Rhino horn is highly prized in Asia for its supposedly medicinal properties and the demand has created a thriving market for African poachers.
Rhino horn is used in Traditional Chinese Medicine, but increasingly common is its use as a status symbol to display success and wealth. Poaching is now a threat in all rhino range states, however as South Africa is home to the majority of rhinos in the world, it is being heavily targeted. More than ever, field programmes are having to invest heavily in anti-poaching activities.
Poachers are now being supplied by international criminal gangs with sophisticated equipment to track and kill rhinos. Frequently a tranquiliser gun is used to bring the rhino down, before its horn is hacked off, leaving the rhino to wake up and bleed to death very painfully and slowly. Poachers are often armed with guns themselves, making them very dangerous for the anti-poaching teams who put their lives on the line to protect rhinos.
But rhinos aren’t only critters that roam the veldt in African game reserves.
At least two rhino poachers were eaten by lions on a South African game reserve, the owner of the lodge said on Thursday.
A ranger taking guests at the Sibuya Game Reserve in the Eastern Cape on a safari drive on Tuesday afternoon discovered human remains close to a pride of lions.
The rhinos will no doubt find some way to express their sincere appreciation to their leonine neighbors for the assist.
“We suspect two were killed, possibly three,” Sibuya owner Nick Fox said.
“We thought they must have been rhino poachers but the ax confirmed it,” Fox said. “They use the rifle to shoot the animal and the ax to remove the horn.”
Conservation and anti-poaching efforts have more than doubled the number of black rhinos in Africa to more than 5,000 over the last 25 years, but there are still precious few of them.
I’m thinking that it would take a yuuuuuuuuuuge pot to poach a rhino.
Buh-Dump-Dump-tsssshhh
The “Feel Good” story of the week!
What a shame. Poor guys. Their mother was overheard to say that they din doo nuffin and were just turning their lives around.
Just as I predicted. Around the globe animals are making alliances and strategizing how to challenge humans in the great game of global domination. The first trial engagement was when the feral pig militia overran and ate those Daesh members in Syria. Soon humanity will be caught in a two front war, fighting animals on one side, and artificial intelligence on the other.
lol i needed a good laugh, thanks.
When the tuna venture onto land with their breathing apparatuses made of kelp, it’s all over.
Good F’em. Scum need to die anyway. Hope they didn’t give the lions gas
Why don’t they just post some “Gun Free Zone” signs around the areas where the rhinos live? Poaching problem solved.
I’m not a hunter. But I totally support hunting wild animals anywhere its legal. Apex predators must be culled from the herd. In California they screwed it up and got people killed and torn up by mountain lions.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fatal_cougar_attacks_in_North_America
And in Africa the only controversy is about white people telling black people how to live in a world were Blacks are surrounded by Apex predators. Malcolm X was wrong . Only the white Liberal is the devil. Hunter conservation is the only way to save these beautiful animals and at the same time keep humans safe.
Jim Shockey’s Uncharted is the best thing on the Outdoor Channel.
“After the black rhino hunt, a village celebrates meat delivery”
https://www.cnn.com/2015/05/20/africa/namibia-rhino-hunt-meat/index.html
You use the resources you have in that part of the world you live in.
“Don’t pooh-pooh it: Making paper from elephant dung”
https://www.bbc.com/news/business-36162953
Yet another benefit of allowing the ChiComs out of the stone age.
they disagreed with something that ate them?
Enforce the rhino horn export ban and watch the poachers find something else to do. China needs to get on board with severe sentencing for rhino horn users. BTW, rhino horn is basically the same material as your nails, so these rhino horn users should just chew on their nails and save their money.
Well…
…bye.
https://i.makeagif.com/media/8-25-2014/fWx327.gif
I’m a little disappointed in the lionesses. Good moms don’t let their kids have too much junk food.
Seriously, though … Humans are apex predators only when they’re in packs, and/or have tools like spears and guns. Sometimes not even then … as this story shows.
Haven’t the Chinese gotten the memo that we white guys invented little blue pills that actually work for the ailment they’re trying to address with powdered rhino horn, tiger penis and bear gall bladders?
“Haven’t the Chinese gotten the memo that we white guys invented little blue pills that actually work…”
DG, the ‘craftier’ Chinese ‘Traditional Pharmacists’ offer their clients custom blends that have been known to contain Viagra.
All the client knows is, it worked, and now they have a repeat customer…
The cure for “ED” is a moderately attractive 19 YO hardbody who can suck-start a Harley.
No pills, no therapy, other than moving beyond the ‘same old cracker’, as Eddy Murphy said.
Oh well. I feel about the same when matadors get gored. You pretty much had it coming, buddy.
Seems that I read somewhere that prey can still be alive when lions start to dine. In this case that right there is a fun thought. “I’ll have a wing please.”
“Seems that I read somewhere that prey can still be alive when lions start to dine.”
Oh, yes.
Here in Florida, I know folks who are terrified of alligators. I’ll *happily-* take being drowned to death first rather than being disemboweled and eaten alive.
(In all fairness, I’ve heard the big cats usually like their prey not struggling while they’re eating, so they usually give a quick bite to the neck to break the spinal column first…)
Hakuna matata, motherfucker.
That about made me bust a gut.
🙂
I hear that big black penis is an aphrodisiac…just sayin’
stuff like that has more to do with you thinking “i just ate a dick, might as well add another” rather then it actually containing a chemical that makes you horny.
Dude. What you do in the privacy of your own home is your own business.
Consenting adults and all that.
Yet another totally irrelevant to guns by TTAG. Jokers have lost their focus.
Joe, you are right.
Alright guys, back to talking about the superiority of the 6.5 Creedmoor!
. . . which brings us back to the actual focus of the article, and its relevance to guns.
You see, the poachers were NOT armed with 6.5mm Creedmoors, and were therefore eaten. If they HAD been armed with 6.5mm Creedmoors, instead of, most likely, the ubiquitous AKM in 7.62×39 (.308 Short, or .30-47), they would still be alive today.
Fact!
Too bad this doesn’t happen more often.
I read that a large majority of the poachers are Somalis.
Couldn’t happen to a more deserving group!
JUST SAYEN’
Multiple heavily armed poachers, and no dead lions.
I think the poachers were killed and their bodies were left for the lions to dispose of.
I was thinking the exact same thing.
Me too. And yet, I remain unperturbed.
Yet another worthless post by TTAG. Nothing relating to guns here.
So at least two -armed- poachers were killed by lions…? Yeah, no. At least two armed poachers were killed by somebody else and fed to lions.
All poachers should be fed to lions, jackals, and anything else that might eat them. I’ve seen jackals in the wild and they would take a long time to kill and eat a poacher. Karma.
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