I've raised £12000 to help the rangers in Kruger National Park catch poachers and protect Rhinos
Organised by Neil Heron
Story
Globally, rhinos are hunted for their horns and under severe threat from poachers.
Kruger National Park should be a safe space for these magnificent creatures. I have had the privilege of spending more than 50 000 hours showing international and local visitors to the Kruger National Park.
I have guided and interpreted life changing interactions and special moments with animals and plants that together form part of one of the world’s greatest natural spaces, spending time with the Rhino living there.
This has been a sanctuary that I have called home for most of my life and I have seen poaching's effects on the Rhino first-hand.
I believe everyone can play a part - It’s time to actively stop the slaughter!
- Neil Heron
The Problem
Kruger National Park is massive - it covers roughly the area of Belgium, with hundreds of kilometers of fence to protect and Rhino are spread throughout.
Poachers slip through the fence under the cover of darkness, kill Rhino, and other wildlife, there are on average 15 incursions per night, and not all are caught. The dedicated team of people tasked with protecting the wildlife have to try and locate them before they do any damage with only limited funds and equipment to do so.
If poachers are located they are swiftly dealt with, but locating them in time is a problem, here is where you can help!
The Solution
We need a way to detect these incursions and alert the rangers, as soon as they are alerted they can send out a team to hunt and arrest the poachers before they can do damage, we can do this through technology - Trap Cameras!
Wildlife Trail Cameras can be used to monitor points on the fence that poachers use, the cameras can send images immediately with a location and time to the nearest ranger’s phone. They can then send a team out to the specific area to catch them.
Just being in Kruger on foot without authorization is an arrestable offence, more-so at night and photographic evidence of this will allow convictions alone.
While there are numerous security tools in place to protect Kruger's wildlife. There are many hardened and loyal rangers out in the bush risking their lives to stop rhinos from dying. Kruger is a battlefield, but like all battlefields, the war becomes fraught with breach – people get tired, corruption eats away at loyalty like a cancer, equipment gets outdated and the war often gets frustrating.
Our cameras work constantly. They are in the bush patrolling in secret – no tracks, no movement, no human weakness or frailty, no threat of corruption. They simply watch for a breach, record the breach and notify the closest ranger of the breach seconds later.
How you can Help
We've already trialled 2 camera traps paid for with my own money and achieved real results, the photos have been used to help convict poachers and direct teams in to intercept poachers - they've been proven to save Rhino lives.
Now we need to scale this effort up, and this is not cheap - I can't do this alone. This time, we're aiming on donating 20 cameras to the park along with ongoing airtime and batteries to enable their continued use.
Per-Camera the costs are approximately as-follows:
Trap Camera Purchase: R10000 (£588/$765)
Maintenance Costs (per Month):
- Airtime: R200 (£12/$15)
- Batteries: R200 (£12/$15)
The more cameras we can put in the bush, the better. The more batteries and airtime we can provide for the cameras, the better.
Our successes are recorded. So, we will update this page to notify you of our successes. I will keep this page alive – just like the rhinos. We will also post additional updates, podcasts and news on our facebook forum.
Please help become part of helping us to allow these magnificent creatures to continue to walk the earth free to live life by contributing to this worthy cause.
