South Africa’s response to rhinoceros poaching—it is home to 20,000 white rhinos and 5,500 black rhinos—is to surgically dehorn the animals, so that they are not of any use to poachers who sell their horns. Home to the two varieties of two-horned rhinos, the African continent has long been struggling to conserve these animals. The near-threatened whites are larger than the blacks, have a square lip and are grazers the critically endangered black rhinos have a hooked lip and feed on leaves of bushes and trees. Rhinos are one of the Big Five animals that are sought out by tourists, and are also hot targets for poachers. And despite efforts, 728 were killed in 2018, according to the International Rhino Foundation (IRF).
Cooper, winner of the Rhino Conservation award for Best Science, Research & Technology in 2016, is actively involved in rhino immobilisation for activities like dehorning and inserting transmitters to track the animals. The rhinos are darted, preferably from a helicopter. “It takes approximately four minutes for the drug to take effect,” says Cooper. “The opioids used cause severe respiratory depression, and the rhino needs to receive a partial antagonist immediately to reverse the effect. The animal is blindfolded, and the ears plugged to minimise external stimuli. Once dehorning is done, the rhino is given an antidote to the opioids and recovers fully within a minute.” From reaching the immobilised animal, the entire process takes about 15 minutes.
Cooper’s job also includes treatment of ‘survivors’ of attempted poaching, and post-mortems on those that were killed. It is heart-wrenching to find rhinos with mutilated eyes, slashed sinews of the hind legs, and axe wounds. “The worst are the cases where we find a ‘survivor’. We find them wandering around with half their faces removed,” he says. “At times we must take the tough call to bring down the rhino as we cannot save it.” It isn’t easy to decide on killing an animal they have spent their life protecting.
While dehorning has helped save the rhinos in reserves such as the Phinda Private Game Reserve in KwaZulu-Natal, it has also meant that poachers gravitate towards those reserves where the pachyderms haven’t been dehorned. One of the main reasons for all rhinos not being dehorned, is the cost involved. “$50 for drugs and dart, and the helicopter costs are worked out on an hourly basis based on the aircraft type, say $500 to $700,” says Cooper.
While northern African countries like Botswana and Swaziland have a zero tolerance towards poachers and shoot-at-sight licences, South Africa does not. Consequently, rhino translocations to neighbouring countries like Swaziland, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Kenya, Namibia, Malawi and Zambia are being carried out from South Africa to protect the animals. “Rhino translocations occur throughout southern Africa, and are done to either move animals out of an area that has a heavy poaching incursion, or to re-introduce them to countries where they once lived,” says CeCe Sieffert, deputy director, IRF. “I have flown over a hundred rhinos to Botswana using a military transport plane,” adds Cooper. Intelligence strategies like early warning systems and community involvement, boots on the ground, intensive monitoring and tracking, specially trained dogs to track poachers, protecting handlers and rangers, detecting weapons, and locating poached rhino horns are other conservation initiatives taken up by organisations like IRF.
Conservation and translocation initiatives can often include private individuals as well. For instance, Dr Jacques Flamand (73) is a wildlife veterinarian who has been working with Worldwide Fund (WWF), spearheading the Black Rhino Range Expansion Project in South Africa with Eastern Cape Parks, SANParks and Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife.
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Rhino conservation is an effort that finds resonance in India, with its population of greater one-horned rhinos, the largest of the species. These pachyderms once walked the entire stretch from the Indus Valley in Pakistan, along the northern India belt bordering southern Nepal, till the borders of Myanmar. Today, their territory has shrunk dramatically and is restricted to 11 protected populations in India and Nepal. According to the IRF, their population had fallen to just 200 in the 20th century, and today stands at about 3,550 in India they are listed as vulnerable. As of September 2018, seven rhinos were poached in India last year, according to IRF.
According to WWF India, 70 percent of the rhino population, 2,413 of them, is concentrated in the Kaziranga National Park in Assam and is vulnerable to diseases, poaching and natural disasters. WWF India, in partnership with IRF and the United States Fish and Wildlife Service has been working towards increasing the rhino count in other habitats within the state, such as Manas National Park (it has 38 rhinos), Bura Chapori Wildlife Sanctuary, Laokhowa Wildlife Sanctuary and Dibru–Saikhowa National Park. This is being done through wild-to-wild translocations from Kaziranga National Park and Pobitora Wildlife Sanctuary. This initiative is part of the Indian Rhino Vision 2020, which was launched in 2005.
While South Africa has resorted to dehorning to protect its rhinos, it is not an approach that is likely to be adapted in India. “Our rhinos are found mainly in alluvial flood plains as such India’s rhino-bearing areas are largely wetlands. This makes it very risky to dart wild animals, as they may drown,” says Dr Bibhab Talukdar, IRF’s Asia co-ordinator. “Ethically, Indian wildlife management is against removing a part of a living animal which has naturally evolved,” says Vivek Menon, executive director and CEO of Wildlife Trust of India (WTI).
Saving the greater one-horned rhino benefits numerous species along the way. Mammals like the swamp deer, hog deer, barasingha, pygmy hog, otter, fishing cat and other wetland birds and reptiles are part of the same ecosystem, and saving the rhino translates to conserving this ecosystem and biodiversity.
(The writer was in South Africa on the invitation of South African Tourism)
First Published: Jul 27, 2019, 09:12
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