Dancing choppers used in veld DNA hunt

20 May 2013 - 02:51 By KATHARINE CHILD
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Getting a freshly sedated rhino into position for DNA sampling at the Pilanesberg National Park
Getting a freshly sedated rhino into position for DNA sampling at the Pilanesberg National Park
Image: DARREN SMITH

Hovering above the treetops, a helicopter drops down, dancing in the air, towards a herd of rhino grazing in the Pilanesberg National Park.

The rhino, frightened by the noise, scatter as the aircraft comes towards them.

They look clumsy as they run, the helicopter, loud and unrelenting, following.

On Friday, vets and rangers, working with a game-capture pilot, darted three rhino with a sedative in less than two hours, taking DNA samples and microchipping their horns.

The helicopter was used to separate rhino to be darted from those whose DNA had been taken. Notches on the ears help vets identify the sampled animals.

South Africa has an extensive DNA database of rhino from across South Africa, Namibia, Botswana and Zimbabwe.

The database, at the University of Pretoria's veterinary genetics laboratory at Onderstepoort, specifies the DNA of about 7000 rhino, including those from privately owned game farms, the Kruger National Park and game parks in Zimbabwe and Botswana.

The database, which has been in existence for two-and-a-half years, has been used in a number of cases in which suspects caught with rhino horn have been prosecuted for poaching.

On Friday, the SAB Boucher Conservation Fund paid for three rhino from the Pilanesberg National Park to be microchipped and have their DNA sampled, bringing the number of rhino profilings sponsored by the NGO to 101.

It is trying to raise funds for the DNA profiling of thousands of rhino across South Africa.

SAB's sustainable development head, Andre Fourie, said DNA taken from small pieces of rhino horn identified the animal so that rangers could monitor herds to prevent inbreeding.

As the rhino population dwindles, concerns about the viability of the rhino gene pool increase.

DNA signatures allow the police to link a horn seized from a suspect to a poached rhino, building a stronger case for the prosecution.

DNA profiles are also used to identify rhino for legal trade, including sales by game-farm owners.

Steve Dell, Pilanesberg National Park's head ranger, said the reserve's rangers had received training on gathering evidence from a rhino poaching scene to enable them to protect the chain of evidence. He said 30 rhino had been poached in the Pilanesberg National Park, near Rustenburg, in the past three years.

Two nearby private parks had removed their rhino after a wave of poaching in the area left them with only a handful of animals, he said.

In less than 15 minutes a micro-chip can be drilled into a sedated rhino's horn. Fragments of the horn are saved for DNA profiling. Vets cut squares into a rhino's ear to mark it as sampled.

After the antidote to the sedative is given, it takes about two minutes for the rhino to stagger to its feet.

The blindfold is removed and the rugby socks are taken from its ears before he walks off free.

The socks are used to muffle sound, to lessen the stress to which the partially sedate rhino is subjected.

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