Poachers pose as visitors to kill rhinos in a Botswana sanctuary | World | The Time https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/poachers-pose-as-visitors-to-kill-rhinos-in-a-botswana-sanctuary-s0k6mh7rw Poachers bought tickets to one of Botswana’s top animal sanctuaries where they killed and dehorned two rhinos in an attack that challenges the country’s claim to be Africa’s safest wildlife haven.The targeting of the Khama rhino sanctuary marked a brazen new phase in a poaching crisis. Erik Verrynne (29 August 2022) This is my social media comment to put the poaching incident a bit more in perspective: “KRST is a community owned sanctuary. These are the first rhinos poached since their establishment in 1993 which is amazing looking at the security situation of the region. The reported methodology used by the poachers in this case means that the current protection measures are making conventional poaching approaches difficult and forcing a bolder strategy. It has nothing to do with overstocking or distributions etc. (There has been no indications that the reproduction success of the rhinos have been affected by current stocking rates.) The risk is simply reality and KRsT remains vulnerable. Botswana has lost about 12 rhinos in the private sector since 2012. About half of them in the last 5 years and most likely as result of spill over from the Delta’s rhinos. The trend is against them. KRSt is reliant on tourists viewing rhinos which means there will always be a risk and the objective of a 100% safe sanctuary will be very difficult to achieve. Mitigation measures short of a fortress approach will most likely have to include searching visitors for fire arms or rhino parts. The lack of transparency about the poaching incident is a pity because it allows for uninformed criticism and the poaching to be used as a political play-ball. Managers of all the populations need timely access to security information to act strategically in case of potential spill overs in poaching. But we must be realistic. Future poaching will happen. The objectives must be to keep it to the minimum and never reach the levels seen in the Delta. How to achieve that is the debatable issue..”
