Poachers take advantage of coronavirus lockdown and kill more rhinos: 'It's a helpless feeling'
Poachers are targeting more rhinos in southern Africa after the region's tourism dropped due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The Botswana Vice President, Slumber Tsogwane announced that the movement of people had been very restricted. He shared that all non-citizens who were trying to enter the country from places such as the USA and the UK would be prevented from doing so.
Ever since the decision was made to restrict the borders, tourism in the country has dried up. The country has also seen the killing of at least six rhinos. Due to the fall in tourism, poachers have had more chances of targeting animals that usually stay in visitor hotspots.
So far this month, security forces in Botswana have killed five suspected poachers. Besides the six rhinos that were killed in Botswana, South Africa has seen nine rhino deaths ever since the country was put in lockdown in March. A former marine, Ryan Tate, 35, had started a group of American military veterans who fight poachers on the north side of South Africa.
Given the travel ban, Tate has been stuck in the US and hasn't been able to join his team in South Africa. "It's a helpless feeling. Poaching doesn't stop just because there's a virus — if anything, it picks up," Tate revealed, as per a report by CNBC.
"There's a lot of people struggling in Africa, a lot of private reserves that have helped save a few species including rhinos. Now they don't have that ecotourism they depend on, it's gone. There's going to be a lot of damage done from this," Tate shared.
As per CNBC, since 1960, there has been a 97.6 percent decline in the fall of the black rhino population. The population of lions has also seen a decline of 43 percent in 21 years. Rhino Conservation Botswana founder, Map Ives, said that rhino poaching has become an issue ever since the tourism declined.
"The poachers have been emboldened because the playing field is in their favor and they won't have as many problems moving around. They are professional and adept at running off with rhino horns in minutes and dodging security forces. They are masters at evading detection," Ives shared.
"It’s a bloody calamity. It’s an absolute crisis," he added. There are currently rangers present in African reserves but the absence of tourists and people going on game drives means that the rhinos and animals have fewer sets of eyes to watch over them.
Around 35,000 African elephants are killed every year. There are currently only a 1000 mountain gorillas, 2,000 Grevy's zebras remaining on earth. The drop in tourism has also had an impact on the survival of the national parks due to the lockdown.
Andrew Campbell, the chief executive of Game Rangers Association of Africa, said, "People are being laid off in the tourism industry by the dozens in Africa at the moment. All these things are happening because, without tourists, there is no money," the Seattle Times reports.
Back in 2018, the Duke of Cambridge, Prince William, spoke at the Illegal Wildlife Trade conference in Battersea and vowed to protect a vulnerable and endangered species like rhinos. "I feel it is my duty and our collective responsibility to leave our planet in a stronger position for our children," he said.
"It's heartbreaking to think that by the time my children, George, Charlotte, and Louis are in their 20s, elephants, rhinos, and tigers might well be extinct in the wild. I for one am not willing to look my children in the eye and say we were the generation that let this happen on our watch."