Rhino conservation: AI collars & drones to the rescue

Photo: WWW travel advisor Amandine photographs a crash of black rhino at Kwandwe Private Nature Reserve.

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Wild Wonderful World: supporting rhino conservation where we can

If you’ve followed our conservation work, you know we have invested significantly in rhino conservation over the past few years. In May 2022, we funded the first-ever rhino horn-trimming in the famous Sabie and Mala Mala Game Reserves, with 57 rhino dehorned in 2 days. This historic operation was sanctioned due to the rate of loss of rhino due to poaching being higher than their ecological growth rate in 2021. We followed up with a dehorning operation on Balule Game Reserve (part of the same Greater Kruger open system), a white rhino dehorning with safari travelers in Phinda Game Reserve, a rhino ear-notching and horn-tagging operation in Kwazulu-Natal (KZN) province, rhino monitoring missions during safaris, as well as funding a rescue operation for a wounded rhino cow on a private reserve.  

Dehorning needs to be repeated (to counter re-growth of the horn) every 18-24 months, and thus we resumed our responsibility to support Balule and Sabie Game Reserves once again in 2023. In 2024, we contributed funding to another historic, large-scale dehorning operation in Hluhluwe-iMfolozi Park. Holding the largest remaining population of rhino in the KZN province, Hluhluwe-iMfolozi Park had held off on dehorning its rhino population until April 2024. But excessive losses, compared to other major dehorned zones in South Africa, prompted a last-minute management decision to dehorn their entire remaining population.

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According to the numbers, rhino horn trimming works

Namibia was the first country to use dehorning to protect rhinos from poaching, starting between 1989 and the early 1990s. Yet, as with anything in conservation and ecology, such interventions require longterm assessment to determine effectiveness. We are only now starting to understand the long-term effects of rhino horn trimming, because causality of rhino poaching and increase/decrease of poaching numbers are numerous and complicated. However, recent statistics are showing the potential deterrence effect of dehorned rhino populations:

In 2022, there was a 160% increase in poached rhinos in KZN, which had mostly horned populations - until recently. Conservationists have been dehorning rhinos in private KZN reserves since 2015. However, Hluhluwe-Imfolozi Park (HiP), Africa’s oldest reserve and the origin of today’s South African rhino population, holds the largest remaining population of rhino in the province. HiP has held off on dehorning its rhino population until April this year (2024), when statistics revealed that in 2023 the majority of poached rhinos in the whole of South Africa were poached in HiP.  In 2023, 499 rhino were poached in South Africa as a whole  (a 11% increase from 2022), with 325 rhino poached in KZN. 307 of these KZN rhino were poached in HiP - 61% of total recorded losses.

In contrast, in the Kruger National Park (estimated to have 70% of rhino population dehorned), witnessed a 50% decrease in poaching incidents between 2020 and 2022. This was followed by another 37% decrease between 2022 and 2023 (with "only" 78 reported rhino poached in 2023 in Kruger).

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Poaching remains the largest threat to rhino extinction  

During 2023, 499 rhinos were poached across South Africa, 406 were killed on state properties and 93 on privately owned parks/reserves/farms. This was an increase (of 51) in comparison to 448 rhinos poached in 2022. During the first 6 months of 2024, 229 rhinos were poached in South Africa (compared to 231 for the same reporting period in 2023). Bleak numbers, and if this trend does not reverse in the second half of 2024, we will only see a meager 8% decline from 2023 with the total number of poaching victims still higher than 2022.

Rhino horns are among the most valuable products in the wildlife black market. Selling for as high as $400,000 per kilogram, rhino horn is outpacing the cost of elephant ivory and gold. With the price of rhino horn continuing to sky rocket, rhino poaching in Africa follows that trend. According to Crawford Allan, spokesman for the World Wildlife Fund’s (WWF) crime technology project, “South Africa’s Kruger National Park is ground zero for poachers; there are 12 gangs in there at any time. It’s a war zone.”

Reducing the overall demand for rhino horn remains the most effective long term solution to saving these animals – cue World Rhino Day, education and social media campaigns. Whilst this has resulted in global condemnation of rhino poaching, the war on the ground continues to rage. As such, until the demand for rhino horn is eradicated entirely, the fight on the ground needs to improve in its effectiveness before we lose our rhinos all together. Rangers need all the help they can get against highly militarised poaching syndicates.

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The next phase of protecting our heritage: alternative solutions to dehorning

In recent years, various new technologies have been introduced and used to combat wildlife crime. Millions of rands are spent annually by national parks, private game reserves and landowners on the multitude of innovative solutions to the problem. Compared to other popular interventions, horn trimming or dehorning rhinos has arguably had the best results in terms of lowering poaching incidents on properties that have trimmed their entire population. However, due to the logistics involved, horn-trimming is a very costly endeavour and one that needs to be repeated every 18 months or so. While cutting off the horn of a sedated rhino to a safe level by a qualified vet is not physically harmful to the dehorned rhino itself; criticism often centres around the potential changes to the rhinos’ natural behaviour, as well as the security issues with stockpiling the cut-off horns.

