Weenen Game Reserve update: 7 rhinos targeted by poachers – 5 dead, 2 alive. Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife Rhino Intervention Co-coordinator Cedric Coetzee reports that Weenen Game Reserve has lost five rhinos to poaching since Friday last week. All five were white rhino and were found with their front horns missing. The preliminary suspicion is that three died from a fatal overdose of what is believed to be the M99 drug; forensics will determine the drug used and that it actually killed the animals. Two died from gunshot wounds. A further two have had their horns removed but are alive and reported to be in reasonable health. “This is a very different poaching scene to anything else we’ve experienced. While these losses have hit us hard, at this stage there appears no brutality in evidence. There were no axes or gunshot wounds. We just found evidence that the horns were removed by a saw.” Another white rhino was found dead on Monday but at this early stage it is thought to have died of natural causes as both its horns were intact. This brings to six the number of rhinos that have died in Weenen Game Reserve since last week.
Posted on: Thu, 03 Oct 2013 11:37:59 +0000
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