Even so, the job of interdicting the Zambian-based poachers is proving to be a hard one, especially as long as the Zambian government continues to refuse to take serious action to help stop it. Most of the country along the Zambezi is very dense bushland, difficult of access at the best of times. During the rains, trying to intercept poachers becomes almost a matter of luck. The Zambezi Valley east of Kariba consists of 12,000 km? of such terrain with a river frontage of 230 kilometres, and this is the region which until now has been the main focus of poaching incursions. Most of this area falls within the boundaries of Mana Pools National Park and the Chewore, Sapi, Hurungwe and Charara Safari Areas, and may still contain Africa's last large, viable, and continguous black rhino population. As poaching in the area intensified in 1985, Zimbabwe responded with an all-out anti-poaching campaign called Operation Stronghold, and help from overseas began to arrive via the American based SAVE (Foundation to Save African Endangered Wildlife) and the World Wildlife Fund. Zimbabwe also began the Rhino Survival Campaign with the objective, similar to that of Kenya's Rhino Rescue programme, of translocating rhinos from the more exposed areas of the lower Zambezi to national parks and private ranches well removed from danger. It is not certain exactly how many rhinos are now left in the Zambezi Valley. A 1987 estimate of 1,760 rhinos in the whole of Zimbabwe took into account the 300 already known to have been lost to Zambian poachers. By March 1988 a total of 403 rhinos were known to have been killed, while 37 Zambian poachers had been shot dead and another 30 captured. As this miniwar carried on, the poachers were reported to have begun using muti, a traditional herb medicine which will supposedly make them immune to bullets. If true, this serves to point out that the men who actually do the killing are victims themselves, mere pawns in a big-money game run by ruthless organisers who are somehow able to keep them supplied with plenty of automatic weapons and ammunition on the Zambian side. It was encouraging to learn that the more seriously Zimbabwe has taken the anti-poaching effort, the more forthcoming has been assistance from abroad. The World Wildlife Fund is now financing the full-time deployment of a helicopter to assist in Operation Stronghold, which overall is costing US$ 250,000 a year. The helicopter is mainly used for resupplying rangers in the field, and to position stopgroups to intercept intruders from Zambia once their presence is known. WWF is also currently employing a team led by David Cummings, former director of Zimbabwe's national parks, to monitor the situation in the lower Zambezi with a view to determining just what's left, and how effective Operation Stronghold has been. Over US$ 350,000 has now been contributed by SAVE in the form of equipment, including two light aircraft being used for surveillance, and a truck and trailer capable of carrying six rhinos at a time for the translocation programme. As of March, 233 rhinos had been moved out of the Zambezi Valley, and of these ten have been sent to zoos in America, and two to the Frankfurt Zoological Society to help in captive-breeding experiments using artificial insemination. The hope is that one day the progeny of these translocated rhinos will be safely reintroduced to their former homelands. On a more ominous note, I learned that in the last few months there seems to have begun a westward shift in the activities of the poachers, perhaps calculated to force Zimbabwe to spread its anti-poaching efforts more thinly. The most recent rhino poaching incidents have been in the Chete Safari Area below Chizarira, and in several parks and reserves in the north-west of the country near Victoria Falls.
Chizarira is some 1900 km? in extent, founded as national park in 1975. In September 1988, I returned to Chizarira with a small tour from the USA and Canada in hopes of showing them some truly wild rhinos in a peaceful and natural setting. As September is the very end of the dry season, some parts of the park had recently endured the grass fires which are an annual event in much of Africa, and much of the wildlife had thus dispersed into the adjacent Chirisa Safari Area. Neverthe- less, fresh rhino sign was everywhere as before, and on our second day of hiking we succeeded in tracking and coming upon a magnificent pair of rhinos. During my first visit to Chizarira I met the warden, Roger Perry, who told me the background leading up to Operation Strong hold. His real concern was that his areas of responsibility, which included both Chizarira and the Chete Safari Area in the valley below, might soon also become a target for rhino poachers. Roger Perry was absent during my visit in September, but while passing through Harare I spoke to a number of people involved with the World Wildlife Fund to get an update on the situation.
It is not certain exactly how many rhinos are now left in the Zambezi Valley. A 1987 estimate of 1,760 rhinos in the whole of Zimbabwe took into account the 300 already known to have been lost to Zambian poachers.
By the late 1980's, 2 or 3 rhinos were being killed every day in zambia's Luangwa valley, reducing what was once a population of 2000 to fewer than 100 today.
On a more ominous note, I learned that in the last few months there seems to have begun a westward shift in the activities of the poachers, perhaps calculated to force Zimbabwe to spread its anti-poaching efforts more thinly. The most recent rhino poaching incidents have been in the Chete Safari Area below Chizarira, and in several parks and reserves in the north-west of the country near Victoria Falls. With the exception of the two incidents in Chete, the 5.000 km? protected area encompassed by Chizarira and the Chete and Chirisa Safari Areas has not yet been touched by rhino poaching. With a probable population of three or four hundred rhinos, it may in turn become truly the last stronghold of the rhino.
In the mid-1980's I led over two dozen walking safaris along the Tsavo and Galana rivers. There was only one encounter with a rhino the whole time. And this was a park which as recently as 1971 had an estimated 8000 rhinos.
Led by an experienced professional hunter/guide, all six of us crept to within 15 meters of them before one caught our scent and began a charge. Fortunately, our guide was able to turn it by simply running directly at the rhino while waving his arms and yelling at the top of his lungs. Both rhinos ran off a few meters before turning to face us, snorting and sniffing the air. Only after several minutes of this did they finally move off into the bush. We were all quite thrilled, but the experience also brought home to us just how vulnerable these wonderful-looking animals are, how little deserved is their dangerous reputation, and how easy and cruel the killing of them is.