Drones, satellite imagery, predictive analysis, DNA analysis, hidden cameras, GPS location devices and apps are all being implemented to try and predict, locate, track and catch suspected poachers to reduce the number of animals being killed for the illegal wildlife trade. Some reserves have injected “poison dye” or nuclear material into the horn, some have had fantastic success with employing more boots on the ground. The latter, however, does also open the door to information leaks and insider poaching.  

One method in particular, has been receiving increased attention as a ‘silver bullet’ to end the current rhino poaching crisis: employing large drones in combination with solar ankle collars, powered by AI. But does this really work, is it better than dehorning, and what are the challenges?

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How are Drones used to combat wildlife crime?

A drone is an aircraft without a human pilot aboard. Its flight is controlled either autonomously by onboard, AI-driven computers or by remote control. In that case, the pilot can monitor the footage taken by the drone and control its movements. With the vast landscapes that anti-poaching units need to patrol, searching for poachers in Africa’s wildlife reserves is often a needle-in-a-haystack operation. A drone therefore appears to be an ideal tool to employ to help the anti-poaching units cover large areas in less time.  

The big players certainly think so. In 2012, Google gave $5 million in funding to the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) to purchase conservation drones to fly over parts of Africa and Asia, in an attempt to help monitor and catch wildlife poachers. Later in 2014, The Howard G. Buffett Foundation made a R255 million donation for a three-year initiative in partnership with Nature Conservation Trust, South African National Parks (SANParks) and a South African public benefit organisation (PBO) to combat poaching in Kruger National Park and test the new drone anti-poaching technology.  

The idea was that rangers at the base could operate the drones via two laptops, one showing a map tracking the flight path, the other showing the drone’s point of view through a high-definition camera. Upon locating poachers, a ground unit could then be deployed to detain them. Sadly, by 2017, the drone programme was stopped, as the experiment proved unsuccessful. This was largely due to the limited payload on the drones: due to their small size and weight, they were not able to carry sophisticated payloads and did not detect any suspected poachers during the trial period. Subsequent, halfhearted attempts at reintroducing the drone surveyance system also fizzled out. Click here to read our thoughts on the matter in 2019.

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AI drones: the answer we have all been waiting for?

With the upsurge of AI in all aspects of modern life, it too has found its way into rhino protection with drones. Kwandwe Private Game Reserve - a reserve in the Eastern Cape of South Africa, has been using this cutting-edge technology on their property with fantastic results in protecting their black and white rhino populations. During our team’s recent visit to Kwandwe, we were able to see this anti-poaching technique in action ourselves.

The procedure works like this: a rhino is darted with a tranquillising drug, and an ankle collar is placed on the rhino’s back leg. The collar has a solar panel which increases the battery life considerably. During a trial, the collar was removed after 2 years, and the battery level was still above 90%.  

Inside the collars there is an AI algorithm that learns the behaviour/movements of that specific rhino. This data gets recorded and over time, the AI algorithm learns the rhino’s individual movement patterns and habits. This has provided the rangers on the ground with some fantastic opportunities to witness mating and births because of the algorithm indicating changes in behaviour.  

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But the most important function is that if there is a change in the rhino’s behaviour, an alert is sent to a device with 3 levels of severity. The ranger team then responds instantly with a ground team and a drone. The collar gives the exact location of the individual rhino and so within 10 minutes, a drone can be positioned above the rhino to assess the situation through video. The rangers can then see what has caused the change in behaviour and respond accordingly. For example, during the period when a certain rhino was normally lying down for a rest, it was running around instead. The AI algorithm picked up this inconsistency, and upon putting the drone in the air the rangers were able to see that lions were hunting buffalo nearby and that is what caused the rhino to run. In another instance, a rhino got stuck in a mud wallow, causing it to remain static for longer than normal. By being able to respond in a timely fashion, the rangers were able to free the stuck rhino.

The cherry on the top for this system is the capability of the drone to fly at night and provide the rangers with live thermal imagery, this is an absolute game changer as it is incredibly difficult to hide at night from a thermal camera. This combined with a very well-trained field team of rangers, the technology of the collar and the drones, Kwandwe has proven that they have created a very safe space for their rhino.  

Click here to watch the process at Kwandwe!

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Wild Wonderful World is pushing for expanding the use of AI drones in rhino protection

As we all know, there is no silver bullet to the rhino poaching crisis. The most successful reserves employ a combination of various protection methods to optimise their anti-poaching security. But after seeing this updated AI drone protection system in action ourselves, we believe it is a viable option for reserves to deploy. It goes without saying that the technology itself is not enough to protect the rhino; this method still requires well trained, disciplined and honest rangers. If you ask us, we would rather see a rhino with an ankle collar and a horn, than a dehorned rhino. After Kwandwe, smaller private game reserves like Selati are now starting to implement this system in conjunction with dehorning.

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Get involved!

Our conservation team is currently working with other private reserves that are part of the Greater Kruger system to implement the AI ankle collar and drone system. While negotiations are ongoing, we are fundraising to assist these reserves, as the equipment and installation of the supporting infrastructure required large upfront investment. Want to be part of the change? Get in touch with our conservation team to learn how to be involved! Curious to learn more about our conservation work? Visit our conservation page or read our latest updates.

Want to see the system in action? Kwandwe organises rhino monitoring safaris for guests. Contact our travel team to enquire about visiting Kwandwe on your next African safari!

Written by Evelyn Poole & Jonty Bozas