They needed the silencer because they knew there could be protection forces nearby: the poachers are of course fully aware that there is money available to locals for intelligence leading to the arrest (or deaths) of poachers (Peter Eastwood's charity here in NZ is one of the sources of that funding). They know too about the daily air patrols of the reserves, conducted at random times, to check for suspicious activity and to monitor the whereabouts of the rhino (imakeadifference.co.nz helps fund them, too). All this is absolutely necessary in the war with the poachers.
Unfortunately, it also means that the poachers have been forced to operate at night, making everything so much more dangerous and difficult for both sides. Rangers have been injured or killed by friendly fire in all the confusion. Some poaching parties have included an armed guard walking parallel to the poachers, his sole purpose to attack security parties. It's dark, dangerous, desperate work, and so very very urgent.
Last year more rhino were killed than ever before: 1004. Already, in January, 86 have been killed in South Africa. That's almost three a day. In KwaZulu Natal province alone, they've arrested eight poachers so far this year. But they've also lost eight rhino. It's entirely possible that some of them were rhino I was thrilled to see and photograph on game drives through the province last year. Look, perhaps this magnificent creature was one of them:
It's a black rhino. There are only 5,000 of them left in the world, you know. Won't you try to help them?
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