Some heroes wear capes, and others wear khaki uniforms and stamp around the bush.

The war on poaching is a cause close to many South Africans’ hearts, and most of the time we see horror stories splashed across the news.

For a change of tune, Wild was granted the chance to go behind the scenes with the heroic rangers and canines battling the rhino poaching war.

Here’s what they had to say:

Spending time with some of the Kruger National Park’s fearless anti-poaching members – rangers, canines, veterinarians, guides and pilots – is an honour. Daily, they put their lives at risk to safeguard Africa’s critically endangered black and white rhinos against the onslaught of poachers desperate for a piece of horn…

Wild spent a few days at Kruger’s Mokhohlolo Wilderness Camp to find out how SANParks is defending rhinos on the frontline.

A serious tip of the hat to these folks for the work that they do:

Poachers are such trash.

Some good news via News24 from earlier this week:

The Hawks have announced a significant breakthrough in a two-year long operation that led to the arrest of two men suspected of being kingpins in a rhino poaching syndicate operating in Gauteng.

The Hawks’ Colonel Johan Jooste said on Tuesday in Pretoria that the directorate, in cooperation with SANParks, had managed to disrupt the supply chain of poached rhino horn from the Kruger National Park.

“We made a paradigm shift in wildlife trafficking and the whole supply chain,” said Jooste…

He said this was significant because it effectively disrupts the supply chain of poached rhino horn from Kruger National Park to the greater Gauteng area.

“We will always see the ripple effect in terms of how effective it was, so it’s always important irrespective of how big the syndicate was.”

Superb stuff – you can read that full report here.

[sources:wild&news24]