JOHANNESBURG, South Africa (AFP) — Breeding elephants trampled a suspected rhino poacher to death at the weekend in South Africa’s famed Kruger National Park, an official said Monday. Rangers on routine patrol spotted three poachers who ran into the elephant herd while trying to flee. The rangers later discovered a “badly trampled” man who had succumbed to his injuries, according to South African National Parks (SANParks) spokesman Isaac Phaahla. Another man was also attacked […]
Tag: Poacher
More than 1000 South African rhinos killed for their horns in 2016
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa (AFP) — Poachers killed 1,054 South African rhinos for their horns in 2016, a 10 percent dip from a year earlier, the environment ministry said Monday. Black market rhino horn sells for up to $60,000 (57,000 euros) per kilo — more than gold or cocaine — with most demand from China and Vietnam where it is coveted as a traditional medicine and aphrodisiac. In the last eight years alone, roughly a quarter of […]
Study sounds alarm for slow-breeding forest elephants
PARIS, France (AFP) — Even without poachers, Central Africa’s forest elephants would need almost a century to get their numbers back up to 2002 levels, said a study Wednesday that pried into the elusive creatures’ slow-breeding ways. The population had been decimated by illegal hunting, with an estimated 65 percent decline between 2002 and 2013, said researchers. Roaming the tropical forests of Cameroon, Central African Republic, Congo, Gabon and Democratic Republic of Congo, the tusker sub-species […]





