Rhinos: Blood for Horns

The hottest topic in South Africa today is without a doubt, rhinos. It is such a concerning issue that it is being made an international concern with concerts, fundraisers, and awareness rallies in all major cities across the U.S. (that I know of).  The issue is that since 2008 the number of rhinos killed in Africa have skyrocketed to levels that are completely unsustainable. In 2007 only 13 rhinos were killed in South Africa, last year 668 rhinos.  As of April 3 of this year already 203 have been killed in South Africa.  I have wanted to talk about this for a long time, however I wanted to go see the issues for myself, as well as listen and learn from those directly involved. 

Rhinos are an ancient style of mega-mammal, whose family has existed since the early ice over 35 million years ago. Today there are 5 species of rhino, 2 in Africa and the other 3 in Asia and the Pacific islands.

What’s so special about the horn? 

Ancient Chinese and Asian traditional medicine use ground up rhino horn to “treat” a whole slew of condition from headaches, fever, STDs. Most importantly in 2008 traditional Chinese pharmacists stated that rhino horn cures cancer.

Does it work? NO!

Rhino horn is made of the same material as all animal nails and hair, the protein keratin.  It does absolutely nothing! Doctors, chemists, universities, and hospitals around the world have done extensive tests to see if rhino horn does anything and they have found….ZIP! Consuming ground up rhino horn does the same thing as eating your fingernails. I’m sure if eating fingernails or hair cured cancer or STDs we’d all be on a healthy diet of it.

Why does it persist?

Old traditions die slow, but not slow enough sadly. Rhino horn consumption across Asia is increasing. Not only do common people try to use it to cure their aliments, but rhino horn is seen as an elite status item in countries such as Vietnam and China driving the demand.

Why not use Asian Rhinos?

Well they have basically used them all. The Indian Rhino has less than 3,000 animals left, all highly protected in India, the Javan Rhino: 40 animals left, Sumatran Rhino: 275 left. So the Asian black market has turned to Africa to get their stock, specifically South Africa where 90% of all the Rhino in the world exist. 

Black and White rhinos have almost gone extinct several times in the last few decades, but conservationist, governments, parks and even militaries has helped them to recover. White rhino numbered less than 1000 in the mid 60’s, but through massive efforts their numbers have increased to about 14,000.  Black Rhino however, have a much slower recovery and have only been able to recover to less than 5,000.  This year it is estimated that some 1,000 rhino could be poached from Kruger National Park alone! This spells disaster for the rhino, as they may all be killed in less than a decade.

 

White rhino mother and calf (Phinda Private Game Reseve)

Local people are the ones who do the poaching.  All do it for greed.  A local person may be $200 (USD) per horn, which is somewhat of a lot of money around here where almost no one works, pays taxes, or really has anything worthwhile going on in their life. Fair enough most of the poachers are from Mozambique and cross the border to poach. They surely don’t live the best lives and I’m sure a lot of them do it to feed their families.  $200 is about how much these people would make in maybe 5 years.

However, regardless of their needs, it does not change the brutality and inhumanity these people have toward the animals. They sneak into national parks and private reserves with chainsaws, guns, generators, and machetes. They shoot the rhino, sometimes killing it, most times not. If not, they hack into the back of the rhino with a machete to sever the spinal cord. However, sometimes they will just take a chainsaw to the animals face while it’s alive.

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10151825133154307

There was a poaching incident in the park I do research in while I was there.  Local poachers killed a rhino by slashing into it’s back with machetes and then slashed off her face with the machetes taking the horn.  If that’s not sad enough, that rhino was a mother. Her calf sat there and watched that and later was likely killed by lions. If that’s not enough, the mother was also 5 months pregnant. So for $200, these men butchered an animal and effectively dropped the rhino population by 3 in one night.

This is the rhino was was killed in Tembe last month. Notice the hack in the back, that was done while she was still alive.

These rhino horns are then smuggled out of the country by Asian black market confederates, where they are worth up to $70,000 per pound. What is even more messed up is that the Asian government consulates here are helping to smuggle the products out. For awhile Thai government officials were bringing prostitutes to game farms, where you can kill a rhino for about $20,000 and then smuggling the horns back to Thailand in embassy packages.

