Poachers feel the heat

In the war on rhino poaching it is good news - law enforcement had one of their most successful weekends in the Kruger National Park last week - and research suggests the demand for horn in Vietnam is declining.

Five suspected rhino poachers will appear in the White River Magistrate's court today for a bail hearing after their arrest on Friday, when their vehicle was stopped near Skukuza during a joint police and SANParks operation.

Found in the vehicle was a .375 hunting rifle and ammunition.

The arrests come as the police upped their involvement in the park following the establishment of a task team led by Lieutenant-General Vineshkumar Moonoo.

Their involvement, said SA Police Service spokesman Lieutenant-General Solomon Makgale, had resulted in numerous arrests of poachers in the Kruger National Park over the last two months.

On Saturday, a suspected poacher died of gunshot wounds after he was shot by members of the SAPS elite special task team.

Makgale said the incident happened near Punda Maria.

Two other suspected poachers were injured in the shootout.

This brought the number of poachers arrested over the weekend in the park to 14, pushing the total for this year to 113.

While anti-poaching units had a successful weekend, in Vietnam a poll has shown the demand for rhino horn has decreased by 38% since the launch of a public awareness campaign a year ago.

According to the poll, only 2.6% of Vietnamese continue to buy and use rhino horn, and half of those who admitted to using horn were within the 45 to 55 age group.

"The results are consistent with our findings that most people believe rhino horn to be useful in the treatment of rheumatism and cancer, diseases that have a higher prevalence in older people. But we cannot ignore that young people are using it as well," said Teresa Telecky, the director of the wildlife department for the Human Society International, which conducted the awareness campaign.

Vietnamese pop star Hong Nhung recently visited the Kruger National Park with a delegation of journalists to gain hands-on information about the scale of rhino poaching in South Africa.