More animals were killed by poachers in the Kruger National Park (KNP) last year than the year before, but the park says the numbers have ”decreased significantly” in recent months.
”Up to 20 white rhino were poached last year; the figure is now back down to seven or eight,” KNP media officer Raymond Travers told the South African Press Association on Thursday.
He ascribed the dramatic drop to the arrest, prosecution and imprisonment late last year of the members of two poaching syndicates, one operating from Mozambique.
According to Minister of Environment Marthinus van Schalkwyk, a total of 79 animals were poached in the KNP during the 2005/06 financial year, which ended on March 31.
In a written reply to a Parliamentary question, tabled on Thursday, he gave a breakdown of the animals killed. These included 52 impala, four buffalo, five warthog, a hippo and 12 white rhino.
In a similar reply late last year, Van Schalkwyk said a total of 73 animals were poached in the KNP during 2004/05.
Travers said the decline had been seen since January this year. The syndicate members had been arrested, prosecuted and jailed in October, November and December last year.
He said the high number of white rhino poached had happened earlier last year.
On the KNP’s anti-poaching measures, he said patrols were carried out on a regular basis by 22 teams of field rangers, each about 12 strong and headed by a section ranger.
South African National Parks also fielded a number of special investigation teams, four or five of which operated specifically in and around the KNP. Travers declined to give details of the teams’ operations, saying this would jeopardise their work. — Sapa