1
00:00:00,560 --> 00:00:01,840
Speaker 1: What What What?

2
00:00:01,560 --> 00:00:10,760
Speaker 2: What is the run? Bloomberg BusinessWeek contributor Jonathan Franklin rode

3
00:00:10,800 --> 00:00:14,360
Speaker 2: along with park rangers in South Africa. They spend their

4
00:00:14,440 --> 00:00:18,360
Speaker 2: days and nights trying to stop poachers who kill endangered

5
00:00:18,480 --> 00:00:22,919
Speaker 2: rhinos for their horns. A single rhinoceros horn can be

6
00:00:23,000 --> 00:00:26,000
Speaker 2: worth forty thousand dollars or more on the black market.

7
00:00:26,880 --> 00:00:30,400
Speaker 2: Ground into powder. It's used for traditional medicines in China

8
00:00:30,680 --> 00:00:35,559
Speaker 2: and Vietnam, or kept intact a contraband trophy for wealthy

9
00:00:35,600 --> 00:00:38,919
Speaker 2: people to put on display. If it keeps up like this,

10
00:00:39,400 --> 00:00:41,720
Speaker 2: poachers will wipe out rhinos altogether.

11
00:00:42,400 --> 00:00:43,760
Speaker 3: I would ask them, you know, how long have you

12
00:00:43,840 --> 00:00:45,680
Speaker 3: been a ranger? And they would say thirty years. And

13
00:00:45,680 --> 00:00:47,720
Speaker 3: I remember one of the guys said, when I first

14
00:00:47,800 --> 00:00:50,320
Speaker 3: became a ranger, we were always so worried because the

15
00:00:50,400 --> 00:00:53,880
Speaker 3: animals were thirsty. And I said, and now and he said,

16
00:00:54,120 --> 00:00:57,000
Speaker 3: we've got guns. We're more like soldiers. It's gone from

17
00:00:57,040 --> 00:01:01,080
Speaker 3: being like a joy to conserve the to a war

18
00:01:01,240 --> 00:01:02,080
Speaker 3: to protect them.

19
00:01:02,960 --> 00:01:06,319
Speaker 2: But keeping up with poachers is not easy, so the

20
00:01:06,440 --> 00:01:15,240
Speaker 2: rangers are now taking an unexpected approach. I'm West Kesova

21
00:01:15,319 --> 00:01:18,040
Speaker 2: today on the Big Take. If you can't beat them

22
00:01:18,520 --> 00:01:25,520
Speaker 2: join them.

23
00:01:28,200 --> 00:01:31,119
Speaker 3: So when I arrived in South Africa's Greater Kruger Park,

24
00:01:31,160 --> 00:01:33,560
Speaker 3: it's about five and a half million acres and I'm

25
00:01:33,560 --> 00:01:35,319
Speaker 3: in the back of a jeep and we're kind of

26
00:01:35,319 --> 00:01:39,399
Speaker 3: bouncing across the savannah looking for rhinos. And it's kind

27
00:01:39,400 --> 00:01:42,400
Speaker 3: of this whole caravan of people that are all hunting

28
00:01:42,400 --> 00:01:45,080
Speaker 3: for a rhino. And what's so crazy is you can't

29
00:01:45,080 --> 00:01:46,000
Speaker 3: find any rhinos.

30
00:01:46,600 --> 00:01:50,320
Speaker 2: The people Jonathan is riding around with aren't poachers. They're

31
00:01:50,400 --> 00:01:53,840
Speaker 2: park rangers who chase down the animals in hopes of

32
00:01:53,920 --> 00:01:54,880
Speaker 2: saving their lives.

33
00:01:55,360 --> 00:01:57,320
Speaker 3: People would say, you know, ten years ago, this never

34
00:01:57,320 --> 00:01:59,680
Speaker 3: would have happened. You could always find the rhino. Some

35
00:01:59,720 --> 00:02:03,440
Speaker 3: people we have binoculars. Some people are expert trackers, so

36
00:02:03,480 --> 00:02:06,840
Speaker 3: they're also looking for tracks. And we look and we look,

37
00:02:06,840 --> 00:02:10,120
Speaker 3: and nobody can find a rhino. So I convinced the

38
00:02:10,120 --> 00:02:12,120
Speaker 3: helicopter crew to let me go up with them because

39
00:02:12,120 --> 00:02:14,560
Speaker 3: there was a helicopter here that was also going to

40
00:02:14,560 --> 00:02:17,520
Speaker 3: be part of the team. So we get in a

41
00:02:17,520 --> 00:02:21,720
Speaker 3: helicopter and it's the pilot, myself and a veterinarian with

42
00:02:21,720 --> 00:02:25,360
Speaker 3: a long gun, and from up in a helicopter, we

43
00:02:25,440 --> 00:02:28,800
Speaker 3: still can't find it like we're literally like quirkscrewing around,

44
00:02:29,120 --> 00:02:31,959
Speaker 3: going probably one hundred feet off the ground at most

45
00:02:32,040 --> 00:02:35,320
Speaker 3: two hundred, like really zipping along the tree line the

46
00:02:35,400 --> 00:02:38,800
Speaker 3: wh Sometimes we pause and you see zebras everywhere, you

47
00:02:38,840 --> 00:02:43,000
Speaker 3: see giraffes, you see herds of elephants. Sometimes you see

48
00:02:43,040 --> 00:02:46,280
Speaker 3: lions these by these waterholes. But we can't find any rhinos.

