Microchips to the rhinos' rescue
All rhinoceros horns in South Africa are to be microchipped in an attempt to curb the “dramatic” increase in the poaching and illegal trade of rhino horns in the country.
Earlier this month a young, hand-reared and tame black rhino was shot and had its horns slashed off for illegal trade.
Six-year-old Moêng was the third rhino shot in the Melkrivier area of Limpopo in a period of two weeks.
Conservationists fear that poaching may escalate as a result of the decision by the department of energy affairs and tourism to cut down on rhino hunting. One response to the illicit rhino horn trade is the micro-chip project, which will see samples taken from horns of dead rhino stored in registered containers and kept safe for future use in DNA finger printing. This will allow ivory to be tracked and illegal exports or sales detected.
The black rhino is listed as endangered and, under the Convention for International Trade in Endangered Species (Cites), it is illegal for rhino horns to be sold to overseas buyers.
“Only five black rhinos can be hunted each year and only male rhinos that don’t contribute in reproduction can be hunted,” said Sonja Meintjies, the deputy director of diversity compliance at the department.
Moêng’s owner, conservationist Clive Walker, said that poaching is a threat to rhinos across the country. South Africa is home to about 1 300 black and 13 500 white rhino. “This appalling act of killing an endangered animal underscores the serious situation facing both species of rhino in South Africa, which has seen an unprecedented increase in rhino poaching.”
The government has attempted to protect rhinos by ruling that legally hunters can kill only one rhino a year. “We have resorted to a system of one animal per hunter, per year, which decreases the chances of illegal trade,” Meintjies said.
In a speech in June Environment Minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk specifically mentioned the threat to this member of the “Big Five”, saying about 27 white rhino had been killed in the Kruger National Park in the last two years and there had been a definite increase in incidents in other parts of the country.
“This indiscriminate illegal trade in rhino is directly linked to organised crime,” Van Schalkwyk said.
A kilogram of African rhino horn sells for about R100 000 on the black market in Asian countries such as China, South Korea, Taiwan and Thailand, where it is ground into powders for medicinal purposes. The average horn weighs between 6kg and 7kg. They are also used to provide handles for daggers in Yemen.
Other regulation measures include a national register of all hunting permit applications. “In the past each province would administer its own hunting permits and all legislation was provincially guarded, but now the department handles all permit applications—meaning a person can apply for only one national permit which allows them to hunt anywhere in the country,” Meintjies said.
