Rhino images ... think before you post!!!!

[Etienne Oosthuizen]

So a while back I was thinking, How easy it would be to locate some Rhino on Facebook and Googled?

Ok so … google

"games reserves with Rhino" - gizzilions of options (seems the reserves are not really trying hide the fact they have rhino, time to wake up!) where do we go to find any info these days … google … sure a wannabe poacher could do the same?

Facebook gave more accurate info, I keyword searched “rhino” on FB ... and got hits back (seems to be just as easy using google)... then found the photographer and see where he/she is working as a guide, if he/she was not a guide I simply asked "where the image was taken?" ... to this date I have not had anybody say "Sorry don't want to give out that information" ... this is ABSOLUTELY SHOCKING!!!!

Even here on ODP, Rhino locations are freely available … find rhino image ask where is was taken, thats if you are not told anyways … its just too easy

and don't give me the crap that you can trust your friends … almost every rhino poached had an insider … so time to think on where and how we post images on the net …. I have stopped altogether on FB …

Etienne

[Phillip.Grobler]

… almost every rhino poached had an insider … Etienne

I would guess the insider would have better idea of where the Rhino are and won't need to look at my photos ?

I agree somewhat just not totaly.

[bomtek]

I am going to whole-heartedly disagree with you Etienne....

The reality is that advertising that you have Rhinos is one of Africas attractions, thats not going to go away, tourists come here to see the big five.

The photographer posts an image that was taken days to weeks ago doesn't give away the location fo the animal but merely the general locality. The animal moves around within that locality. By the time its posted the animal would more than likely have moved a considerable distance.
You can view live webcams in KNP and if you're very lucky, see a Rhino on one of those cams. Unless the poacher has the chopper running, he/she is wasting their time. (unless they're staying at Skukuza)

You can't hide Rhinos and I dont think the intention should be to hide them, rather to find a solution to the problem. If you look at the types of people that are involved in Rhino poaching you will see that quite a few are involved in game ranging, vetinarians, guides, PH's etc

As a last thought, if you were to come across a Rhino horn and had the intention of selling it - where would you advertise this or how would you get rid of it? I'll bet you dont have a clue, neither do I, simply because we are not involved in this type of thing. People that are involved in this sort of thing will find out where they are, merely by posing as tourists, photographers etc...

[Henk Coetzee]

I must agree with Terry on this one. If the rhinos aren't on FB and ODP the poachers will still know where to look. Big 5 reserves advertise the fact. If I were looking for rhinos to poach, my first stop would be to monitor guides radio comms. This would be the most effective way to zero in on rhinos.

[Grahame Lane]

In most reserves the guides dont call rhino sightings in anymore

[Surly Ghillie]

there is such an obvious, straight forward and simple solution to this issue; anybody involved in the trade, be they poachers, middlemen, end users, financers.... well... just give them a shot of tranquiliser and while they're down just cut the front third of their face off with a chainsaw and walk away. the poaching paradigm would soon shift

[bomtek]

I must agree with Terry on this one. If the rhinos aren't on FB and ODP the poachers will still know where to look. Big 5 reserves advertise the fact. If I were looking for rhinos to poach, my first stop would be to monitor guides radio comms. This would be the most effective way to zero in on rhinos.

Henk, you make agreeing with me sound like a bad thing

[Forgiss - Sean Nel]

there is such an obvious, straight forward and simple solution to this issue; anybody involved in the trade, be they poachers, middlemen, end users, financers.... well... just give them a shot of tranquiliser and while they're down just cut the front third of their face off with a chainsaw and walk away. the poaching paradigm would soon shift

We might not often agree, but here we are of one accord!

[Trommel]

I agree with all of the above comments, difficult to choose sides.

As game farmer I do feel that I have the right to market the fact that I do have a scarce or rare animal or big 5. The investment in these animals are huge and does not only include the aquisition cost but there are lots of hidden costs, fencing comes to mind! I need to earn a income from that animal or it must make space for a domestic animal.