49
00:02:47,000 --> 00:02:50,040
Speaker 3: And it takes us about four or five loops around

50
00:02:50,040 --> 00:02:53,200
Speaker 3: this big corner of Kruger National Park, and we're zipping

51
00:02:53,240 --> 00:02:55,760
Speaker 3: this way and that way, and it's all spectacular, but

52
00:02:55,800 --> 00:02:58,680
Speaker 3: the pilots are kind of muttering, where's the rhino? Where's

53
00:02:58,720 --> 00:03:03,200
Speaker 3: the rhino? And finally they spot a mom rhino with

54
00:03:03,240 --> 00:03:06,480
Speaker 3: a calf, and we hovered just above it, and they're

55
00:03:06,480 --> 00:03:08,639
Speaker 3: looking through binoculars because they need to know do these

56
00:03:08,680 --> 00:03:13,079
Speaker 3: rhinos have horns? And they confirm that both rhinos have horns,

57
00:03:13,400 --> 00:03:15,040
Speaker 3: and that means that they're gonna shoot.

58
00:03:14,800 --> 00:03:18,919
Speaker 2: Them, but not shoot them with bullets. Instead, the veterinarian

59
00:03:19,000 --> 00:03:22,760
Speaker 2: loads up his rifle with a heavy duty tranquilizer. Two

60
00:03:22,760 --> 00:03:26,720
Speaker 2: shots later and there are two drowsy rhinos. The jeeps

61
00:03:26,720 --> 00:03:29,160
Speaker 2: that have been following along speed up to get close

62
00:03:29,200 --> 00:03:31,120
Speaker 2: to the animals.

63
00:03:33,280 --> 00:03:36,400
Speaker 3: And the helicopter comes to a quick stop, and basically

64
00:03:36,520 --> 00:03:39,760
Speaker 3: the veterinarian is running through this grass, and this grass

65
00:03:39,800 --> 00:03:42,680
Speaker 3: is pretty high, it's like waist hie, and it's full

66
00:03:42,720 --> 00:03:47,160
Speaker 3: of these weird, huge yellow spiders called golden orbs. The

67
00:03:47,240 --> 00:03:49,839
Speaker 3: rhinos now been darted and it hasn't tipped over yet.

68
00:03:49,880 --> 00:03:52,760
Speaker 3: We're about ten meters away from the rhino. It's quite

69
00:03:52,800 --> 00:03:57,520
Speaker 3: slowed down, it's moving a little bit, but it's about

70
00:03:57,560 --> 00:04:01,840
Speaker 3: to topple over. And one of the first things they

71
00:04:01,840 --> 00:04:04,240
Speaker 3: have to do is load the eyes with eye drops,

72
00:04:04,880 --> 00:04:06,840
Speaker 3: because it turns out that if you sedate a rhino,

73
00:04:07,120 --> 00:04:10,360
Speaker 3: it leaves its eyes open doesn't blink, and the first

74
00:04:10,400 --> 00:04:13,040
Speaker 3: time they do these operations, the rhinos all went blind.

75
00:04:13,600 --> 00:04:17,440
Speaker 3: So there's all sorts of very you know, timely and

76
00:04:17,640 --> 00:04:20,840
Speaker 3: life saving or life threatening procedures going on between the

77
00:04:20,920 --> 00:04:24,640
Speaker 3: veterinarian team and the two rhinos. Then comes one of

78
00:04:24,720 --> 00:04:28,760
Speaker 3: the probably the most kind of disheartening or kind of

79
00:04:28,839 --> 00:04:32,080
Speaker 3: terrifying aspects of this is that a guy starts up.

80
00:04:32,320 --> 00:04:34,960
Speaker 3: Sometimes he use a chainsaw, and so with these saws,

81
00:04:35,000 --> 00:04:37,320
Speaker 3: they fire them up and they kind of brace themselves

82
00:04:38,520 --> 00:04:41,359
Speaker 3: and they very slowly lean into the horn, and you

83
00:04:41,400 --> 00:04:43,880
Speaker 3: can just see the horn being eaten away and it

84
00:04:44,360 --> 00:04:48,000
Speaker 3: says chips this rhino horn flying around. It smells kind

85
00:04:48,000 --> 00:04:49,839
Speaker 3: of weird. It kind of smell like almonds or nuts.

86
00:04:49,880 --> 00:04:55,760
Speaker 3: As this whole thing is going down, within thirty seconds,

87
00:04:55,960 --> 00:04:59,760
Speaker 3: they've sawed off the horns and they take the horns

88
00:05:00,080 --> 00:05:04,120
Speaker 3: and they immediately take a sharpie and they put like

89
00:05:04,160 --> 00:05:06,960
Speaker 3: a code number on it, almost like a serial number.

90
00:05:07,680 --> 00:05:10,480
Speaker 3: These are immediately passed to a man with a pistol

91
00:05:10,680 --> 00:05:15,000
Speaker 3: and he's the security guard. And immediately these horns are

92
00:05:15,680 --> 00:05:18,760
Speaker 3: highly sought after and dangerous to have. You know, if

93
00:05:18,760 --> 00:05:21,560
Speaker 3: you have rhino horns on you, you're in South Africa

94
00:05:21,600 --> 00:05:24,520
Speaker 3: these days, you are ripe for an assault. So these

95
00:05:24,520 --> 00:05:27,360
Speaker 3: horns are immediately going to kind of a security custodial

96
00:05:27,400 --> 00:05:30,160
Speaker 3: person who's armed. They've got more guns in the car,

97
00:05:30,279 --> 00:05:32,840
Speaker 3: they've got padlocks. So there's a whole security team here

98
00:05:32,920 --> 00:05:37,919
Speaker 3: that within seconds takes possession of these horns. The actual

99
00:05:38,000 --> 00:05:41,560
Speaker 3: sawt off horn gets a hole drilled in it and

100
00:05:41,600 --> 00:05:44,120
Speaker 3: gets a microchip in it, and it gets a code.

