinos, like other grazing species, selectively browse on certain grass species, which leaves room for others that otherwise could not compete to move in and promotes a diverse mosaic of edible plants. As a science writer for the University of Washington put it, "Think of them less as lawnmowers and more as...selective lawnmowers."

Rhinos have only been around the park for a relatively short amount of time, so future studies will have to confirm whether their presence leads to even more substantial ecosystem changes. Examining other places in Africa will also help confirm whether or not rhinos have the same influence wherever they go.

Rhinos are one of the few megaherbivores—plant-eaters that weigh more than 2,000 pounds—that still live in the world.

Most others have long gone extinct, many of which were victims to human hunting and expansion. Rhinos' continued existence, however, is questionable. Poachers killed nearly 1,000 rhinos in South Africa alone last year—an almost 50 percent increase from 2012—so as things now stand, rhinos may very likely go the way of so many other species before them.

If the rhinos do disappear from Africa, the authors warn, the savannah will likely become a distinctly different place—in addition to an emptier one.

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