Poaching in the Park

Early morning drive to a remote part of Pilanesberg National Park to check out reports of poaching during the previous day or night...

Sure enough we found the carcass of a white rhino about 50 feet off the road.
We could smell it at least a kilometre away. And because we could smell it, so could this male lion who was tearing bits off the carcass and growling at three jackals that were also trying to get some of the food.

Here's a black-backed jackal circling the dead rhino but keeping well away from the big male lion. Even though he was obviously very full, he wasn't going to relinquish such an easy food source We think that the rhino had been shot the night before and its horn hacked off.
If it doesn't die from gunshots, it bleeds to death from where its horn is cut off.
We were told that the poachers - usually local people desperate for money - have killed more than 40 rhinos in this park alone this year.
The "anti-poaching unit", based in the park, is either completely useless, or its being bribed by the poachers to look the other way.
Most of the rangers at Shepherd's Tree Lodge think they are simply being bribed - no other logical way to explain how so many animals are lost with no arrests.
Pic by Natalie Hitchens