8th April 2015 Due to the rise in poaching in South Africa, the Erindi private game reserve has dehorned all its rhinos in a desperate effort to discourage rhino poachers. It also totally enclosed by a two hundred kilometer electric fence and has a team of thirty five staff member anti-poaching units which are committed to protecting the wildlife. The anti-poaching unit has also been very well-equipped and uses state-of-the-art technology and a tracking team.
The wildlife reserve occupies seventy thousand hectares and is inhabited by about twenty thousand wild animals.
Erindi’s game manager, Ruan Cloete, has said that all of the 230 staff on the private game reserve are involved in anti-poaching activities. He is quoted as saying “We have a very good communication system that can cover a 100km radius around Erindi and we also make use of a micro light and helicopter for aerial surveying,” Ruan added that the anti-poaching unit has vehicles on the ground everyday to patrol the entire reserve.
He is quoted as saying “We have had some poaching threats. Just the other night we heard numerous shots within a five minute period but upon investigation we didn’t find any evidence of poaching,”
Mr Cloete also talked about a recent incident where the anti-poaching unit spotted a vehicle traveling at night with huge spotlights. The person seemingly avoided any of the guards approaching him by switching off his lights. The team from the reserve eventually rammed him off the road and he was arrested with three high powered rifles in his possession.
There was yet another incident according to the reserve’s chief, involving a group of men, wandering in the property, claiming to be mining prospectors.
He said “These guys drove off the marked road and then walked four kilometers into the bush before we caught up with them. They were quite shocked to learn that lions and other dangerous animals roam freely on Erindi”
In addition to all the technological and human personnel resources put in place to protect the animals, Erindi’s owners also decided to remove all the horns from the rhino on the farm, to make the animals less attractive to poaching. The rhinos can now roam freely in their home, with no threat of life, and also with no horns.