Society is quick to shout "conserve the rhino" but they forget that these would have been hunted anyway! If society would like us to preserve wildlife for them, then society should carry some of the costs involved!(I do not hunt rhinos or support it)

It sounds harsh but I need to live and pay my land. It is a different matter in our national and provincial reserves where we can demand protection for these animals. As a indication of a certain train of thought, take a look at the front page of the local district paper, http://www.diepos.com/List.aspx?Type=HOME Some of the farmers believe that the more attention there are given to their animals the better their chances of survival are because people make a effort to go and look. Poachers have not been that brash to gun down a animal in full view. Further in the paper the owner offer trips to go and look at the new baby rhino.

In short I believe that the location of a rhino should be no secret. There is a difference between "preservation and conservation" and conservation pays!



These are my thoughts!

[bomtek]

I agree with all of the above comments, difficult to choose sides.

As game farmer I do feel that I have the right to market the fact that I do have a scarce or rare animal or big 5. The investment in these animals are huge and does not only include the aquisition cost but there are lots of hidden costs, fencing comes to mind! I need to earn a income from that animal or it must make space for a domestic animal.

Society is quick to shout "conserve the rhino" but they forget that these would have been hunted anyway! If society would like us to preserve wildlife for them, then society should carry some of the costs involved!(I do not hunt rhinos or support it)

It sounds harsh but I need to live and pay my land. It is a different matter in our national and provincial reserves where we can demand protection for these animals. As a indication of a certain train of thought, take a look at the front page of the local district paper, http://www.diepos.com/List.aspx?Type=HOME Some of the farmers believe that the more attention there are given to their animals the better their chances of survival are because people make a effort to go and look. Poachers have not been that brash to gun down a animal in full view. Further in the paper the owner offer trips to go and look at the new baby rhino.

In short I believe that the location of a rhino should be no secret. There is a difference between "preservation and conservation" and conservation pays!



These are my thoughts!

you okes lose more through fire than poaching dont you?

[Trommel]

Fire, man made last year friend of mine lost 55 nguni cattle. Fire natural, farmer lost 36 cattle outside Warmbad with lightning fire. Fire we manage to the best of our ability but poaching is a "skelm in die donker" Two years ago I had a up and coming youngster looking for a break, gave him a job and eventually he casually over a period of two months shot 12 impala and 1 kudu for petrol money to PTA on fridays. Not too long ago it was the new bow owners. they drive at night next to the fence and shoot the buck through the fence with the bow and then leave. Monday at school he can also claim he has killed with his bow before.

I have my own opinion as to what is happening in the game industry, we are in a price bubble similar to the information technology bubble on the world markets some time ago. There is a group of owners who will benefit beyond royally if they are the only rhino owners in the world and they can dictate prices on the auctions. Why should we pay 19.5million for a buffalo or how much for a rhino?

I personally think the industry has a rot patch and they are part of the rhino poaching syndicates. Other animals such as sable gets stolen with helicopters and dart guns from the farms, what is happening?

[Roberto]

Society is quick to shout "conserve the rhino" but they forget that these would have been hunted anyway!

I don't think hunting is the problem, it's the brutality, the dead/alive Rhino riddled with bullets with its face torn off, the orphaned calf etc...

[Trommel]

I agree the brutality is part of the new sensation the press is giving the story. I once heard someone say that "the way a community treat its animals is a indication of how they treat each other". There is then no surprise if we look around us, we have been desensitized with human hijacking and farm murders and now its the turn of innocent animals.

We as photographers play a very important role I believe in creating a visual world that all of us want to live in not blood and gore.

As farmer to see a animal go through a episode like that is heartbreaking, its like a child and you feel personally responsible but also violated. What should my actions be finding people on the farm that shouldn't be there?

The platteland is slowly turned into wasteland and no one cares. Our roads are gone, our telephone wires were stolen not to be replaced, my animals are treated as a free for all, but in the City life goes on!

[Roberto]

I once heard someone say that "the way a community treat its animals is a indication of how they treat each other"

“The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated”

Mahatma Gandhi

[WayneB]

I agree with Roberto and others, to me the biggest issue is the brutality used when harvesting the horns from these animals. It is not nor will it ever be necessary to mame and carve up a living animal just because someone is prepared to pay a small fortune for its horn. The way this is done is extremely callous and shows a complete lack of compassion towards the animals concerned. It's a true case of greed overwhelming moral principles and standards. That is of course assuming the poachers even possessed those moral principles and standards to begin with. If we were talking about poaching of livestock due to poverty and starvation it would be a completely different issue, but we're not, we're talking about greed due to a thriving underground business selling this commodity.