101
00:05:44,160 --> 00:05:47,640
Speaker 3: It's almost like a valuable diamond. Each individual horn haads

102
00:05:47,680 --> 00:05:50,799
Speaker 3: its own code, its own log. You know, it's almost

103
00:05:51,000 --> 00:05:53,760
Speaker 3: like a medical file, all the paperwork on each remaining horn.

104
00:05:54,200 --> 00:05:57,840
Speaker 3: That horn is then placed in special vaults. You can

105
00:05:57,839 --> 00:06:00,520
Speaker 3: get rhino horn insurance if you have it at a

106
00:06:00,600 --> 00:06:02,680
Speaker 3: vault at your house, which is not recommended at all.

107
00:06:02,760 --> 00:06:04,840
Speaker 3: It's really dangerous the rhino horns your home because it

108
00:06:04,960 --> 00:06:07,880
Speaker 3: might be robbed. So you have these special companies that

109
00:06:08,120 --> 00:06:12,000
Speaker 3: transport and store rhino horns for you. And we're seeing

110
00:06:12,040 --> 00:06:15,839
Speaker 3: that the government has their stockpiles, the private individuals of

111
00:06:15,880 --> 00:06:20,360
Speaker 3: their stockpiles, the conservation groups of their stockpiles. In South Africa,

112
00:06:20,400 --> 00:06:22,839
Speaker 3: they don't destroy it. In some countries they would destroy,

113
00:06:23,360 --> 00:06:26,760
Speaker 3: burn tusks and burn horn. For now they're being stockpiled,

114
00:06:27,200 --> 00:06:30,880
Speaker 3: and it's extremely dangerous because there's often assaults on these warehouses.

115
00:06:33,240 --> 00:06:35,640
Speaker 2: Clearly, a lot of effort in care goes into removing

116
00:06:35,680 --> 00:06:38,719
Speaker 2: the rhino's horn without harming the animal, and a rhino

117
00:06:38,760 --> 00:06:41,960
Speaker 2: without a horn has no value to a poacher. This

118
00:06:42,200 --> 00:06:46,279
Speaker 2: was the big breakthrough. Instead of chasing poachers, the rangers

119
00:06:46,279 --> 00:06:50,000
Speaker 2: started chasing what the poachers are after the horns themselves.

120
00:06:50,640 --> 00:06:53,479
Speaker 2: Getting to the horn before the poachers do is key

121
00:06:53,880 --> 00:06:56,919
Speaker 2: because poachers who spot a horned rhino don't bother with

122
00:06:57,000 --> 00:06:59,360
Speaker 2: the helicopters and tranquilizers and the eye.

123
00:06:59,279 --> 00:07:02,839
Speaker 3: Drops in the wild. When the poachers come, they kill

124
00:07:02,880 --> 00:07:05,000
Speaker 3: the rhino by shooting bullets into his head and they

125
00:07:05,080 --> 00:07:07,760
Speaker 3: chop off the horn. And that's that. What happens now

126
00:07:07,839 --> 00:07:10,880
Speaker 3: is the environmentalist and the conservation groups are all They

127
00:07:10,920 --> 00:07:12,040
Speaker 3: call it the horn trimming.

128
00:07:12,800 --> 00:07:16,120
Speaker 2: Remember that helicopter you heard just a bit ago. Bruce

129
00:07:16,200 --> 00:07:19,440
Speaker 2: McDonald is one of its pilots, and Jonathan spoke to

130
00:07:19,520 --> 00:07:20,880
Speaker 2: him during his field reporting.

131
00:07:20,920 --> 00:07:22,440
Speaker 3: It was almost inconceivable.

132
00:07:22,600 --> 00:07:22,920
Speaker 1: It is.

133
00:07:24,080 --> 00:07:26,400
Speaker 4: And the thing is that it's not a one solfa operation.

134
00:07:26,880 --> 00:07:29,240
Speaker 4: You'll DeHorn an animal and eighteen months to two years

135
00:07:29,240 --> 00:07:31,200
Speaker 4: down the line you could redo that animal because the

136
00:07:31,200 --> 00:07:34,280
Speaker 4: hone does grow back, which becomes a cost thing as well.

137
00:07:34,280 --> 00:07:37,480
Speaker 4: It gets expensive to do this. There's helicopters' aircraft, there's

138
00:07:37,920 --> 00:07:42,640
Speaker 4: bits involved, there's security companies. It's in a fully fleeced

139
00:07:42,680 --> 00:07:45,040
Speaker 4: operation which all costs money. So it's not a one

140
00:07:45,080 --> 00:07:47,920
Speaker 4: solf it's not a silver bullet, but it certainly does help.

141
00:07:47,960 --> 00:07:50,480
Speaker 4: And if this is going to last time, well then

142
00:07:50,520 --> 00:07:51,880
Speaker 4: we're gonna keep doing it.

143
00:07:52,680 --> 00:07:56,240
Speaker 2: And this worldwide illegal trade in rhino horns has just

144
00:07:56,480 --> 00:07:58,800
Speaker 2: decimated rhino populations around the.

145
00:07:58,720 --> 00:08:03,720
Speaker 3: World because of the rhino trade is focused in Asia.

146
00:08:03,800 --> 00:08:07,320
Speaker 3: What we've seen is full on extinction of certain species

147
00:08:07,320 --> 00:08:10,160
Speaker 3: in Asia and now the attacks coming to South Africa.

