IN-DEPTH Anti-poaching
It's a constant battle for our wildlife out there. Conservationists, game rangers and anti-poaching units versus scores of poachers; the prize, Africa's wild animals. In the animals’ corner – in our corner – are the hard men and women in the wild places, people like Conraad de Rosner. Conraad, director of K9 Conservation, is an old-fashioned hero, ‘a bush warrior’. He has been in the wild practically since he was born, and has seen firsthand the change that has become common over the years, the staggering growth of habitat destruction and loss, but most specifically, the relentless, brutal rise of poaching to feed the insatiable demand of people far from our shores, as well as local bush meat markets. Rhino horns, elephant tusks, pangolin scales, lions’ teeth, bones, claws. That and the ever-increasing hunt for bushmeat.
As he writes in his book, bushmeat poaching is more common and on a broader scale, and is far more destuctive to biodiversity as a whole than rhino poaching: ‘Although rhino horn poaching isillegal bushmeat hunting is far more prolific and serious due to the sheer number of animals slaughtered on an ongoing basis – far more serious than most people are aware of in today's day and age.’
