Yet rhinos continue to be threatened by poaching and habitat loss across Africa and Asia. Wildlife tourism is a rising industry and one that can help improve awareness and vital funds for conservation efforts, if done correctly. For example, gorilla-viewing protocols to reduce human contact and stop disturbance as well as disease , and best practice for whale watching.
For rhinos, there is no one-size-fits-all approach to visiting them, but some areas do have procedures that are always followed to protect rhinos and keep everyone safe.
Chasing a rhino and its calf away from the only water source for miles in the heat of the day could mean death.
The protocol gives fixed times for tourists to be proximate to rhinos — five minutes at m, for example — after which a group would move further back or to a new area.
In addition, tourist trips go across different zones, which are rotated so that rhinos in one location are not revisited every sunrise and sunset, even if they are conveniently near the lodge where the visitors are staying. Of course, not all places adopt such a protocol. In some cases, actively interrupting rhinos to ensure they move away from people therefore hopefully reducing the poaching threat and keeping them as wild as can be , is seen as the better option; in other places, rangers actually want to see the animal get to its feet, to check for snares or other poaching-related injuries.
Explaining such procedures helps to empower tourists — and their guides — who may find it difficult to say no to someone who has perhaps paid hundreds of dollars for their special rhino-tracking experience — and educate people about the current state of rhino populations. Put simply, without generating income from tourists, many parks would not be able to continue protecting or monitoring their wildlife.
In fact, recent research shows they are already struggling to stay resourced[3]. We do understand however, that it is important for the conservancies themselves to advertise the attractions of their particular ecosystem, including the presence of rare species such as the black rhino, in order to attract new guests, which ultimately brings in vital income and can raise awareness.
Unfortunately, there have also been incidents of poachers posing as tourists, killing a rhino and then seeming to continue their visit before leaving with rhino horns as happened in Hluhluwe-iMfolozi Park a few years ago. In places that are not fenced, or which have public access, conservation managers often have to take a hard-line approach to every encounter.
However, there is a rule about driving at night, when the risk of poaching is highest, and rangers do not take any chances and investigate anyone driving their own vehicle in the area.
These road blocks, observation posts and listening posts impose an extra burden on already stretched resources. Organisations that run such programmes usually offer them for genuine reasons: benefiting wildlife and neighbouring communities as well as the paying volunteer, while raising important funds for conservation work. There are some obvious concerns around voluntourism: like the debate about unpaid internships in the UK, one might argue that if a job is worth doing, it should be given to a paid member of the local community; that pointless jobs are being created for mainly fundraising purposes; that animals in orphanages are being unnecessarily habituated to people; or that idealistic young jobseekers are over-promised the CV-building that such opportunities provide.
Against these arguments are the real satisfaction, sometimes life-changing experiences for the visiting workers; the exchange of ideas and information between people from different countries; and the valuable income generated that can benefit conservation efforts.
Visitor education People who want to see wildlife are clearly interested in that species or place. Those going on safari, for example, are of course going to see the beautiful landscapes, and hopefully catch glimpses of rhinos, elephants, buffalos and many more charismatic animals. Given that they are choosing to go and visit, they are probably people who want to know more. However, are tourists always given enough background on what they are witnessing?
Poaching is a tough topic and can understandably be very distressing. Providing visitors with knowledge in this way before, during and after their trips empowers them to support efforts to tackle such issues. This is even more important when it comes to the sale of illegal items. Certain products may be legal to purchase in one country but illegal to take home. Buying an item may be contributing to wider conservation issues and affecting highly endangered species.
We hope that this will not only encourage better practice by travel companies to tackle IWT, but also help to educate visitors themselves. Tourists are, effectively, already a captive audience. Not using this time to share knowledge and what they can do to help, is a lost opportunity for conservation.
It became fairly popular to go on such trips, generating income for a conservancy, increasing knowledge for staff and tourists and providing tourists with a different and very memorable experience.
However, abuses of the system meant that this type of safari was temporarily banned in the two main countries that carried out the practice Namibia and South Africa in Etorphine is a controlled drug, requiring special licences to use it, but in practice it was difficult to monitor whether it had been actually used for legitimate rhino immobilisation operations: for example a corrupt vet could say that the drug had been used, and with the rhino still present no one suspected anything, but then the vet could sell it on to criminal syndicates, who could then dart a rhino, dehorn it and escape, without a noisy shot ever being fired.
The global spread of the coronavirus is disrupting travel. The sun yawns over the land, vast savannahs stretching until they blur into the horizon. I can see elephants stomping up dust storms and hippos smacking their tails on muddied banks.
Below us, antelopes leap over a trickle of a river, a barely perceptible waterway clawing its way through parched earth. The resulting lack of vegetation has made it difficult for conservationists like Eric to safeguard the wildlife: poachers can now spot patrols a mile off and thus evade capture. Eric runs these balloon tours to support the organisation. A lot of the poaching here, Ben tells me, is for the bushmeat trade.
Wire snare traps are hidden in the bushes and hooked on trees to catch animals like buffalo and wildebeest. In some cities, like Lusaka and Solwezi, bushmeat has become a delicacy. They can end up with hundreds of kilos of meat. But the traps are catching more than just prey species. On a game drive, I spot Queen, leader of a strong pride of lions.
My guide, Lazarus, tells me about her: Queen got trapped in a snare in Every lion on this plain is descended from her, and without anti-poaching efforts to free her from the trap, the plains would be a very different place: with no lions, the entire ecosystem could crumble. Turning off the main road, I drive between spindly parched trees to meet Bazel, one of the four rangers assigned to watch over the rare white rhinos in this park.
The youngster stands statue-still next to its mother while she grazes on small patches of sprouting green grass. Rhinos were completely wiped out in Zambia in as a result of poaching the keratin from their horns is erroneously considered to be an aphrodisiac in a number of foreign markets, including China.
Four were reintroduced in by the DNPW, and the herd today numbers I leave the rhinos and head to catch the sunset on a boat ride along the Zambezi with Arnold Tshipa, the Zambezi Environmental Officer for Wilderness Safaris.
The eyes of numerous crocodiles linger on a hippo carcass; nearby, an elephant bathes in mud on the shores. We pause to soak in the scene before conversation turns to the topic at hand. In Zambia and Zimbabwe, you get nine years in prison for stealing a cow, but for crimes against wildlife, people are getting away with bail or community service.
But Arnold can see progress. All these cogs are working together to create change that will, Arnold hopes, stick. A thousand pearl black eyes are on me, unsettling my stomach. When they get old, they separate and parasites set in. In , Hwange saw its worst drought in nearly 30 years. The results of their efforts are notable.
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