Project Rhino K9 Unit: Defending African Wildlife

Dear friends and supporters

In case you haven’t met the K9-team yet, they are: Gunner, Bonnie Shikar, Spook (Ghost), Mali, Vega, Vodka and Bailey, and of course, their dedicated handlers. The team consists of both tracking and detection dogs and two of the dogs are even trained to fly in a helicopter. The K9-Unit really is one of the fittest and hardest working teams in Zululand. On call 24-hours a day, they work alongside local law enforcement, land-owners, ecotourism businesses and community based institutions to keep our wildlife safe.

As usual, it has been a busy few months for the team who were called to assist in a variety of incidents including; locating a missing child, a motor vehicle accident, theft/burglary, hi-jacking, a farm attack and numerous reserve incursions. On any days that they are not called to a reaction, the team continues with their training and foot patrols, checking fence lines, removing snares and being alert to any suspicious activity.

Recently, the team was instrumental in the apprehension of three suspects involved in antelope poaching. In the first incident, the K9 was used to follow a scent from the reserve fence, right to the suspects’ door. The two suspects were found in possession of a red duiker which they had killed and skinned. The second incident involved a small gang which entered a reserve at approximately 22H00. The K9-team worked closely with a local security team and were able to apprehend one suspect after chasing him toward a stopper group. The remaining suspects fled and the poached animals were left at the scene.

A huge thank you to all our GlobalGiving friends and partners for your generous contributions to the project! Thanks to your support, in the last eight or so months the team has:

• Responded to 46 emergency reactions, including 18 poaching incidents
• Assisted in the apprehension of 21 suspects
• Recovered 7 firearms
• Removed 230+ snares
• And conducted hundreds of kilometres of patrol

We are also incredibly grateful to Rhino Recovery Fund (administered by the Wildlife Conservation Network) and Tusk Trust who generously supported our K9, ZAP-Wing and coordination efforts these past months, as well as One Plan Insurance, Wessa Lowveld and Epol for their ongoing support. Thank you for making a difference.

Please follow the Project Rhino social media pages for further updates on this, and our other projects.