Microlighters

Hi guys , just returned from an anti poaching operation at one of the North west Parks board parks.
Disturbing , very disturbing - do you folks realise that over 127 Rhinos have been poached so far this year.
We found the latest on this wekend while doing our anti poaching stint.
Out there are some chopper pilots - I should not call them pilots as they are not pilots whom I would like to be associated with.
The choppers have ther registration numbers taped closed - so that the ground patrols cannot id them .
They fly inn, dart the animal (m99) shedule 6 , some evn are blatant enough to shoot them and then they off load their ground crew who remove the ears and horns with chain saws .The eyers are notched so the Rhino id is removed from the carcass. The horns have chips in which are then removed when they are off site
Total time is just a few minutes .
This is sick !!!
Presently rhino horn leaves the country in diplomatic poaches so once it is off the premises they are untouchable.
If you thought gold and platinum are expensive think again - Rhino horn is sold at 60,000 us per kg - the average horn is between 3 and 6 kg .
Rhino numbers are dwindling - if this isnt stopped soon we will run out of rhinos soon.
I would like to know who the pilots are and how do you live with your concience ??
Should you have any friends or foes involved in these operation pse call me 0825688635 -
Leprachaun.

Hi Leprachaun

I hear you and it is sickening but is it not time that the airforce put to good use some of the rather expensive hardware I have partially paid for. All you need to do is force one or two choppers down and confiscate them and this particular practice will stop.

Hi eggbeater , I couldnt agree more , but the rigmaroll and pepperwok is just too much , but maybe.......
Presently we do voluntry flying for the North West parks , and after every "visit" the calls/ visits by poachers reduce by 68% .
We patrol the fences, scout for carcases and wounded animals -
We have the privilage to fly over some of the best game parks you can imagine , but the risk of an engine failure is always present ....
But the joy of saving a wounded Rhino/ other animal makes up for this.
Im sure we will soon have help from some of the goerment dept as the results speak for themselves , Leporachaun

Keep up the good work

Alex, this drives me mad. I was an honorary ranger in Zambia for 10 years, there is not 1 indigenous rhino left there. I dont know what the situation is like in Zim?? I heard they dont have a sustainable rhino gene pool. How do you combat this - education alone. As long as there is a market for horn it will be impossible to stop the killing. In Zim they tried removing the horns - didnt work because when the poacher has tracked the animal for 2 days and then finds it has no horn he shoots it anyway - he doesnt want to track a hornless rhino again.

At Numbi in September we found TWO freshly killed rhinos on the fence line - the blood was still clearly visisble with no rigor mortis yet. The head ranger at Numbi gate showed no interest in launching an immediate follow up operation. It was left up to the honorary rangers to do that.

Zim HAD a great programme called CAMPFIRE that aimed to educate the rural population situated around the game - dense areas and show them that in the long term the animals were worth far more to them alive than dead and seeked to include them in the profits derived from both hunting and photographic safaris. It really had great results ito reducing the poaching in those areas. I feel however (and confirmed in your post) that we are dealing with a far more sophisticated poacher here. Rangers and scouts should have a shoot to kill policy when dealing with these people. But as long as the Yemenis make rhino horn dagger handles and the chinese use it as an aphrodisiac, I'm afraid the rhino is doomed

Hi Leprachaun,

Not a nice story - but I hope you are very very sure of the alleged involvement of helicopters in the rhino poaching. The reason I mention this, is that in the past an unverified and completely unsubstantiated claim about private aircraft being used to possibly smuggle perlemoen across borders was told to a researcher compiling an ISS paper on perlemoen smuggling. The allegation turned out to be nothing but an anecdotal speculation by an official - but this did not stop the authorities (SAPS and CAA) from jumping onto the claim and misrepresenting it as absolute fact and a very convenient excuse for SAPS to start conducting hangar inspections etc. Even Colin Jordaan fell victim to the disinformation / misrepresentation of the ISS report being peddled by the police and cited incidents of smuggling from private airfields (as yet still to be substantiated!) as one of the reasons that the CAA was seeking to register / regulate all private airstrips.

Here is the link to the actual ISS report http://www.iss.org.za/pubs/papers/105/Paper105.htm
Despite Colin Jordaans claims to the contrary - even the research author concedes that the use of light aircraft being used to smuggle perlemoen is based on anecdotal claims and he offers no factual evidence whatsoever. But the damage was done - and the ISS paper goes on to acknowledge that the SAPS has been tasked with compiling a list of and "policing" private airstrips....

All thanks to an unsubstantiated rumour misrepresented as fact....

On the other hand if the use of helicopters in rhino poaching can be verified then those pilots deserve to rot in jail.

This kind of thing makes me SICK. This poaching will always be around until the penalties become severe!. We need to do like they do in Malasia. If you are caught its the death penalty for drugs, why not the same with this kind of crime! Its the only way.

Just my 2 cents

Hope that there arnt any chopper pliots involved.

Later

So why not get the military involved.... they have some awesome mobile radar stations that could track these incursions and possibly interact with the SAPS or is the whole country now just focussed on SWC 2010! I bet the reply will be that they were retaining the resources for this so called great event!

…or the present powers also gain from the profit????

Learjet wrote:The reason I mention this, is that in the past an unverified and completely unsubstantiated claim about private aircraft being used to possibly smuggle perlemoen across borders was told to a researcher compiling an ISS paper on perlemoen smuggling.

Sorry to burst the bubble, but we have had this happen using our club aircraft to smuggle perlemoen. The guy was arrested and we expelled him from our club.

Thanks for the info Skybound. I guess there is always going to be a rotten apple in the barrel - but the point I was trying to get across is that authorities really seem to be jumping on the bandwagon when it comes to any instance of aviation related crime (verified or not) and that without defending the guilty parties whatsoever - we also just need to be sure of the facts and extent of the problem before we all get tarred with the same brush and have more rules and regulations policing piled on top of us.

As an aside, the thrust of the general aviation smuggling claims was due to the fact that authorities couldnt figure out how the perlemoen was leaving the country as they thought the ports and airports were secure. Until it turned out that tons of illegal perlemoen was being smuggled out 'legally" right under their noses by smugglers re-using unendorsed CITES permits over and over again for subsequent illegal shipments.

The choppers have their registration numbers taped closed - so that the ground patrols cannot id them

I say, "If thats the case, don't worry to ID the choppers, shoot them out of the air, and ID the pilots bodies." (Hopefully dead)

it looks like the claimed usage of helicopters being used to poach rhinos is spreading .... from a 4x4 club message board....

Posted: Sat Dec 12, 2009 8:50 am Post subject: Re: 2 white (tame) rhinos poached at Ficksburg........
Very very sad.And its not the common criminal anymore.Very well organised syndicates operating now.Helicopters and all.

Can anyone actually verify this? If this is actually happening with taped over registration markings etc it really shouldn't be too difficult to ID / narrow down the culprit heli's based on type / colour markings / location etc.

Leprachaun this is sad ,Do you have the proof of this,seeing that you say you were involved in the a/p operation ,tell us more---