148
00:08:10,840 --> 00:08:13,080
Speaker 3: Tens of thousands of rhinos have been poached. You know,

149
00:08:13,160 --> 00:08:16,480
Speaker 3: The Northern white rhino is down to two females, which

150
00:08:16,520 --> 00:08:20,280
Speaker 3: obviously cannot breed. The Southern white rhino is down to

151
00:08:20,320 --> 00:08:24,800
Speaker 3: maybe fifteen thousand, we're talking from fifty sixty thousand. The

152
00:08:24,840 --> 00:08:29,080
Speaker 3: populations are just plummeting, and every year we're seeing ten

153
00:08:29,120 --> 00:08:31,480
Speaker 3: to fifteen, almost twenty percent of the rhinos we wiped

154
00:08:31,520 --> 00:08:35,040
Speaker 3: out per year. The rhino population in Kruger Park is

155
00:08:35,080 --> 00:08:37,960
Speaker 3: down by seventy eight percent over the last decade. So

156
00:08:38,120 --> 00:08:40,360
Speaker 3: you had thousands and thousands. Now it could be as

157
00:08:40,400 --> 00:08:43,800
Speaker 3: little twenty two hundred rhinos still left. There's even talk

158
00:08:43,840 --> 00:08:46,360
Speaker 3: that the poachers say, if we kill every last one,

159
00:08:46,480 --> 00:08:48,280
Speaker 3: then the price of the horn will go through the roof,

160
00:08:48,400 --> 00:08:51,400
Speaker 3: because then it's a commardi that's no longer around. So

161
00:08:51,480 --> 00:08:54,600
Speaker 3: there's this battle to say these last few thousand rhinos.

162
00:08:56,760 --> 00:08:59,559
Speaker 3: As we've heard, that battle is being waged in large

163
00:08:59,559 --> 00:09:02,600
Speaker 3: part by park rangers, a job that used to mean

164
00:09:02,640 --> 00:09:06,880
Speaker 3: a background in biology now requires a whole different skill set.

165
00:09:07,400 --> 00:09:10,560
Speaker 3: Jonathan also spoke with Tiri, Chuck and Yuka. He's a

166
00:09:10,559 --> 00:09:15,320
Speaker 3: specialist training officer at the Southern African Wildlife College that's

167
00:09:15,360 --> 00:09:18,319
Speaker 3: a training ground for new rangers.

168
00:09:17,800 --> 00:09:22,400
Speaker 5: These days, porches and are most sophisticated today have become

169
00:09:22,440 --> 00:09:29,679
Speaker 5: more militarized. So with rangers, we've also adapted to militarize

170
00:09:30,120 --> 00:09:34,000
Speaker 5: rangers to train them as military, but not as full military,

171
00:09:34,120 --> 00:09:37,160
Speaker 5: but in a paramilitary fashion so that you can also

172
00:09:37,200 --> 00:09:42,040
Speaker 5: what they can be able to combat the poachers and

173
00:09:42,679 --> 00:09:45,360
Speaker 5: try to also decrease poaching will never be finished, but

174
00:09:45,480 --> 00:09:47,000
Speaker 5: it can be decreased.

175
00:09:48,920 --> 00:09:52,160
Speaker 2: After the break. Who are the poachers willing to take

176
00:09:52,200 --> 00:10:04,000
Speaker 2: these big risks? So we know that poachers are decimating

177
00:10:04,080 --> 00:10:07,880
Speaker 2: rhino populations, but who are the poachers?

178
00:10:08,440 --> 00:10:12,160
Speaker 3: The poaching gangs are a real mixture of locals who

179
00:10:12,160 --> 00:10:15,280
Speaker 3: are hired to do the dirty work. And these locals

180
00:10:15,320 --> 00:10:17,920
Speaker 3: tend to be poor people who live along the western

181
00:10:17,960 --> 00:10:21,199
Speaker 3: border of Kruger National Park. If you think of Kruger

182
00:10:21,280 --> 00:10:24,720
Speaker 3: National Park, there's twenty six hundred rhinos left and there's

183
00:10:24,760 --> 00:10:28,240
Speaker 3: two point six million pretty poor people along the border.

184
00:10:28,600 --> 00:10:31,400
Speaker 3: So you could say there's a thousand poor people for

185
00:10:31,480 --> 00:10:34,760
Speaker 3: every rhino, and so the whole odds against the rhino

186
00:10:34,840 --> 00:10:39,440
Speaker 3: surviving are really influenced by the basic economic realities of this.

187
00:10:40,280 --> 00:10:43,000
Speaker 3: One rhino horn could give you as much money as

188
00:10:43,000 --> 00:10:46,080
Speaker 3: you'd make in a lifetime. I calculated that, you know,

189
00:10:46,120 --> 00:10:48,400
Speaker 3: a pound of rhino horn was basically three or four

190
00:10:48,559 --> 00:10:51,560
Speaker 3: years wages. And what they do with the horn is

191
00:10:51,600 --> 00:10:54,880
Speaker 3: they then pass it off because you don't just kill

192
00:10:54,920 --> 00:10:57,880
Speaker 3: a horn and then find a buyer. This whole operation

193
00:10:58,080 --> 00:11:01,280
Speaker 3: begins with somebody who's a miss. This is somebody who's

194
00:11:01,320 --> 00:11:05,520
Speaker 3: going to organize and set up the logistics of killing

195
00:11:05,559 --> 00:11:07,840
Speaker 3: the rhino, and then that same person will be the

196
00:11:07,840 --> 00:11:09,960
Speaker 3: one that will get smuggled out of the country and

197
00:11:10,000 --> 00:11:12,880
Speaker 3: pass it to the next handler, whoill usually be in

198
00:11:12,880 --> 00:11:18,360
Speaker 3: Southeast Asia. So the typical operation would cost six eight

199
00:11:18,440 --> 00:11:21,760
Speaker 3: thousand dollars because they have to bribe somebody inside the park,

200
00:11:21,840 --> 00:11:25,280
Speaker 3: because it's almost always from inside information that a rhinos poached.

