Botswana dehorns all rhinos in the Okavango Delta!

Botswana's Department of Wildlife and National Parks has undertaken an operation to dehorn all black rhinos and white rhinos in the Okavango Delta, home to the majority of the country's wild rhino population. This operation was necessitated by the rise in rhino poaching over the past few years. Especially the Okavango Delta rhino population has been hard hit by the recent poaching surge with 56 animals reported poached as of 04 May 2020. The dehorning of all rhinos is accompanied by the intensification of surveillance and monitoring of rhinos in Botswana as well as the relocation of highly endangered black rhinos from the Okavango Delta to a secret location.

South Africa: All rhinos in Pilanesberg National Park have been dehorned!

The North West Parks Board, the governmental organisation responsible for the management of protected areas and public nature reserves in South Africa's North West Province, has announced the decision to trim the horns of all black rhinos and all white rhinos in Pilanesberg National Park. The dehorning of the animals has been done with the help of a veterinary services expert who arrived in Pilanesberg on 12 May 2020. According to a regarding press release, the motivation behind the the drastic measure of interventions was not only to save the species, but also to ensure that the "reward to poachers is reduced" and that "the risks to the poacher are increased". In addition the dehorning of Pilanesberg's rhinos, the North West Parks Board will also significantly increase the security efforts in the protected areas and public nature reserves under its management.
Pilanesberg National Park is home to one of the most important white rhino populations in South Africa and even the world. Both white and black rhino are adapting extemely well in the National Park and have been used to establish new populations across South Africa and neighboring Botswana. The rhino population of Pilanesberg National Park has been hit hard by illegal poaching for at least the past seven years. Over this period, the National Park lost at least 120 rhinos to poaching activities.

The Pilanesberg Nature Reserve (or Game Reserve, National Park) is situated 50km north of Rustenburg in the North West Province of South Africa and borders on the famous Sun City entertainment complex. The wildlife sanctuary has an area of 572 km² and accommodates virtually every mammal of southern Africa, including the Big Five. There are nearly 200 km of excellent quality roads for either self-drives or guided drives.

Nambiti Private Game Reserve to dehorn two more rhinos

The Nambiti Private Game Reserve, situated in the heart of the KwaZulu Natal's Midlands about 25km east of Ladysmith in KwaZulu Natal and only 2.5hrs from Durban, announced that it will dehorn its last two remaining rhinos with horns later this week. The reserve, which already dehorned the rest of their rhinos over a number of years, has had no reported incidents of poaching so far.



The malaria-free Nambiti Private Game Reserve is covering about 8000 hectares and is home to the famous Big 5 (lion, elephant, leopard, buffalo and rhino) as well as to over thirty species of game including cheetah, hyena, giraffe, hippo, kudu and eland.