Support Mounted Rangers Fighting Rhino Poaching

A huge thank you to all our donors and partners who continue to support the work of Project Rhino and those on the frontline of the rhino poaching crisis. Although our game reserves are now receiving summer rain, our top priority is still supporting the horses’ nutrition with bags of feed and quality hay, as well as supporting a groom to look after them. All your donations received through the GlobalGiving platform this quarter have been invaluable in this regard, thank you!

In addition to feed and grooms, all the horse units operating in game reserves are in need of items like tick prevention, fly spray, farriers and veterinary care, as well as various training and equipment needs. Project Rhino has a number of events lined up in the next few months to help promote awareness and generate funding for the cause, these include:

• Benny Bushwhacker: Human Nature. A comedy of conservation at the Hilton College Theatre on 18 April.
• Skydive for Rhinos in Hluhluwe 06 to 12 May – this year’s event is backed by the Horings and Dorings Festival, who are donating R10 from every ticket sold on the 9^th and 10^th of May.
• Rob Caskie: An African Odyssey on 12 May. Rob Caskie is one of South Africa’s most sought after keynote speakers and story tellers, and is supporting Project Rhino with a once-off guest appearance at the Hilton College Theatre.

Follow our social media pages for more information on these, and future events.

Earlier this month, our Department of Environment, Forestry and Fisheries (DEFF) released their official rhino poaching statistics for 2019, noting a decline from 769 poached in 2018 to 594 in 2019. Deaths in KwaZulu-Natal also declined from 142 to 133. This is thanks to the efforts of our brave rangers who risk their lives every day, as well as law enforcement officials, NGOs, and donors like you.

Although a number of media articles have celebrated the fact that we are, “Winning the war on poaching,” many experts have cautioned that this is not the case. The DEFF report also notes 2,014 incursions and poaching incidents in South Africa’s flagship game reserve, the Kruger National Park last year – that is more than 5,5 incursions a day! The State will also not publicly release the current rhino populations in the Park (for the rhinos’ own protection), but without these figures we cannot be sure how severe the problem is. Southern white rhino numbers in Kruger have declined a staggering 50% over 6 years (10,621 in 2011 to 5,142 in 2017) and the probability is that the reason our poaching numbers are declining is simply because there are fewer rhino left to poach.

We cannot let our guard down and remain committed to supporting initiatives like equine units in any way we can!