201
00:11:25,520 --> 00:11:27,960
Speaker 3: It's not somebody wanders in the park looking for a rhino,

202
00:11:28,200 --> 00:11:31,080
Speaker 3: especially today when there's so few rhinos left. So the

203
00:11:31,160 --> 00:11:34,719
Speaker 3: poaching organizations need to find somebody inside the park where

204
00:11:34,720 --> 00:11:35,520
Speaker 3: they can bribe.

205
00:11:39,120 --> 00:11:42,800
Speaker 2: There are penalties in South Africa for those convicted of poaching,

206
00:11:43,080 --> 00:11:45,800
Speaker 2: but it's not too often that someone actually gets caught,

207
00:11:46,160 --> 00:11:49,000
Speaker 2: and in a lot of cases, the rewards far outweigh

208
00:11:49,080 --> 00:11:52,400
Speaker 2: the risks. There was a recent report that said so

209
00:11:52,559 --> 00:11:55,880
Speaker 2: many insiders are working with the poaching gangs that the

210
00:11:56,080 --> 00:11:59,640
Speaker 2: rhinos and the animals are being killed by guns that

211
00:11:59,640 --> 00:12:02,800
Speaker 2: are stay inside the park. They found baboons playing with guns.

212
00:12:02,800 --> 00:12:05,199
Speaker 2: If on the elephants playing with the guns. There's all

213
00:12:05,200 --> 00:12:07,760
Speaker 2: these guns stashed in the park and those guns are

214
00:12:07,800 --> 00:12:09,800
Speaker 2: then used by the team that's been alerted, you know,

215
00:12:09,840 --> 00:12:13,160
Speaker 2: come in Thursday, take out the rhino, and then the

216
00:12:13,240 --> 00:12:16,280
Speaker 2: rhino horn is smuggled out, often by a park employee,

217
00:12:16,720 --> 00:12:19,439
Speaker 2: goes to Cape Town and then probably goes to Mozambique

218
00:12:19,440 --> 00:12:23,080
Speaker 2: and from Mozambique over to Southeast Asia. This is not

219
00:12:23,160 --> 00:12:25,840
Speaker 2: like a fly by night operation. This is sophisticated gangs,

220
00:12:25,840 --> 00:12:27,360
Speaker 2: the same kind of people that could move you know,

221
00:12:27,480 --> 00:12:31,560
Speaker 2: kilos of cocaine. And if the promise of money isn't

222
00:12:31,679 --> 00:12:34,720
Speaker 2: enough to make a ranger turn a blind eye, the

223
00:12:34,840 --> 00:12:37,320
Speaker 2: poachers sometimes resort to threats.

224
00:12:38,200 --> 00:12:41,840
Speaker 3: What we're finding is that dozens and dozens of rangers

225
00:12:41,840 --> 00:12:45,960
Speaker 3: inside Krueger have been implicated in collaboration, and it's not

226
00:12:46,000 --> 00:12:48,360
Speaker 3: always because they're just looking for the money. A lot

227
00:12:48,360 --> 00:12:50,760
Speaker 3: of times they get death threats. So somebody might come

228
00:12:50,840 --> 00:12:53,160
Speaker 3: to a park ranger and Krueger say I want you

229
00:12:53,240 --> 00:12:55,640
Speaker 3: to look the other way on Thursday, or if not,

230
00:12:55,679 --> 00:12:57,960
Speaker 3: it might kill your wife and your kids. Or they

231
00:12:58,000 --> 00:13:01,680
Speaker 3: might say, we know there's rhino in section six on Thursday,

232
00:13:01,960 --> 00:13:04,960
Speaker 3: don't go anywhere near Section six. Stay away from Section six.

233
00:13:05,280 --> 00:13:07,480
Speaker 3: We'll deal with the rhino. If not, we'll deal with you.

234
00:13:07,920 --> 00:13:10,680
Speaker 3: So there's all sorts of heavy duty intimidation by which

235
00:13:10,760 --> 00:13:15,560
Speaker 3: the public employees and the conservation folks inside Krueger get

236
00:13:15,600 --> 00:13:20,040
Speaker 3: their arms twisted to work with the poaching gangs. I

237
00:13:20,120 --> 00:13:24,400
Speaker 3: spent weeks traveling with rangers inside Kruger National Park in

238
00:13:24,440 --> 00:13:28,000
Speaker 3: Greater Kruger Park, and the rangers are risking their life

239
00:13:28,120 --> 00:13:31,200
Speaker 3: every day. The last year in Africa, one hundred rangers

240
00:13:31,200 --> 00:13:35,760
Speaker 3: were killed, most of them shot. Unfortunately, the reason they

241
00:13:35,760 --> 00:13:38,080
Speaker 3: actually found out about this story is that one of

242
00:13:38,160 --> 00:13:42,240
Speaker 3: the most beloved and honest rangers and all of Krueger

243
00:13:42,360 --> 00:13:46,400
Speaker 3: was murdered in July of twenty twenty two. He wouldn't

244
00:13:46,400 --> 00:13:50,280
Speaker 3: take bribes. So the poaching gangs threatened him. They warned

245
00:13:50,360 --> 00:13:52,200
Speaker 3: him to the extent that he moved his family. He

246
00:13:52,240 --> 00:13:55,359
Speaker 3: had to hide his children. And his name was Anton Mazimba,

247
00:13:55,480 --> 00:13:59,040
Speaker 3: and he was a longtime ranger thirty years about to retire.

