DINOKENG GAME RESERVE, South Africa (AP) — On one side of a major highway lies Hammanskraal, a poor township in South Africa’s most populous province. On the other side lies a “big five” park that is home to the lion, leopard, buffalo, elephant — and rhino, one of which was killed by poachers last month in a challenge to the model of conserving wildlife near urban centers.
The 20,000-hectare (50,000-acre) Dinokeng Game Reserve is unusual because, while it features animals most associated with the danger and mystique of the African wild, it also lies close to big cities.
There are concerns that visitors will get out of their cars and be attacked by a beast, but it is the wildlife that is more at risk. In April, poachers killed a rhino with a single bullet from a high-powered rifle and cut off its horns in the first such incident since the reserve officially opened in 2011.
The rhino is one of about 300 to be killed so far this year in South Africa in a surge of poacher activity linked to rising demand for rhino horn in Vietnam and China, where some view it as a status symbol or a cure for serious illness, despite no evidence that the horn is an effective medicine. Many poachers are poor people who sell the horn to international buyers. The price reaches tens of thousands of dollars per kilogram (2.2 pounds) by the time it reaches the consumer, according to conservationists.
The rhino kill in the Dinokeng park is a stark test for a conservation area situated next to communities where many people struggle to make a living. While no arrests have yet been made, the park’s general manager, Piet Venter, said it is difficult to protect the animals in the fenced-off reserve because of poverty in the area […]
South Africa Today – South Africa News – Dinokeng Game Reserve
