Canned Lion March

Some South Africans know about rhino poaching but I have often wondered how many of them know what is happening to our lions.

The lion is a member of the Big 5 and an animal that hundreds of tourists look for when they are in the bush in our country and all over Africa. Yet, there are less than 4000 lions left in the wild.

Why?

Because lions are being captured, and taken to places where they can breed. First of all, the females will be forced to have as many cubs as they can before being offered up as a target for trophy hunting or they are killed for bone trade. The young cubs are taken away from their mothers and then played with by people and volunteers who do not know that these cubs are destined to be hunted for trophies.

The tragic cycle begins with cub petting but does not stop there, after a few more steps as when they become mature they are released from cages into small camps, so they cannot escape from their hunters.

This is why I took part in the march to save our lions on the 15th of March 2014.

My mother, sister and I got to Zoo Lake and followed the drumming and singing to where the march was held. There, we listened to the Lion Whisperer, a DA counsel leader and a few other people as more supporters joined us. After hearing the motivational speeches and purchasing t-shirts and signs the march began.

Every single person who took part chanted “Ban Canned Lion Hunting NOW!” and “Save our Lions”. Whilst we walked down the road in time with the drums we all hoped that what we were doing, along with many other cities around the world, would make a difference. We hoped that more and more people would understand that when the trophy hunters claimed they were shooting the lions to help impoverished communities this was not their true goal. They could donate money instead of shooting these amazing animals. Our tourism doesn’t need to rely on these visitors, but should rather focus on conservation ecotourism as this is more sustainable. I urge you all to show your love for lions and say NO to Canned Lion Hunting!

Go to: www.cannedlion.org for more information.

Good News for Rhinos

Howard Buffett During his Speech

On the 14th of March 2014 something extraordinary happened.

Everyone who witnessed it knew that the poachers would be in for a surprise. Soon, very soon the rhinos would be able to live without being hassled by killers. For those of you who do not know, this extraordinary thing was Howard Buffett signing a R255 million, blue cheque to SANparks. Along with that, Standard Bank promised to donate R10 to SANparks for every tweet that used the #Aid4Rhinos, and do away with charges on this account.

The money that was donated would be used for technology, an intelligence system, for the rapid response tea. The helicopters and other equipment which is necessary to prevent poaching, and save the rhinos left in SA predominantly (SAN Parks), but also East and West Africa. This investment will help more than the animals, if less rhinos and elephants are poached then less money will be used to help fund the conflict in areas such as the Central African Republic and Uganda. So in the long run, if we stop poaching we are able to help save many victims of radical organisations all over Africa as well.

There is a reason that this money was given to the South African National Parks (SANparks). This is because we have the majority of the rhinos are in our country so if we can get a system to work here then the system can then be reproduced by other countries to save these animals.

This means that now our country has the funds to get the tools necessary to win the poaching war; we do however still need the support of all South Africans to educate and help conservation for future generations.

Saving the Survivors

We all know that hundreds of rhino were poached last year but I’m not sure how many people know that 1 in 5 poached rhino actually survives. That doesn’t mean that they are able to recover quickly and go back to their ordinary lives. No, it just means that they live a bit longer and without proper care they will die anyway.

That’s the facts. We can’t deny them but what we can do is help save these survivors. A few weeks ago there was a talk held by PPS and Profmed, there they explained what Saving the Survivors team has done to help save injured rhinos.

One such thing they did was buying software that can interpret CT scans but not for humans – rather for the rhinos. The used the knowledge  that the rhinos could only be on one side for 20 minutes or else they would get pins and needles/lose the blood supply to their back legs, to make sure the rhinos survived the operation with minimum side effects.

When the surgery was completed the Rhino’s receive a skin graft on her face to cover the area where her horn had been. The veterinarians soon realized they needed to find a way to enhance the method of skin grafting and sought input from a plastic surgeon. Recent developments now also include covering the skin graft with a metal plate to improve the chance of the wound recovery.

A Photograph of Thandi after her skin graft from (http://savingthesurvivors.co.za/save-the-survivors/)