A Day in Save Valley – Rhino Tracking in Zimbabwe

By Susie Ellis, Ph.D., IRF Executive Director

After spending the night at Raoul du Toit’s house (IRF’s African Rhino Program Advisor), we left Harare for Save Valley Conservancy in the early morning.  Rick Barongi, Director of Houston Zoo (and IRF Board Member) and Deleen du Toit (Raoul’s wife) drove in a truck.  Raoul and I flew in his two-seater plane.  It was incredibly hazy coming out of Harare; many fires were burning in the farmland fields.  Some of the burns are used to clear the fields on lands that have been invaded; others just seem to have swept out of control.  We stopped at Chichakwe Ranch to meet and have lunch with Mark Brightman, who has taken over security detail for Save Valley, and to meet three of the ten Save Valley rhino monitors, Laurence Ncube, Chris Ndhlovu, and Edson Chuma.

Edgar, Lawrence, and Chris (l-r) Save Valley Rhino Monitors

Each of them noted that they are deeply committed to their work, and interestingly, all three had fathers who were also engaged in wildlife or forestry.   Mark reported that shots were  heard a few days ago in Save Valley, and so all the scouts are on high alert.  We believe the poachers are using army service weapons, based on ballistics evidence gathered. From items left behind at the scene when scouts scared one group off, it appears that there are at least a couple of groups operating, and that they are fairly sophisticated.   There seem to be two gangs, minimally, in operation.  One removes the horn with a v-cut and the other chops it off without taking any part of the skull.  The scouts in Save work closely with indemnified officers (police, defense forces, or from National Parks) particularly if there are actual engagements on the ground with the poaching gangs. 

After lunch, Raoul and I then climbed back into the plane and began to track rhinos.  The process goes like this:  the plane gets up about 600-700 feet above ground, and the radio-tracking device is turned on, set to the transmitter frequency of the animal Raoul’s seeking.   The antennae are located on the plane’s wings.  One the device starts to beep, Raoul then circles the plane in tighter and lower circles (not for those with a weak stomach!) around the point of the signal until the animal can be seen.  A couple of the animals were hiding in the bush which made them very difficult to see.  We ended up seeing ten black rhinos in all, including female Gladys and her calf; adult female Ruth; female Fideya with an unidentified bull (which could be good news!); two other adult females, Sarah and Alice; and two of the big bulls, Goliath and Diesel.  Goliath got his name from his enormous size. Diesel  gets his name because the team has had to translocate him several times;  he keeps going back to unsafe areas after he’s been translocated to safer ones – and it’s taken a lot of diesel  to keep moving him to safety.  This time, Diesel was in an area right near a settlement, which does not bode well for his future.  He is a very robust, large, handsome male, but for some reason keeps going back to areas where he is at risk.

Later that afternoon, we flew to Senuko, a lodge operated by Clive Stockil and his partner Lin Barrie, who studies African wild dogs and also is an artist.  In addition to being Chairman of the Save Valley Conservancy, Clive also is Chairman of the Lowveld Rhino Trust.  He is an icon in Zimbabwe’s rhino conservation efforts, having been involved since the beginning, as has Raoul, with the efforts to stock conservancies with rhinos.  Thank goodness for their vision and passion, or else Zimbabwe’s rhino situation would be even more dire than it is now.  Rhino populations in national parks have continued to decrease rapidly, and now the conservancies, especially Save Valley and Bubye River, represent the most important populations which can serve as a source population for future restocking once adequate protection and land management is in place again.

Senuko Lodge destroyed by fire, October 2009

Sadly, Clive and Lin’s lodge which overlooks most of the Conservancy, Senuko, had burned just days prior to our visit.  A fire set in an invaded area nearby got out of control and quickly swept through the Conservancy, completely destroying the lodge.  A few important items were saved, including a large oil painting Lin had done of wild dogs, but almost all the furniture and hardwood poles that supported the thatched roof were gone.  I offered my condolences on the loss, and Clive, obviously a tenacious optimist, said, “Well, the end of one chapter and the start of a new one.” 

Jackson Kamwe

We also had a chance to visit with Jackson Kamwe, who works in Save Valley with Clive.  Jackson was the recipient of a 2009  Conservation Hero Award from the Disney Wildlife Conservation Fund.  I asked him a lot of questions about deployment and how the monitoring system works in Save Valley.  There are 10 trackers there now; they patrol every day with a list of animals that need to be found.  When an animals is sighted, a GPS reading is taken and information noted on a form, including date, time, ear notch markings, general status, etc. The data then is compiled in a central site for long-term monitoring for trends and the status and activities of individual rhinos. 

