Project Rhino K9 Unit: Defending African Wildlife

A huge, heartfelt thank you to you, our friends and supporters, for your generosity and support this year. With the ongoing struggle with Coronavirus, as well as the looting and riots in July, 2021 has undoubtedly been one of the most challenging years for us, but thankfully we have persevered and managed to keep our conservation teams operational and active. We thank you for helping to make this possible and in doing so, helping to keep the wildlife and communities of KwaZulu-Natal safe.

As usual, it has been a busy few months for the K9-Unit and some highlights include:

• The team played a key role in the successful location of three stolen vehicles and the apprehension of three suspects (two of these vehicles were hidden in dense forest);
• The apprehension of three suspected poachers working with hunting dogs in adjacent game reserves; as well as the tracking of poaching gangs and removal of their snares on several occasions;
• The successful tracking and apprehension of a murder suspect and a suspect involved in a mall robbery;
• The recovery of house-breaking equipment (hidden in a bag filled with cloves in an attempt to hide the scent);
• The location of a shipment of counterfeit goods worth over R1 million;
• The team assisted with medical support at the scene of an accident, and;
• The K9-Unit continued to conduct visible patrols at numerous game reserves across the area, removing 20 – 30 snares per month.

Unfortunately, the first two weeks of December were not good for South Africa’s rhinos as we experienced a spike in poaching after a relatively quiet period. The South African Department of Environmental Affairs reported that carcasses had been discovered in four provinces across the country, with seven rhinos found dead in the Kruger National Park, six in KwaZulu-Natal and seven in Mpumalanga. Four, including a pregnant female, were shot dead by poachers at a game reserve in the Western Cape and a fifth is being treated for gunshot wounds. We are deeply concerned about this increase and our teams continue to remain on high alert and vigilant to any possible threats in the area.

On a happier note, after the retirement of Gunner a little while ago, the team has welcomed a new K9 member named Kal. Kal is an 18-month-old dual-purpose dog, trained and donated by the incredible Dogs 4 Wildlife team based in the United Kingdom. Kal landed in South Africa at the end of November, accompanied by his trainer, Darren Priddle, for a two-week handover period. Along with his daily training, Kal has already taken a flight in a helicopter and been to visit the rhinos in the rhino orphanage. He has settled into his new home incredibly well and will be a huge asset to the Project Rhino team. A huge thank you must also go to WESSA Lowveld for making this possible.

“Kal is a beautiful dog in every sense of the word… with an inner spirit and determinism that makes us so excited to see what the future holds for him in his new territory,” 

~Dogs 4 Wildlife

We are looking forward to seeing Kal – and the other members of the K9-Unit – in action in 2022! We would like to take this opportunity to wish all our GlobalGiving friends a happy, healthy and successful year ahead.

Dear Friends and Supporters

With the world being upside down for the last year and a half with the dreaded Covid-19 virus and the detrimental impact it has had on tourism, conservation, job losses and the increase in wildlife poaching due to desperation, we decided to participate in something healthy and positive, to make a difference!

The Project Rhino K9 team is proud to announce our support of over 80 conservation areas, 45 iconic species and 5,000 Wildlife Rangers by participating in the 2021 #WildlifeRangerChallenge, an initiative to support the men and women across Africa’s protected areas who continue to see drastic cuts in resources and an increase in poaching due to the devastating economic impact of Covid-19. To date, the team has participated in the push-up challenge, managing to do 204 push-ups in 2 minutes, a quiz challenge and finally a sit-up challenge, where they did 155 sit-ups in 2 minutes. On the 18th of September they will participate in the final event, which is a 21km run, in full uniform, with a 22kg backpack and their weapons.

We have sadly had to retire our bloodhound K9 Gunner. Gunner was one of the founding Project Rhino K9 members; a bloodhound with a reputation that preceded him. In Gunner’s working life as an anti-poaching K9, he tracked hundreds of kilometres of suspicious spoor over tough terrains and successfully apprehended a significant number of poachers. He was a brave service dog, who has made a significant difference in the Project Rhino K9 team. We are delighted that we have found a loving home and family for Gunner, ensuring that he will be looked after and loved. A massive thank you to the K9 handlers for looking after Gunner, and WESSA Lowveld for the ongoing support during Gunner’s years in service.

We are grateful that we have managed to keep our teams operational and supported to date. In the last year, our K9 team had to absorb two additional handlers that were deployed to and paid by the Rhino Orphanage, but were given 24 hours’ notice due to the Covid-19 outbreak. The additional two members to the team - although all team members were on salary cuts - gave us the opportunity to have a far more impactful reach and presence in the Zululand landscape. We could also assist and support the reserves better and not only respond to emergencies, but actually play an integrated role in their daily patrols and training regimes. Having the K9 team operational has led to major successes of not only wildlife crime busts, but the capture of counterfeit goods syndicates, wildlife crime and trade syndicates, farm and lodge robbers, hijackers and general criminals that were a threat to our reserves, wildlife and surrounding communities. It made everyone in the Zululand area aware of our presence, while giving the conservation, farming and rural communities more security and trust in Project Rhino’s ability to keep them safe and crime free.

We have also managed to keep up with the continuous training of our teams, which is an enormous morale booster. We actively do operations simulator training with our member reserves which focuses on what to expect in real life situations in order to respond to any challenges and shortcomings. This also ensures concrete trust relationships are built between the Project Rhino K9 and aerial response teams and the reserve APU teams, so that they know the other team will absolutely support them in a crisis situation.

We would like to extend a sincere thank you and appreciation to all our donors and supporters that help us keep our teams on the ground, it would never be possible without your ongoing motivation and support. Happy Rhino Month!