All of this death and destruction so that people in China, Vietnam, Laos, Thailand, and others can eat essentially “fingernails” that will never in any way cure them of anything.

Solutions?

A lot of people suggest legalizing the rhino horn trade. White rhinos can be domesticated like cattle and the horn can be harvested every 6 months. Why not legalize it, tax it, and regulate it? That would spell instantaneous extinction for the rhino. Right now there is only a small percentage of people in Asia that use rhino horns and it is generally a somewhat exclusive product.  If it were made legal, flooding the market would only open up the consumer base and demand would shoot to levels unheard of.  If this happened, all the rhino farms in the world (2) would not be able to keep up the demand.  Not to mention that getting horns from poachers is cheap as dirt; $200 for a product worth in the hundreds of the thousands.  All the rhinos would be gone in 3 years.

They also tried removing all the horns from wild rhinos surgically. The issue is then poachers kill a rhino, find out it has no horn and they go kill another. So that had the opposite intended affect. 

Chemical Warfare 

Just this month in Sabi Sands Park they started injecting ectoparasites into their rhino's horns. The ectoparasites stay in the horn for 3-4 years and if consumed will cause extreme vomiting, nausea, and convulsions. The hope is that if these make it to the market, they will help reverse the idea that rhino horn is actually medicine.   

 

Rhino Conservationist inject ectoparasites into rhino horns

The issues are economic and cultural.  Economic in that Asian markets take advantage of poor African people to poach. If the wealth gap did not exist in Southern Africa poachers would have no reason to risk their lives to make $200.  Greed drives them, usually not starvation. These people are not starving, they just don’t have money, living in communities that don’t have money or use money. Instead they buy cars or guns, because most poachers are tied into gangs (that's a whole other can of worms).

It is cultural because of traditional Asian medicine. For thousands of years Asians have been harvesting Asian rhino horns and today they have actually succeeded in driving animals to extinction.  In the modern age, when we have proved without a doubt that it has no medicinal function, they still will pay insane amounts rather than using western medicine that actually works.  This is why some traditions and cultures need to go extinct.

Military Force

Poaching has reached new heights in South Africa. Every single park, reserve, game farm has some sort of military presences now. They all have Anti-Poaching Units, or armed rangers with military training who patrol the park borders trying to capture poachers. In Kruger National Park (which is the size of Israel and borders Mozambique) hundreds of men patrol the Mozambique border to prevent them from walking over to take horns.  Recently U.S. Special Forces Veterans volunteered to be in Kruger to act as trainers and snipers ("Battleground: Rhino Wars" is an Animal Planet show about it). So far no affect, but we need more people willing to step up to the plate like this.  

What’s the answer?

Shame the Asians; shame them and their traditional medicine. Based on Asian culture, shame is the only method that will work. Enforcement has forced the market underground. But shame, will make them want to change their ways, make the socialites give up their fix. 

How to stop the poachers? 

Kill them. It is unfortunate, but shooting poachers in site is the only way. As of now, you have go through a police investigation and process when you catch a poacher.  However, these are people that are crossing international borders, bringing weapons, stealing national landmarks, and then selling them illegally internationally. If that does not sound like a security threat and act of war, I don’t know what is. Shoot them on site. That will stop people from wanting to be poachers, stop them from considering entering parks. You try to enter the park with a gun; you clearly have intentions of poaching. That is the only way to strike fear into the gangs and communities that are doing this.

This issus is one of the main reasons I wanted to come study and work in Africa. Today we will go to war over religion, threats of violence, and mostly natural resources. But if we are not willing to go to war over our animal resources, than perhaps we are not the right stewards for this earth.  If drastic action is not taken soon, it is likely that 1,000 rhinos will be killed in Kruger Park alone this year. Next year it may be double that and that may be the last time we see a wild black rhino.  Every 18 hours a Rhino is killed by a human. 