248
00:13:59,559 --> 00:14:02,280
Speaker 3: And he was at his house when a team of

249
00:14:02,320 --> 00:14:04,960
Speaker 3: assassins came or pretended like their car broke down, and

250
00:14:04,960 --> 00:14:08,120
Speaker 3: they asked him for water to fix their radiator, and

251
00:14:08,120 --> 00:14:11,160
Speaker 3: when he came back, they shot him repeatedly. They shot

252
00:14:11,200 --> 00:14:15,200
Speaker 3: his wife. His wife survived, but Anton Mazimba, and this

253
00:14:15,280 --> 00:14:17,400
Speaker 3: is less than a year ago, was murdered because he

254
00:14:17,440 --> 00:14:20,760
Speaker 3: wouldn't take bribes from the rhino poachers. And that sent

255
00:14:20,800 --> 00:14:22,880
Speaker 3: a shockwave through all the rangers because you know, he

256
00:14:22,920 --> 00:14:25,640
Speaker 3: had met with Prince William recently in England. He's the

257
00:14:25,640 --> 00:14:28,000
Speaker 3: star of a movie called Rhino Man that's coming out.

258
00:14:28,360 --> 00:14:30,320
Speaker 3: This is about as close as you get to being

259
00:14:30,480 --> 00:14:34,280
Speaker 3: like a celebrity ranger for somebody protecting rhinos. And so

260
00:14:34,360 --> 00:14:36,880
Speaker 3: if they could take out Anton, it made the feeling

261
00:14:36,920 --> 00:14:38,280
Speaker 3: that maybe they could take out anybody.

262
00:14:41,960 --> 00:14:45,400
Speaker 2: Here's helicopter pilot Jerry McDonald and in fact he's a

263
00:14:45,440 --> 00:14:48,760
Speaker 2: twin brother of Bruce McDonald, the helicopter pilot we heard

264
00:14:48,760 --> 00:14:49,320
Speaker 2: from earlier.

265
00:14:49,560 --> 00:14:52,400
Speaker 6: It affected everyone really badly and we didn't realize just

266
00:14:52,400 --> 00:14:55,440
Speaker 6: how close we were to Anton. We're working with him daily,

267
00:14:55,480 --> 00:14:57,280
Speaker 6: you know, we do a lot of work with him.

268
00:14:57,960 --> 00:15:00,240
Speaker 6: And unfortunately, this is a new modus oper any that

269
00:15:00,280 --> 00:15:04,800
Speaker 6: these syndicates are starting to use. They intimidate the field rinders,

270
00:15:05,600 --> 00:15:08,400
Speaker 6: so when they go home, they're not safe. They actually

271
00:15:08,440 --> 00:15:10,840
Speaker 6: feel threatened. When they go home. You speak to any

272
00:15:10,880 --> 00:15:13,400
Speaker 6: of the field randers, they don't feel comfortable when they

273
00:15:13,400 --> 00:15:17,240
Speaker 6: don't leave because it's happened to one of the brothers

274
00:15:17,920 --> 00:15:19,520
Speaker 6: and they feel it's can happen to them.

275
00:15:20,120 --> 00:15:22,800
Speaker 2: Park rangers are putting their lives on the line for

276
00:15:22,880 --> 00:15:26,560
Speaker 2: these animals, and that requires a connection to the landscape

277
00:15:26,600 --> 00:15:29,760
Speaker 2: and to the wildlife that few South Africans who live

278
00:15:29,880 --> 00:15:32,280
Speaker 2: outside the park ever get to experience.

279
00:15:32,760 --> 00:15:35,880
Speaker 3: And you have these people going on these expensive safaris

280
00:15:35,960 --> 00:15:38,280
Speaker 3: to see the Big five, which is you've got you've

281
00:15:38,280 --> 00:15:41,560
Speaker 3: got the buffalo, you've got the rhino, you've got the elephant,

282
00:15:41,880 --> 00:15:44,840
Speaker 3: you've got the leopard, you've got the lion. But two

283
00:15:44,960 --> 00:15:48,480
Speaker 3: kilometers away, you know, a ten minute drive across the

284
00:15:48,520 --> 00:15:51,680
Speaker 3: park borders, you've got tens of thousands of people living

285
00:15:52,000 --> 00:15:55,000
Speaker 3: in houses that barely have water, that have a tin roof.

286
00:15:55,320 --> 00:15:58,320
Speaker 3: The unemployment is about forty percent, and a lot of

287
00:15:58,320 --> 00:16:00,400
Speaker 3: these people have never seen any of the animal You

288
00:16:00,440 --> 00:16:03,120
Speaker 3: don't have animals outside of Krueger very much. You see

289
00:16:03,160 --> 00:16:06,120
Speaker 3: some monkeys and baboons, but to see the elephants, to

290
00:16:06,120 --> 00:16:09,920
Speaker 3: see the giraffe, to see the herds of impala going around,

291
00:16:10,000 --> 00:16:11,800
Speaker 3: you have to be in the parks. And there's this

292
00:16:12,240 --> 00:16:15,800
Speaker 3: complete disconnect for most of the African folks who live

293
00:16:16,160 --> 00:16:19,560
Speaker 3: near these parks, where they've never had an opportunity to

294
00:16:19,560 --> 00:16:22,080
Speaker 3: go in the park. And so we're just now seeing

295
00:16:22,120 --> 00:16:26,440
Speaker 3: some really innovative programs by which the park wardens are

296
00:16:26,520 --> 00:16:31,280
Speaker 3: taking their rangers into the community, they're going to the classrooms,

297
00:16:31,320 --> 00:16:33,440
Speaker 3: they're bringing the kids into the parks, and we're starting

298
00:16:33,440 --> 00:16:36,000
Speaker 3: to see thousands, if not tens of thousands of kids

299
00:16:36,200 --> 00:16:39,520
Speaker 3: be introduced to the wildlife that's their own backyard. But

300
00:16:39,560 --> 00:16:42,960
Speaker 3: for many years, there's a complete disconnect. Now that people

301
00:16:42,960 --> 00:16:46,160
Speaker 3: are trying to stitch the community into the understanding of

302
00:16:46,200 --> 00:16:49,760
Speaker 3: what a healthy ecosystem looks like, there's all sorts of opportunities,

303
00:16:50,120 --> 00:16:52,040
Speaker 3: but the question is is it too little, too late.

