DEHORNING THE RHINO - ALL PHOTOS: LOUISE MURRAY / SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY
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DEHORNING THE RHINO
ALL PHOTOS: LOUISE MURRAY / SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY
rhino horn is believed to have The front line of this grisly trade
miraculous powers ranging from is South Africa, home to about
curing hangovers to treating can- three-quarters of the world’s rhi-
cer. Although there is no medical nos. In 2007, just 13 animals were
evidence for these claims, rhino killed for their horns. In 2012, the
poaching is out of control. It is figure had risen to 668, with 50
a high stakes business involving poachers shot dead and over 200
international organised crime arrested.
T
hey are amongst the old- syndicates, a murky world of
est and most magnificent corruption, undercover agents, Most of those deaths occurred in protect the remaining rhino. It’s
creatures on the planet, yet advanced weaponry, and murder: and around Kruger National Park, called ‘dehorning’ – remove the
their existence is under threat. an area the size of Israel that is rhino’s horns, and you remove
There are fewer than 30,000 rhi- “Rhinos are being illegally killed, one of the world’s top safari des- the reason for killing them. It’s a
noceros in the world, yet poach- their horns hacked off and the an- tinations. Adjacent to the Kruger complicated and often hazardous
ers are reducing their numbers imals left to bleed to death, all for National Park is the Umhlametsi process, documented by photog-
every year. The reason? Their the frivolous use of their horns as Private Nature Reserve, whose rapher Louise Murray.
horns are literally worth their a hangover cure,” says Sabri Zain, safari lodges have hosted the likes
director of advocacy for TRAFFIC, of Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt. Umhlametsi is big five territory,
weight in gold.
a global network that monitors where rhino share their home
Across Southeast Asia, powdered wildlife trade. Umhlametsi is also where dras- with leopard, lion, buffalo and
tic measures are being taken to
The dehorning operation has to be administered, so they
at Umhlametsi is super- must work quickly. The female
vised by veterinarians rhino is dowsed with water to
assisted by the Protrack cool her down after her run in
team. It is a desperate the heat, and the two horns are
attempt by owner Mike marked with a safety margin,
Frankel to save his 6 10 cm above the base. This is a
remaining animals. He guideline for the chainsaw - cut
has already lost 3 of his too low and the animal is at risk
rhino to poachers in the of life-threatening infection. A
last two months. The idea ranger wields the chainsaw and
is that poachers will be as it bites into the horn there is
deterred by cutting off the a smell like burning hair. Rhino
bulk of the horn and post- horn is made of a hard keratin
ing notices that all the like human fingernails, and is a
animals have had their form of compressed hair similar
horns removed. to a horse’s hoof. Simultaneously,
a veterinary nurse inserts micro-
A two-man helicopter chips in the neck, the remaining
flies over the property
elephants. Anti-poacher rangers survival and tracking skills, gun
to find the rhino. The vet
must evade dangerous animals competency, and crime scene
shoots the animal with a
while searching for signs of protection. Both sides - poachers
dart filled with a powerful
poachers, often heavily-armed, and rangers, risk their lives every
anaesthetic, and the heli-
entering the reserve. It is risky time they enter the bush. The
copter herds the animal to-
work. poachers are usually armed with
wards an accessible point.
AK47s for defence and hunting
The rangers have been trained rifles to kill the rhino; some have The rhino – a female -
by South Africa’s largest private night vision goggles, hand gre- collapses and a cloth is
game security service, Protrack. nades and even rocket launchers. draped over her eyes to
Rangers undergo a gruelling The rangers are armed with semi keep her calm. The team
paramilitary training that equips automatic weapons and a pump have less than fifteen
them with the skills to live in action shotgun. Often the rang- minutes to get the job
the bush - extreme fitness tests, ers find themselves outgunned. done before an antidote
war.
But dehorning is not always a
solution. Poachers often kill a
dehorned animal out of spite,
and may gouge out the remain-
ing stump from the animal.
“Driving this killing is a myth,”
says photographer Louise Mur-
ray. “There is no scientific evi-
dence to prove that consuming
powdered rhino horn is any
more effective a cure for cancer
or to reduce fevers than chew-
ing your fingernails, or gnawing
on a horse’s hoof. But this myth
has fuelled the killing of over 600
animals in 2012. The figure for
this year could be over 700. Wild
rhino are slow to reproduce -
approximately 1,000 calves each
year. Once the level of natural
reproduction is exceeded by
stump and the removed horn. waits around for the huge crea- old, buzzing with flies and mag- the numbers poached, we will
She then takes blood and horn ture to start moving. The heli- gots. This is another poached be losing the battle to save this
samples for a DNA database, copter takes off again, searching rhino, although the bull still has iconic animal from extinction.”
so that if this animal is later for the next animal, and only his horns intact. It is clear that he
poached the horn can be identi- minutes later calls through on has been shot and has managed
fied. the radio with a location. Arriv- to outrun the poachers who
ENDS 930 WDS © SCIENCE
ing at the scene, the team finds a must have lost his tracks. He’s
With the operation over, no one PHOTO LIBRARY 2013
giant carcass, perhaps two days just another statistic in this grim
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