Hunter and Osita inspire company to fight rhino poaching
Hunter Mitchell from Cape Town is a young man that inspired the team at Footprint Sports Travel to get involved in the fight against rhino poaching, and do our part to help save these endangered species. Daily, rhinos around the world are being killed for their horns. Whether in a game reserve in South Africa […]
Rhino Art in action
Van Loveren Wines and their partner Royal Rhino has teamed up with the Rhino Art team for the roll out of a youth art conservation initiative aimed at schools. The initiative was started to give young people a voice against poaching by using their art. The aim is to gather the largest number of children’s […]
Is 2016 a good year for our rhinos?
In the month of September the Minister of Environmental Affairs (DEA), Edna Molewa, revealed to the public that there are promising signs that rhino poaching is on a downward trend in the year of 2016. This statement resulted from the most recent statistics gathered over a period from 1 January 2016 to 31 August 2016. […]
The DNA of rhino conservation
Forensic science is key to help protect rhinos and other wildlife under siege, believes Dr Cindy Harper. Harper, who heads up the Onderstepoort Veterinary Genetics Laboratory at the University of Pretoria, has been instrumental in doing DNA profiling of rhinos and setting up the so-called RhODIS electronic database system at the university. Read more about […]
Canine ‘inspectors’ doing their part for rhinos
By Jorisna Bonthuys Their skills are second to none,” says Kirsty Brebner, who manages the Endangered Wildlife Trust’s Rhino Project. EWT has been involved in the deployment of anti-poaching tracking dogs in reserves, as well as sniffer dogs at airports and parks over the last few years. These “rhino” dogs are highly trainable, agile and […]
To trade or not to trade. Is that the question?
By Jorisna Bonthuys To trade or not to trade in rhino horn. This remains one of the most controversial issues when it comes to rhino management and plans to fight the surge in poaching. In April the government announced its decision not to submit a proposal requesting the legalisation of the international trade in rhino […]
Rhino horn consumers remain key
By Jorisna Bonthuys The rhino’s horn is something that only became a characteristic feature of this animal later in its evolutionary history. We know from historic records that some prehistoric rhinos looked more like little horses or modern tapirs (animals with long noses that live in tropical forests). Some even had woolly coats! The diverse […]
Has the rate of slaughter been stabilized?
By Jorisna Bonthuys The year 2015 will be remembered as another grim installment in the nail-biting story of the rhino’s survival race. Although South Africa’s poaching levels have shown its first decline since 2007, the overall picture remains gloomy. The mass slaughter of Africa’s rhinos has increased for the sixth year consecutively; international researchers are […]
Wildlife Ranching South Africa gala dinner and auction at Sun City
We had a wonderful evening at the Wildlife Ranching South Africa gala dinner and auction at Sun City recently. A bottle of The Last One fetched R18000 at the auction, boosting our conservation fund considerably. We were also proud to sponsor the wine for the dinner.
Poaching down in SA, but global picture remains bleak
In our concern for the bloodbath that poachers perpetrate in South Africa, we sometimes forget that the scourge of rhino poaching is not limited to just our country. Although indications are that SA saw a slight decline in poaching numbers during 2015, some of our neighbouring countries, especially Namibia, has reported a dramatic increase in […]