Day 20 of lock down in Pilanesberg National Park. All is good in the Park. We have had some awesome rains. The animals are happy and healthy. Our anti-poaching units (APU) are present in the park along with park rangers.
Rhinos:
Touch wood!! Now before you read further…. touch wood! We have lost 9 Rhinos, not 7, Rhinos to poaching in the 2 sister parks. My apology. Pilanesberg 3, and Madikwe 6, this year so far.. we obviously will do what it takes to prevent poaching. A private farm also lost 2 this year. One on the night of the lock down, 27 March 2020. The last Rhino poached before lock down in Pilanesberg was on 25 March 2020, found 28 March 2020. The records I received for the North West is 11 for 2020. If there is any further update O will keep you posted.
Nonetheless, the anti-poaching team is out there in full force at all times, regardless of lock down. We are extremely proud of their dedication and determination. Theirs, and all the other APU’s out there protecting our wildlife in this most stressful of times. Thank you!
Lion update:
We have also collared a lion with a regular telemetry collar in Pilanesberg so as to monitor its whereabouts. Specifically related to Rhino carcasses, if there is a poaching, and we are delayed in finding the carcass we hope to track the lions to see what they are feeding on. Poachers use new methods to distract and obstruct our progress. I prefer not to mention these here for security reasons.
The correct collars we need are extremely expensive but we can then monitor the lions in real time. They are satellite collars that can be used to track the lions as soon as we suspect something is up. This will be critical in finding poached, or injured Rhinos, as lions will spend days on a carcass. There could even be a calf waiting to be rescued! And the idea would be for the dedicated tracking team to get there as soon as possible.
I will post the exact costs of the collar and if you are keen to support, either by sponsoring a full collar, or simply make a donation towards one, you can do so! Your assistance with this will be hugely appreciated. The full amount just for collars is around R300,000.00 for 8 collars. So we will look to collar 8 lion coalitions at R 37,500.00 per collar.
Any donations can please be made with your name and ‘Lion’ as reference.
