Is it bad to feel a sense of satisfaction that two suspected rhino poachers were killed in a shoot-out with Kruger National Park rangers on Thursday morning? The thing is, I do. I certainly don’t feel any sadness for them, just sadness for the eight rhinos it is suspected they killed and dehorned, for the 448 rhinos South Africa lost last year and for the hundreds we have lost in recent years.

The two gunmen, if they are rhino poachers, are the foot soldiers of something far more fearsome: the crime kingpins who run the industry. That industry is highly organised and it saw “a minimum of 470″ rhino poached in seven African countries between January 2006 and September 2009, according to the latest Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (Cites) report, dated November 2009.

Since 2009, South Africa has lost 911 rhinos to poachers.

That, as one rhino owner pointed out to me this week, is the known number of rhinos killed by poachers. There may be more.

So far, officially, this year, South Africa has lost eight rhinos, in the southern section of the Kruger National Park. Rangers following up on Tuesday’s gruesome find (the eight rhinos) became embroiled in a shoot-out with suspected poachers on Wednesday night and two Mozambican men were killed, said park GM Rey Thakhuli. It is suspected the two were connected with the deaths of the eight rhinos because they were found in the same general area. No horns were found, and park staff were on Thursday morning conducting an aerial search.

Poaching has reduced the commercial price of rhinos so that a rhino cow now fetches less than a buffalo cow, says Private Rhino Owners’ Association chairman Pelham Jones. Private owners don’t want them any more. Again, as he said, “Would you want criminals in your house? They don’t want poachers on their land.”

It is tough to look at rhinos as commodities that can be bought and sold, but it is how they can be saved. Private ownership was integral to the return of the white rhino, hunted almost to extinction, says Endangered Wildlife Trust rhino project manager Kirsty Brebner.

SANParks has responsibility for about 4-million km² of land, not all of it suitable for rhinos, and private ownership has added 22270km² to that. Hunting happens on some of that land, yes, but without that land South Africa would have to have a far smaller rhino population than its approximately 22800.

For some there are problems with our certainty over the number of rhino we have. There is debate over the census method used, and they argue that, without knowing for certain how many rhinos we have, we cannot even allow any legal hunting, whether on private or parks land.

The arguments for and against hunting are complex and emotional, but what really struck me this week when I was speaking to conservationists was that almost every one I spoke to, including Brebner and International Union for the Conservation of Nature rhino expert Richard Emslie, called for calm, rational dialogue over how to reduce the black-market price of rhino horn.

“It is often difficult to disassociate the emotions from the practical, but we have to have the debate,” said Brebner.

Even rhino conservationist Ian Player, credited with saving the white rhino from extinction in the 1970s, has made suggestions on this. In an opinion piece for Business Day last year, he wrote:

“I believe the time has come to sell the rhino horn South African conservation agencies and game ranchers have accumulated as a result of natural mortality. There is much opposition by the animal rights movement, with which I sympathise because of the “global swarming” of our own species — 7-billion people and rising, desecrating the earth. However, the increased killing because of the high price of rhino horn — R400000/kg — means we have to devise other means of ensuring the rhinos’ survival. Conservation agencies are desperately short of money. Surely it is in the interest of both the rhino and conservation economics that we legalise the sale of rhino horn accumulated through natural mortality? Our main task must be to protect the rhino populations inside national parks, game reserves and game ranches.”

Dr Player has also defended conservation agency Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife’s decision to sanction the hunting of a white-rhino bull at the Makhasa Community Reserve near Mkhuze, for which the hunter paid R960000. He said legal hunting had made a significant contribution to the recovery of the formerly critically endangered species. The species had recovered rapidly in the early 20th century through intensive protection and a ban on hunting, followed by controlled hunting from the 1970s.

“The rhino population began to explode because of financial incentives and because ranchers started to buy land for wildlife. They (hunters) have played a big role in the recovery of the white rhino,” Dr Player said in a piece printed by the Cape Times.

The hunting and the reduction of the black-market price of rhino horns are two separate, albeit related, topics. The crux is to save the rhino.

As Jones said yesterday, we are “dealing with a runaway bushfire” regarding the poaching of the rhino.

South Africa is home to almost 90% of the world’s estimated 22800 rhinos. If things continue this way, the rhino will be lost to humanity — another magnificent beast eradicated due to our stupendous greed.

The time has come for rational debate over what to do, because, as Brebner said yesterday, “We are doing a lot, but it isn’t working.”

Tags: conservation, hunting, rhino