Poachers threat to elephant herd

Recently, rangers on patrol in the Gonarezhou National Park discovered seven elephant carcasses at a watering hole near the popular Chipinda Pools. The elephants had bullet wounds and their tusks had been removed.

Late last year, 10 elephants were killed in Zimbabwe’s second largest national park and also had their tusks removed.  Bullet wounds were also discovered on the dead jumbos with wildlife experts concluding that well-oiled international poaching syndicates were behind the decimation of wildlife.
The sustained poaching of elephants in Gonarezhou National Park, which, together with South Africa’s Kruger National Park and Mozambique’s Limpopo National Park, forms the world-acclaimed Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park, is a reminder for wildlife authorities in the three Sadc countries to treat cross-border poaching seriously.

It is believed that the same group of suspected poachers who killed 10 elephants in Gonarezhou National Park late last year, was also behind the latest killing of seven jumbos in the same park though what has confounded wildlife experts is the fact that on both occasions the culprits were never successfully tracked and keep on using the same modus operandi in decimating the elephants.
Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority public relations manager Caroline Washaya-Moyo said it is suspected that cross-border poachers were behind the latest slaying of the seven jumbos in Gonarezhou National  Park.

There have been incessant calls for the tri-nation alliance constituting members of the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park, to beef up cross-border patrols and curb the rampant plundering of wildlife by increasingly sophisticated poaching syndicates who are reportedly employing  advanced poaching methods, buoyed by the existence of a lucrative market for elephant tusks and rhino horns in the Middle and Far East.
Like the rhinos, elephants remain endangered species in Zimbabwe as their horns have a ready and lucrative market in Asian countries and in the Middle East. It is reported that poachers move rhino horns through South Africa to markets in China and Vietnam. The horns are said to be used for cancer treatment in Asian nations.

The Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park is arguably the world’s largest wildlife sanctuary which is home to more than 500 different animal species. Its foundation is predicated on increasing regional integration in Southern Africa in a world that is fast warming up to globalisation.
One wonders how ignorant and                     selfish these poachers and smugglers are. They don’t consider that wildlife is  part of the country’s cash generators and tourist attractions, which has contributed immensely to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

The poachers only target endangered species, yet it is expensive to keep animals like elephant and rhinoceros.
While Government is mulling to export some of the animals due to their ever-increasing population, it should be incumbent on all nationals within Sadc to spare a thought before deciding to kill our animals, which our Government and its people treasure so much.

More than 77 elephants have died in the past three months due to a heat wave, which caused the drying up of most watering holes in western Zimbabwe and wildlife authorities have confirmed this. Rangers in Hwange National Park have counted at least 18 calves and 21 adolescents among the dead elephants with carcasses found mainly in the large bushy areas surrounding three tourism and conservation camps in Zimbabwe’s largest nature reserve.

The death of the 77 elephants represents a loss of $1,5 million in compensation value, a term used for animal loss to poaching or unforeseen deaths.
The country needs money, hence their efforts to export some animals. Foreigners and our own people should not be given room to demonstrate their ill-advised attitudes by decimating our precious resources, which have made our Zimbabwe a unique nation. Wildlife is one of the greatest wonders that have propelled our country’s economic recovery and proved to be a cog in the economic growth.

Ironically, while poaching attracts deterrent jail terms, the vice is still on the rise and one wonders what kind of punishment is appropriate for the perpetrators.
Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority is on record as saying that it was spending more than $4 million in curbing poaching which targets rhinoceros.

“Seven hundred black and 23 white rhinos have been poached this year. However, we managed to arrest 37 poachers and illegal rhino horn dealers to date,” Washaya-Moyo told our sister paper, The Herald recently.

The poachers normally use violent ways to kill these animal species. They use AK 47 rifles, immobilising drugs, poison and crossbows.
Between 1995 and 2001 some intensive protection zones in Zimbabwe demonstrated the highest reproduction rates seen in the world, bringing the population to between 500 and 530 black rhinos. However, since 2007 the population of rhinos has drastically fallen.

The country has been so plagued by the problem of poaching that at one time the Government had to suspend the issuance of hunting licences to curb the vice.
According to statistics from the Zimbabwe Conservation Taskforce (ZCTF), the country has lost 350 rhinos, 20 000 zebras and 6 000 elephants to cross-border and domestic poaching in recent years.