304
00:16:53,560 --> 00:16:56,840
Speaker 2: Jonathan spoke to another group of people who hope that

305
00:16:56,960 --> 00:16:59,440
Speaker 2: it isn't too late, and they're also trying to protect

306
00:16:59,440 --> 00:17:02,240
Speaker 2: their rhino in an unconventional way.

307
00:17:02,880 --> 00:17:05,800
Speaker 3: Because of the rhino poaching, Different rangers in different park

308
00:17:05,840 --> 00:17:09,720
Speaker 3: wardens throughout Greater Krueger coming up with different strategies because

309
00:17:10,119 --> 00:17:13,040
Speaker 3: it's just heartbreaking. These people will have ten rhinos on

310
00:17:13,080 --> 00:17:16,600
Speaker 3: Friday and Monday, they only have seven lefts. So Craig Spencer,

311
00:17:16,760 --> 00:17:19,640
Speaker 3: conservationists in South Africa, came up with a concept called

312
00:17:19,680 --> 00:17:22,439
Speaker 3: the Black Mambas. And what he did was he trained

313
00:17:22,480 --> 00:17:27,840
Speaker 3: local women to be trackers. He trained them to use firearms,

314
00:17:28,240 --> 00:17:30,960
Speaker 3: he trained them to be in great shape so they

315
00:17:31,000 --> 00:17:35,399
Speaker 3: could patrol, He trained them to run security. And then

316
00:17:35,440 --> 00:17:37,480
Speaker 3: what he did is he sent out these all women

317
00:17:37,520 --> 00:17:39,960
Speaker 3: groups of all local women, and he put them on

318
00:17:40,000 --> 00:17:43,240
Speaker 3: staff and he had them patrol the lines with no guns,

319
00:17:43,640 --> 00:17:47,200
Speaker 3: just walkie talkies and all this knowledge of the local community.

320
00:17:47,440 --> 00:17:51,320
Speaker 3: And what Craig Spencer figured was that if we had

321
00:17:51,400 --> 00:17:55,399
Speaker 3: local women both inside the fence patrolling and outside the

322
00:17:55,400 --> 00:17:56,960
Speaker 3: fence where they live and they have a lot of

323
00:17:56,960 --> 00:17:59,879
Speaker 3: contacts with the community, he could make a bridge to

324
00:18:00,240 --> 00:18:03,280
Speaker 3: understanding the kind of damage that poaching does and the

325
00:18:03,400 --> 00:18:06,760
Speaker 3: value that animals have. For example, right away, all these

326
00:18:06,760 --> 00:18:09,520
Speaker 3: women are being paid as part of the conservation mission,

327
00:18:09,960 --> 00:18:12,160
Speaker 3: and the Black Mambas have a program called the Bush

328
00:18:12,200 --> 00:18:14,199
Speaker 3: Babies where they go into the local schools and they

329
00:18:14,200 --> 00:18:17,280
Speaker 3: teach kids about the importance of conservation. They take those children,

330
00:18:17,359 --> 00:18:19,560
Speaker 3: they bring them into the park. They kind of use

331
00:18:19,600 --> 00:18:22,880
Speaker 3: the children as ambassadors into the community for anti poaching

332
00:18:22,920 --> 00:18:25,240
Speaker 3: messages and they hear a lot in return. They're in

333
00:18:25,280 --> 00:18:27,359
Speaker 3: the schools, they talk to the teachers, they talk to

334
00:18:27,359 --> 00:18:30,359
Speaker 3: the local policemen. They're wandering around, so they're also an

335
00:18:30,400 --> 00:18:34,760
Speaker 3: informal intelligence agency that's getting gossip and notes and hearing

336
00:18:34,800 --> 00:18:36,680
Speaker 3: things about you know who all of a sudden built

337
00:18:36,680 --> 00:18:38,080
Speaker 3: a new second story in their house.

338
00:18:41,400 --> 00:18:45,560
Speaker 2: Doctor Joseph Accory is a biodiversity and conservation specialist at

339
00:18:45,560 --> 00:18:49,080
Speaker 2: the Southern African Wildlife College, and he sees the important

340
00:18:49,200 --> 00:18:52,160
Speaker 2: role that local residents can play in conservation.

341
00:18:52,960 --> 00:18:55,920
Speaker 1: So what do we do in terms of safeguards. One

342
00:18:55,960 --> 00:19:00,400
Speaker 1: of our first lines of defense is the communities around us.

343
00:19:00,920 --> 00:19:04,480
Speaker 1: There are our eyes and ears, So community engagement is

344
00:19:04,680 --> 00:19:10,240
Speaker 1: very important to know our situational awareness around our protected areas.

345
00:19:10,600 --> 00:19:13,240
Speaker 3: So they're both kind of this low level intelligence group,

346
00:19:13,280 --> 00:19:16,400
Speaker 3: but they're also a patrol group and their community outreach

347
00:19:16,880 --> 00:19:19,720
Speaker 3: and these are the kind of like very novel efforts

348
00:19:19,760 --> 00:19:22,439
Speaker 3: that I thought kind of show both the desperation and

349
00:19:22,480 --> 00:19:25,960
Speaker 3: the ingenuity of what's happening here. The organized crime is

350
00:19:26,080 --> 00:19:30,240
Speaker 3: so greased and so well funded that it's created a

351
00:19:30,400 --> 00:19:33,880
Speaker 3: counter effect where different rangers in different parts of Krueger

352
00:19:33,920 --> 00:19:36,400
Speaker 3: are coming up with local strategies. And the black Mombots

353
00:19:36,400 --> 00:19:39,159
Speaker 3: are an example of one way in which poaching and

354
00:19:39,200 --> 00:19:40,880
Speaker 3: that part of Kruger has gone way down.

