African Wildlife Environment Issue 75 FINAL

FAUNA, FLORA & WILDLIFE

intensive investigation one of the section rangers and his sergeant were implicated in this poaching. It sent shock waves through the whole conservation community at the time. Almost twenty years later this poaching of rhino was to become an epidemic of apocalyptic proportions in South Africa. Years later, when I was working for African Parks at the Akagera National Park in Rwanda, I ended up flying in helicopters regularly where we were called on to chase elephants back into the park from the surrounding communities. The versatility of a helicopter in this type of terrain also enables one to

techniques employed today. The KNP Air Wing has grown substantially and now has a fleet of modern Airbus AS-350B3e helicopters that have proved invaluable in the fight against poaching and doing other conservation-related work. I recall being asked by Dr Anthony Hall-Martin to be an observer in the helicopter when they were doing the Black Rhino survey in the south of the KNP. The Black Rhino have a very characteristic way of running with their heads up; they have immense attitude and are smaller in body than their White Rhino cousins, so were easy to spot from the helicopter. The late Dr

fly into areas or even land to verify a site of potential concern rather than trying to find it later from the ground. The Akagera National Park lying on the border with Tanzania, is one of the most picturesque parks in Africa, and the freshwater lakes which cover more than half of its surface, can be a hazard for low flying fixed-wing aircraft, because of the mountains close to the lakes. Counting hippo and crocodiles was easy from the helicopter because of the hovering ability. The general plains game were also easily counted from the air. I remember being enthralled at a patch of forest which we called the ‘Dancing Lady’ where it was perfectly

Hall-Martin would also take photos of all the rhino with his film camera so that each individual animal could be identified. If we saw any rhino carcasses we would land, and try to determine the cause of death, and of course retrieve the horns which usually would be lying close to the skull. It was on another occasion that Danie Pienaar was flying over the same area a year later, where they found several rhino carcasses in a small area. On closer inspection after landing, they found that the rhino skulls were missing, and eventually found one pushed down an ant bear hole. The skull had a neat bullet hole, that had gone through the brain. After

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