In 2012, 618 rhinos have been poached in South Africa alone, almost doubling the amount killed in the region during 2010. Home to nearly 85% of Africa’s 25,000 rhinos, South Africa has become a battleground between poacher and animal. Because of their high-valued horns in Asia (at times higher than gold), Rhinos have been increasingly hunted with the help of night vision goggles, high-powered weapons, and sometimes helicopters.
In response to new hunting methods, Africa’s largest privately held defense firm, Paramount, developed a high-tech tool that’ll be a game changer in the rhino poaching war in Kruger National Park. The tool is called The Seeker Seabird and is a low-seeped reconnaissance aircraft that can detect illegal poachers before they attack.
Donated to the South Africa National Park Service, the Seeker runs off a quiet engine and is equipped with heat sensors, aiding pilots in detecting animals and humans on the ground from high altitudes. The surveillance aircraft will soar over Kruger National Park where 558 rhinos have been killed since the beginning of 2012, surpassing the 448 hunted in 2011.
Although rhino poaching under international conventions is banned, South Africa signed a deal earlier this month with Vietnam in hopes of curbing the amount of the illegal rhino killings in the country. Buyers in the Vietnamese black market who use the horn as traditional medicine to reduce toxins in the body, treat fever and cure cancer, pay up to $65,000 per kg.
– Juan Frausto
(Photo credit: Getty Images, Siphiwe Sibeko)
Think people should hear about this?