Just Save One: ABSA

ABSA was the first white rhino in the Western Cape region of South Africa in 250 years. That was the time when the last rhinos were hunted out of that area. His new home at Aquila Game Park was to be the center of a breeding project to increase the population of rhinos and broaden the gene pool of the nearly extinct species. He had just begun to do his job when poachers attacked the small crash of rhinos at Aquila.

...two teams of poachers had entered the 7 500 hectare reserve in the early hours of Saturday 20 August 2011.They entered on foot using thermal night vision equipment to help them track down the rhinos. They effortlessly administered schedule seven drugs into three of the six resident rhinos.

The poachers only wanted the rhinos' horns. Made of the same material as human finger/toe nails, rhino horn powder is essentially useless as any sort of medication. Yet, despite this, the mythology of its medicinal power has created an insatiable demand in Asia driving prices in excess of $65,000 per kilogram. This attack killed one young male, nearly killed ABSA's daughter and after removing his horns with a chain saw, left ABSA bleeding to death.

ABSA struggled for life for four days after the attack, but ultimately he died from loss of blood and shock. Since 2008, 4000 rhinos have been killed by poachers intent on harvesting only their horns. Despite worldwide outrage, China continues to allow the horns and powdered horns to be imported. Despite worldwide outrage the United Stated Congress will take no stand on this deadly trade.

Rhinos have made an incredible comeback in South Africa thanks to government and private cooperation. Private game parks like Aquila help both in increasing the number of rhinos and diversifying the gene pool. Last week the South African government abandoned a controversial plan to sell harvested rhino horn into the world market. The advocates of the plan felt that by using South Africa's humanely harvested horn powder (a stockpile worth $2 billion at current prices) more money could be allocated to protecting rhinos from poachers. Major conservation organizations were opposed to the plan, believing that it could lead to increase demand and therefore more aggressive poaching and that, by participating in it, the trade in rhino horns would be legitimized.

Leading environmental organizations support the decision to veer from a legal trade and stick with the ban, adopted by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species in 1977. WildAid head Peter Knights said it was “in the best interests of South Africa and all rhinos.” The World Wildlife Fund praised the move while expressing concerns that any legal horn would merely mask the presence of illegal products poachers had gathered. “The scale of the illicit activity associated with the trafficking of rhino horns by international organized crime networks and the extent of the illegal domestic markets in Asia, we do not believe that a well-managed legal trade is feasible without negative impacts for wild rhinos at this time,” the group said in a statement.

Meanwhile, back at Aquila the battle for the rhino goes on.

Aquila Private Game Reserve is proud to announce the birth of a baby white Rhino at the reserve near Touws River in the Western Cape on the morning of 13th October 2015. This new addition to Aquila’s Big 5 is the first rhino to be born at Aquila in 10 years.