Poachers suspected of being responsible for the deaths of four rhinos have been arrested after an impressive hunt by sniffer dogs, helicopters and rangers in 4x4s in Kruger Park, South Africa's largest game reserve, the park announced on Wednesday 6 July.
A carcass and an injured rhinoceros
It all started on Friday with the report of a tourist, who said he heard two shots.
Immediately the operation is launched.
The guards of the reserve, from a helicopter, see a carcass as well as a wounded rhinoceros at its side, tells the direction of the national parks in a press release.
Two other dead rhinos are found in the area and a second helicopter is mobilized.
It is the dogs, finally, which "
indicate a precise area where three suspects are found and arrested
", continues the press release, specifying that they are Mozambicans who entered the country illegally, equipped with a large hunting rifle. caliber and ammunition.
The horns of three rhinos are found in their belongings.
The injured rhino subsequently had to be euthanized as the severity of the gunshot wounds did not save him, according to the statement.
The huge Kruger Park, almost the size of Belgium, borders Mozambique and Zimbabwe.
Its wealth of wildlife is one of South Africa's main tourist attractions.
Its rhino population has been ravaged by poaching.
The park had 3,259 white rhinos and 268 rarer black rhinos last year, half as many as in 2013, according to the NGO Save the Rhino.
Read alsoRhinoceros reintroduced in a park in Mozambique
South Africa is home to nearly 80% of the planet's rhinos.
They are hunted to meet the high demand for their horns in Asia, where they are used in traditional medicine or for their alleged aphrodisiac properties.
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