Here's a few videos, if you want more information this website is good start: http://www.stoprhinopoaching.com/statistics.aspx

Here's a good documentary on it:

http://news.sky.com/story/1076589/south-africa-rhinos-under-threat-from-poaching

Also if you're looking for a book to read, "Killing for Profit" is a great recent book, by a South African author on the world issue of rhino poaching. 

A word on Traditions and Superstitions in South Africa

    Every culture has superstitions and traditions, some more than others.  Some we carry over into modern times as harmless tradition as innocent as having bridesmaids and groomsmen at a wedding to confuse evil spirits. However, in many third world countries around the world and across South Africa it is hard to restrain yourself after seeing and hearing of the brutality and inhumanity that results from “superstition”.   Most black South Africans still subscribe to some sort of ancient tribal belief system that revolves around evil spirits, symbology, and omens.   The forces of natural and unnatural magic are still driving forces in communities and local law. 

    The Zulu for instance believe that most animals that represent power or are in some way unusual hold magic powers.  Every community has a local Witch Doctor or inyanga who performs rituals for healing, driving away evil spirits, or rituals of power and magic.  Because of these beliefs, local people will often poach protected wildlife parks to attain animal parts.  They will use and consume organs, bones, and hides of the animal to absorb that animal’s power. They use leopard, wild dog, lion, hyena, and almost anything that can be interpreted in any way to do anything (it’s all made up so your guess is as good as any). However, they essentially believe that oddities or rare things in nature must have powers.

    A local man used to work at the park as the Lion Monitor. However, he quit 2 weeks in after seeing too many lions.  He said his ancestors had cursed him and that they were sending evil spirits to kill him.

    After a rhino-poaching incident at our park, the Anti-Poaching Unit (APU) or the parks own military and police force received inside information about possible poached animal parts at a local Witch Doctor’s house.  They raided the house the next day and found wild dog and lion pelts, along with wild animal bones and organs he had planed to use for medicine.  This medicine can be for simple colds and fevers to curing aids or removing evil spirits from the soul. Despite the education these people receive, particularly about wildlife, old traditions die slow.  I will not begin to go into traditional Asian medicine that is causing the rhino extinction.

      While I was in Zululand, I noticed many albino people in the black community. In fact more albinos than I have ever seen in my life. On one 2-hour drive, I saw 8 albino men and boys along the way.  I was told the reason for this is because traditionally, small tribes would try to keep their family names and lines pure by inbreeding.  Albinism is generally one of the first traites to appear as a result. Before I said that they believe “oddities” in nature have powers, well it is the same for humans sadly…

    Many albinos today are lucky to be alive in this part of the world, because the Zulu people believe that the albino human also holds great magical powers of long life.  Many albino infants were eaten soon after birth by their families in hopes of gaining their power. Still today many albinos are beaten and taken captive by witch doctors and local people who cut their throats and let them bleed out while people drink the warm blood and then eat the live organs. The belief is that the fresher the greater the power.  Let us not forget that these are people! Many times family members of those trying to gain some sort of imaginary power, driven on by the wisdom and leadership of local witch doctors. 

    Zululand also has the highest prevalence of AIDs in South Africa. Traditional beliefs and religion are again no help. Witch Doctors again prescribe all sorts of animal and human parts as cures. Meanwhile the President of South Africa, Jacob Zuma, makes statements like a "cold shower" and "sex with a virgin" will cure you of AIDs (Zuma used to lead the World AIDs Council).  This of course led to millions of young men going out and raping women and even young girls of any age to cure themselves.  It is not surprising that AIDs is so prevalent and the number of reported rapes number in the 10s of millions in the country. 

     Some of you may have heard of the South African miners that were shot by police during riots a few months ago.  This story made international headlines as the brutality of the South African Police force was questioned. What was not in the news headlines however was the role traditional medicine had in these events. Many of those miners on the day of the riots had been given hallucinogene drugs and painted with a black tar/blood mix by their local witch doctor who told them they would be INVISIBLE and BULLETPROOF.  It was because of this that they charged local police officers with machetes, fearless of death and convinced they would kill the evil spirits that inhabited the police.

