Snaring and poaching on the Kruger boundaries are continuing to cause havoc and untold suffering for wildlife. A well-know area for poaching, illegal gold mining and other wildlife crimes has been severely targeted, not only by bushmeat poachers but with targeted lion killings as well. Poachers are luring lions and other predators with carcasses, trapping them in snares and removing head, paws and skins for selling at illegal markets. Further south from this region, collars have alerted conservation managers on several occasions to snared wild dogs, with up to 4 dogs in the same pack trapped in snares.
We are currently supporting research, veterinary and anti-poaching teams in the region with funding generated from safaris. We are funding anti-poaching flights, as well as flying hours to collar lions and predators to understand where animals are moving and identify potentially snared animals before it is too late.
Our Flying for Conservation fund has enabled rapid response veterinary and anti-poaching deployment on several occasions. One of these resulted in the arrest of poachers caught in the act of killing 3 buffalo. Other helicopter flights were able to save the life of 1 snared elephant, a snared zebra stallion and follow up on lion killings by poachers. Further information is highly classified as criminal cases are ongoing.
These and other results on the ground show the tremendous benefits of aerial support in the form of helicopter deployment for quick action. The few flights we have been able to fund have already shown great promise in deterring poaching activity in the short term, capturing poachers and facilitating criminal investigations in the area. Negotiations are underway for a management mandate in the area, and once obtained, much more funding will be needed to set up regular poaching flight patrols and deploy (K9) anti-poaching units at crime scenes to track down and arrest poachers.
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