I really don't think that trying to hide the locations of these animals is going to help with the issue of poaching. Not only will it hurt the benefits to the tourism aspect, but it will also not do anything to address the underlying issue which is the supply and demand for their horns. As long as there is a demand for the horns, there will be poaching going on, and believe me, these poachers are a LOT more resourceful than most people seem to realise. It takes serious financial backing to set up a poaching operation of this magnitude. I sincerely doubt keeping the location of rhino secretive will prevent these resourceful 'businessmen' from finding sources for their markets.

The platteland is slowly turned into wasteland and no one cares. Our roads are gone, our telephone wires were stolen not to be replaced, my animals are treated as a free for all, but in the City life goes on!

I think the city folk will start to notice when the prices for farm goods that used to be locally farmed start to go sky high because we are having to import more and more to be able to keep pace with the requirements for feeding our population because our local farmers are battling with all the various issues they have to deal with such aas these. The problem is that by that time we will have been set back so far it's going to take years to bring our food production on farms back to where it used to be, if at all.

[Etienne Oosthuizen]

I am going to whole-heartedly disagree with you Etienne....

The reality is that advertising that you have Rhinos is one of Africas attractions, thats not going to go away, tourists come here to see the big five.

The photographer posts an image that was taken days to weeks ago doesn't give away the location fo the animal but merely the general locality. The animal moves around within that locality. By the time its posted the animal would more than likely have moved a considerable distance.
You can view live webcams in KNP and if you're very lucky, see a Rhino on one of those cams. Unless the poacher has the chopper running, he/she is wasting their time. (unless they're staying at Skukuza)

You can't hide Rhinos and I dont think the intention should be to hide them, rather to find a solution to the problem. If you look at the types of people that are involved in Rhino poaching you will see that quite a few are involved in game ranging, vetinarians, guides, PH's etc

As a last thought, if you were to come across a Rhino horn and had the intention of selling it - where would you advertise this or how would you get rid of it? I'll bet you dont have a clue, neither do I, simply because we are not involved in this type of thing. People that are involved in this sort of thing will find out where they are, merely by posing as tourists, photographers etc...

Fairy enough Terry ... I was at a recent Rhino indaba here in Zululand, the scary stats are that rhino horn is the most valuable commodity on the black market today ... we seen the rangers/vets/landowners all involved, but we seeing that the usual bad boys of ileagle trade getting involved ... your drug dealers/ child labour sex traders ... we have found links with google and poachers ... FB is not that far a stretch, guides and lodges are really going to have to review the way the market them selves ... soon we rhinos will not be on every game reserve and it will start getting difficult to find new not so well protected populations ... if guide and lodges are activity still marketing there rhino's to the world them they also tell the poachers where they could find some ...

[bomtek]

... if guide and lodges are activity still marketing there rhino's to the world them they also tell the poachers where they could find some ...

Along the same lines, we should stop advertising creches and play schools cos then pedo's will know where to find prey and what about car dealers advertising where to find cars to steal.

I heard that in Botswana each Rhino has an appointed "guard"; not sure how true this is but it certainly makes sense...the country has realised the value of its resources and is willing to protect them no matter the cost. Perhaps someone can confirm this?

[Russ]

The fact is that crime syndicates don't give a rats ass about Human Rights / perlemoen/rhino horn/ivory/tik/blood diamonds/slave trading. All they care about is profit. What we are experiencing is a war between profit and the survival of decreasing number of Rhino.



There is no thing such as partial war – war is all or nothing.

Any attempt to flood the market with “legal” horn is naïve because the potential market is so large it will all be used up within a year or two and things will soon be back to square one.


If we want to win the war we need to decide which is more important the extinction of a species and multiple Eco systems or the lives of poachers who choose to kill them.


We have many unemployed and highly skilled ex military men from all sides of the political spectrum. Deploy them in the field no holds barred and pay them a bonus per poacher captured / Rhino not killed per month.


Now is the time to “cry havoc, and let slip the dogs of war” before its to late when rhinos = 1 we lose.