     These are people living today in the 21^st century. These are people who vote, people who are in the military, people bag groceries and run society in this country. Granted not everyone is like this, but most believe their salts worth.  I used to think that the existence of ancient medicine and age-old traditions was a beauty of human diversity, fossils of our past that continued today. However, the past is where these traditions, superstitions, and religions should have stayed. I have been shown that they are an ugly reminder of cruelty and barbarism that comes without education. 

Lions: How Wild Can it Get?

     Perhaps the most unique quality of Tembe Elephant Park, is the how WILD it is.  If you go to other large parks in Southern Africa you will find the same big name animals, locally known as “The Big 5” (Elephant, Lion, Leopard, Buffalo, & Rhino). You will find similar picturesque landscapes and possibly even a tranquil sense of removal from human society and technology.  However, you will not have seen the true untamed Africa that Tembe offers.  There are two main reasons for this; first more than 60% of the park is off limits to anyone but management and researchers and second a maximum of 10 cars are allowed in daily.  In fact because of the isolated location of the park, there are so few tourists that it is quite common to go for some days without having to see another person on the roads.

     When driving through the park it is ordinary to come upon animals that have never seen a car before, let alone a human.  While I was out walking my transects through the deep patches of sand forest, walking into creatures large and small could be quite comical as they just stare at you unsure if you’re a killer or a friend or really what the hell you are.  In many other parks there are so many tourists in their own vehicles that, without exaggeration, you would have to wait in a line to see an animal such as a lion leopard.  If you can upon a pack of dogs or lions they would be so accustomed to people that they would sleep on the road next to your car.  This can be great for people looking to view them or take pictures, but you can go to a zoo for that.  If you truly want to see wild animals, those are as wild as house cats.   I have a much more intense and wild story about lions.

One of the less "intimidating" around the park

Lunch with Lions:

For my research I have had to walk in straight 100 meter lines through similar vegetation looking for Suni.  Despite the density of the trees and shrubs it is the most accurate if I stay on my line, which often means crawling through thorns and bushes full of bees.  My first day of work there were no rangers available to accompany me, but I was 2 weeks behind schedule and desperate to start.  So they let me work on some of the plots close to the research camp.  Leonard, the elephant monitor at the park, joined me as a second pair of eyes.  Just the day before poachers had killed a rhino in the park and the police and vets were presently at the office using a helicopter to visit the crime scene. In-between the office, the research camp, and Leonard’s house was a patch of degraded sand forest not 200 x 150 yards big this was my work site for the day.

 

A promo shot we took just before

Setting off the Leonard’s house we started to walk a line and not more than a minute in, found a fresh lion track.  The night before we had gone out with the lion monitor and saw a pride of 5 lions not a few hundred meters from where we were.  Because of that we figured it was from the night before and carried on. A little later on another line we found more tracks and Leonard pointed out imprints from where the lions may have slept last night.  The thing I find neat about tracking other than knowing the direction, speed, and sex of an animal from it’s footprint, is putting together a story behind what you see.  Finding the bed rest of a lion, we stood and imagined it dreaming of meat and territory, smiled and continued to work. 

The whole area had been rubbish and very unsuccessful, which I had figured going in, but I wanted to find something that day.  So when I was walking my last line and stopped before a large dense patch of bushes with only a few meters to go, I figured why not go another a little further, there could be a Suni on the other side. As I got on my belly and entered the thicket, Leonard who was wandering on behind me on lookout, went around.  I managed to push through the thorns and exited to a more open area with small trees and high grass. I stood up, having found nothing and ready to meet up with my friend, but a group of Nyala antelope caught my eye.  And as I turned to view them a much larger objected entered my periphery.  My immediate image in my brain was the back end of a small rhino, but in the nanoseconds that my eyes turned to see the whole animal they became locked with the golden-orb eyes of a male lion not more than 35 feet from me.

