South Africa Uses GPS Technology In Rhino Conservation Efforts

A team from the Wildlife Conservation Trust has begun darting rhinos and monitoring them with GPS tracking devices in Kwa-Zulu Natal in South Africa in order to curb poaching. The high price poachers can fetch for ivory from rhinos or elephant tusks has made poaching a huge problem around the world. Statistics from StopRhinoPoaching.com reveal a whopping 446 rhinos have been killed by poachers in South Africa this year alone. Some fear that at this rate, rhinos will be extinct in a matter of decades.

“The process makes use of helicopters to locate the rhino as well as experienced, on the ground rhino monitors, allowing us to locate the rhino fairly easily,” explained Kevin McCann, project manager for the Trust in an interview with News24. “Black Rhino are also a little more difficult than White Rhino as they are usually tucked away in the dense brush, in comparison to White Rhino that prefer the more open terrain.”

In the early 1900s, White Rhinos were hunted to near extinction, with only around 50 beasts left in all of Africa. With the help of conservation efforts, there are now an estimated 20,000. Black Rhino, however, are on the decline since the 1970s, when their numbers reached about 70,000. In 1990 there were an estimated 2,500 Black Rhinos, and today there are a mere 5,000. “Daily monitoring of the rhino population takes place on the reserve (in effect an on-going census), which enables us to identify new rhinos and therefore plan future darting exercises to notch this for future identification,” McCann said.

“The fitting of GPS tracking technologies (complimented by aerial support) to rhino enables the reserve staff, and particularly the field rangers, to have a much better understanding of the daily and seasonal movement patterns of the animals,” McCann added. “This allows the field rangers to adjust their patrol routes to secure these rhino, and to better respond to real or potential incidents as they occur (the reaction time is reduced due to the positioning of light aircraft reserves), particularly as the field rangers have a good understanding of the rhino’s location. This ultimately reduces the potential for poaching to take place on a reserve.”

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South Africa Uses GPS Technology In Rhino Conservation Efforts