Rhino Data Form Save Valley

We stayed overnight at Hammond Lodge with Graham Connear and his wife Chantal, who hosted a lovely dinner at the lodge for all of us.  Great dinner discussions on how IRF can best support the conservancy efforts, and of course dreams of a day when rhinos won’t be facing the dire circumstances they are today.   Scorpio was bright in the sky and the Milky Way was dazzling.  Love those African night skies!

Endangered Feces Auction Update

We have just ended IRF’s Endangered Feces auction, ending with a total of 76 eBay bids, with a high bid of $1,075 for the white rhino specimen. We can’t wait to learn about the folks getting these special gifts.

The real winners, of course, are the rhinos. People are now more aware about the plight facing rhinos and are acting to help IRF to save them.  During the 10-day auction, we received nearly 11,000 visits to our website from 97 countries, 72 new readers subscribed to our e-newsletter, and online contributions, including rhino adoptions, are increasing significantly.  The message that touched us most, accompanied by a $200 donation, was, “Merry Christmas from the deserts of Iraq and this deployed Marine.”

The Endangered Feces auction was easily one of the wackier projects IRF has ever undertaken.  But it captured people’s imaginations and generated interest in rhinos all over the world.  Media coverage reached at least 3.5 million people.  There are more than 200,000 references to “rhino poop” on Google, and our YouTube video had more than 500 viewings – and a several 5-star ratings!

Throughout its 14-year history, one of IRF’s primary aims has been to encourage people to learn more about these magnificent creatures.  Rhinos have a reputation as being tough guys – but in reality they are quite fragile and the challenge to preserve populations worldwide has never been greater.  Together, we will face this challenge with optimism and determination to ensure a future for these magnificent species.

Thanks to each of you for your interest and support in the IRF and its work.

Welcome!

Welcome to the new International Rhino Foundation blog! This past year has seen lots of changes – most notably we are launching a new “look”, with a new logo and website that we hope will be more engaging and user-friendly. We hope you think so too.

The IRF is successful because of its dedicated staff, and also because of you, the people and organizations who make our work possible. I’d like to extend my personal thanks to each and every one of you who has visited our website and especially those of you who have been kind enough to provide support to the IRF through web donations. 

While all five rhino species remain in terrible peril – from poaching, from forest loss and habitat conversion, and from human settlements encroaching on their habitats in Africa, Indonesia, and India – all are in better shape than might be expected because of the International Rhino Foundation’s work. There are now about 19,500 rhinos on the planet – about 14,000 of these are white rhino, which have made a tremendous recovery from low, however, and most rhinos live in small, isolated protected areas surrounded by ever-growing, encroaching human populations with whom they must compete for resources.

In response to the global crisis in rhino conservation, the IRF protects particularly threatened rhino populations in the wild while also supporting management of and research on captive populations to improve the chances for long-term survival.    IRF has already made great strides in preventing further declines and stabilizing rhino population trends in the areas in which we work. 

• Indian, or Greater one-horned rhinos declined to about 200 at the turn of the century, but now number about 2,577 in 13 populations distributed between Assam and Nepal.  IRF and partners are readying new areas in Assam to receive overflow from some of the more successful breeding populations. 
• Black rhinos still are in terrible peril from poaching throughout their range, especially in Zimbabwe. About 3,700 are left worldwide, including Zimabwe’s 500 animals, which face escalating poaching threats. IRF and its partners work primarily in the lowveld conservancies of Zimbabwe, where we collaborate with local communities to ensure the safety of the animals through monitoring and anti-poaching patrols. Our rhino operations teams regularly remove snares, provide veterinary treatment, and rescue at-risk rhinos, moving them to safer areas. 
• The most critically endangered of all rhino species, Indonesia’s Javan rhinos live only in Ujung Kulon National Park, exposing them to significant risk of extinction.  Thanks to IRF-funded protection measures, there has not been a single rhino poaching incident in the park in the past 5 years, and the population has stabilized at around 50 animals.
• About 275 Sumatran rhinos remain on Indonesia’s Sumatra island and in Borneo.  Sumatran rhinos have declined at a rate of 50% over the past 10 years, largely from deforestation and habitat fragmentation. But thanks in large part to IRF’s support, populations in the two areas in which we work, Way Kambas and Bukit Barisan Selatan National Parks, have stabilized.  Only four poaching events have been recorded in the past 3 years because of the remarkable work and dedication of the Rhino Protection Units providing active security throughout their range.

Some situations facing endangered species seem hopeless. For rhinos, though, there is reason for optimism.  We have, and will, continue to turn dire situations around, with your help.

Step inside our new website and learn more about rhinos. Sign up for our new quarterly e-newsletter so that you can keep up to date with the latest rhino conservation news. 

Thanks for visiting. I hope you’ll be a return visitor time and time again.