           

In that instant my body froze as if incased in ice, my heart fell into my stomach, and my brain began it’s flash of life events searching for correct action.  Having been hiding in the thick grass, the lion stood erect and alert. To the beast’s left stood his brother, another impressive male who also starred, but my eyes were locked with the other.  Without movement from either side, our eyes stayed locked for what must have been not more than 10 seconds, but felt like an hour.  In that time I knew many facts; this lion was deciding what I was, was I food, an enemy, or another beast. He was contemplating to eat, to make a defensive attack, or submit. I knew that they were 2 of the 5 lions from the night before and that the other 3 were likely on my flank.  I knew that this pride came from the far north of the park and did not know of humans.  I also knew that reaching for my knife was useless, as one wrong move could mean instantaneous death from the world’s most efficient killing machine.

Knowing all that I stood my ground and starred back into the lion’s eyes as he starred deep into my soul. A step backwards would signal submission and tell the animal that I was prey, a step forward would be a challenge, and step to either side could mean stumbling, indicating weakness. So I stood there and starred him down.  Sweating and starting to quiver I softly called to Leonard who could not see me. The brothers, having seen me as no threat and possibly a danger, backed away and turned.  I took the opportunity to back away slowly as well.  With Leonard guiding my backward steps towards him, I continued to stare unblinkingly at the lions who continued to turn and stare back at me. Once in the presence of my friend, we made haste to the camp, which ended up being less than 60 feet away.

Not my photo, but 2 males in Tembe going at it

I have been in many near death experiences, I have been bluff charged by a grizzly bear, in the presence of a wolf pack, and venomous snakes at eye level. I have been in burning, collapsing buildings, car accidents, and other potentially immediate life ending situations with the fire department. However never in my life have I felt so vulnerable and fearful that I would not exist in the coming moments.  Never have I felt such fear like that.  Never have I felt such naked, merciless fear fill my body.  And in the moments after realizing I would live, I had never felt so ALIVE!

The point of the story, other than being pretty awesome and a moment I’ll take to the chipper; is that these lions are truly wild.  Go anywhere else and the reaction of the lions would be nonchalant, rather than “is this food?” The lions in this park are divided into 4-5 prides that each militarily govern a section of the park.  The ones I walked into had come down from their northern territory to challenge the big male of the south “Mufasa”. 

A female I spotted a few mornings earlier, their camouflage is amazing

The Lion monitor in the park knows all of them by name and tracks all their movements.  He can tell you stories of their territorial battles that sound like epic human medieval tales.  Such as the battle of “Tembe Bridge” when Tempe (another pride leader) came down from the northeast marshes to retake Tembe Bridge from Mufasa and his pride. The battle lasted several weeks and ended with Mufasa’s pride being badly beaten and losing the bridge.  This is a real bridge that was fought over by lions in the park.

Most of the lions in the park view humans as equally if not more dangerous animals. If a lion ever did kill or injury a human, the façade of fear, power, and immunity to lions would come crumbling down and we would have man-eaters on our hands.   In that case they would have to kill the pride, because once they know we are food (and easy food at that) they will continue to hunt us.  If they ever got out of the park they would have a buffet with the local community.  There have been several cases of prides of lions across Africa in recent times that killed in the hundreds to thousands of humans before they were stopped.  There was a pride in Botswana that hung around a well-traveled powerline clearing between towns and killed over 600 people before they shot them all.  A single pride of lions eating entire villages seems unheard of, but I can only imagine the numbers they took prior to guns entering Africa.  (Yes, “The Ghosts in the Darkness” was under-exaggerated if anything).

Yes, Tembe is wild and not just because of the lions.  Since it’s creation the park has been focused on research and conservation rather than tourism. Most other parks place tourism and income as a priority, which means placing people’s needs first.  There is one lodge for tourist, which is quite small, no stores or cafeterias, just a registration building at the entrance. The rest of the park is a small network of unpaved, sand track roads, and a few management buildings near the entrance.  Phinda, the park I went to before is smaller than Tembe and has some several hundred tracks/roads for viewing animals, Tembe has about 10.  That means there are massive tracks of land between roads, making viewing very hard, but leaves plenty of space for the animals to live in peace. (To Be Continued)