355
00:19:42,280 --> 00:19:45,000
Speaker 2: When we come back, can anything more be done to

356
00:19:45,080 --> 00:19:57,040
Speaker 2: save these wild rhinos? So, Jonathan, what is the long

357
00:19:57,160 --> 00:20:01,400
Speaker 2: term answer here? This elaborate game of whackama between conservationists

358
00:20:01,400 --> 00:20:03,840
Speaker 2: and poachers I suppose could go on forever, but it

359
00:20:03,880 --> 00:20:05,800
Speaker 2: doesn't seem really like a solution.

360
00:20:06,600 --> 00:20:08,359
Speaker 3: Well, one of the things that kept on coming up

361
00:20:08,400 --> 00:20:10,720
Speaker 3: over and over again while reporting this story in South

362
00:20:10,760 --> 00:20:14,520
Speaker 3: Africa and especially inside Krueger was this idea that focusing

363
00:20:14,560 --> 00:20:17,439
Speaker 3: on the number of rhino was kind of ridiculous. People

364
00:20:17,720 --> 00:20:19,920
Speaker 3: mocked me many times when I would just like, how

365
00:20:19,920 --> 00:20:22,879
Speaker 3: many rhino are left? How many years longer? What they

366
00:20:22,920 --> 00:20:25,159
Speaker 3: said to me, is Jonathan, the important thing is the

367
00:20:25,200 --> 00:20:28,000
Speaker 3: amount of habitat we have for rhino. The rhino itself

368
00:20:28,040 --> 00:20:31,800
Speaker 3: is actually pretty resilient, doesn't have any natural enemies. They

369
00:20:31,840 --> 00:20:35,160
Speaker 3: breed fairly easily, but only if they have the habitat.

370
00:20:35,200 --> 00:20:37,160
Speaker 3: So they said, you might want to consider measuring how

371
00:20:37,200 --> 00:20:40,879
Speaker 3: many hundreds of thousands of acres of habitat are we

372
00:20:40,920 --> 00:20:44,560
Speaker 3: saving every year. Because there was more of a sense

373
00:20:44,640 --> 00:20:48,160
Speaker 3: of stitching together what's left of the South African ecosystems

374
00:20:48,200 --> 00:20:51,000
Speaker 3: into corridors or habitat. So there was a lot of

375
00:20:51,040 --> 00:20:54,840
Speaker 3: efforts by people to turn farmland into habitat, to turn

376
00:20:55,040 --> 00:20:58,119
Speaker 3: abandoned lands into habitat. The only way the rhino's going

377
00:20:58,200 --> 00:21:01,200
Speaker 3: to survive is it has more habitat, habitat that's integrated.

378
00:21:01,240 --> 00:21:04,480
Speaker 3: So I think that although few people think the rhino

379
00:21:04,520 --> 00:21:06,760
Speaker 3: will be posted to extinction, it's kind of be a

380
00:21:06,920 --> 00:21:09,520
Speaker 3: poached into a semi wild status where you know, if

381
00:21:09,520 --> 00:21:12,359
Speaker 3: you individual rhino has a bodyguard, or if you have

382
00:21:12,359 --> 00:21:15,440
Speaker 3: one hundred thousand acre section of Kruger Park and there's

383
00:21:15,480 --> 00:21:18,520
Speaker 3: only eight rhinos left there, I mean, yes, there's rhino,

384
00:21:18,640 --> 00:21:20,800
Speaker 3: but the rhinos we know it. It's kind of the

385
00:21:21,280 --> 00:21:24,679
Speaker 3: survival of a massacre that's gone on off and on

386
00:21:24,840 --> 00:21:26,840
Speaker 3: for a couple hundred years. So it's really hard to

387
00:21:26,920 --> 00:21:30,040
Speaker 3: understand what is going to be a viable population by

388
00:21:30,040 --> 00:21:32,600
Speaker 3: which we can have wild rhino on Earth that have

389
00:21:32,720 --> 00:21:35,439
Speaker 3: some sense of behaving like wild rhino and not just

390
00:21:35,840 --> 00:21:37,919
Speaker 3: you know, the rhinos that are in zoos in Australia

391
00:21:38,000 --> 00:21:40,360
Speaker 3: and the United States and Mexico.

392
00:21:41,200 --> 00:21:44,240
Speaker 2: Some advocates have said that legalizing the trade in rhino

393
00:21:44,320 --> 00:21:49,120
Speaker 2: horns could be one answer, but Jonathan says it's complicated.

394
00:21:49,440 --> 00:21:53,359
Speaker 3: There's many different proposals to protect rhinos, and one of

395
00:21:53,400 --> 00:21:55,800
Speaker 3: them is the idea that a legalized trade in rhino

396
00:21:55,920 --> 00:21:59,399
Speaker 3: horn would create so much money that it would then

397
00:21:59,600 --> 00:22:06,240
Speaker 3: pump into habitat protection, into rhino conservation, into overall biodiversity

398
00:22:06,520 --> 00:22:10,679
Speaker 3: survival strategies. The theory there is that rhino are being

399
00:22:10,800 --> 00:22:13,720
Speaker 3: poached to the edge of extinction. There's been a ban

400
00:22:13,840 --> 00:22:16,919
Speaker 3: on rhino horn for decades and all we've seen is

401
00:22:16,920 --> 00:22:19,680
Speaker 3: the rhinol populations get crushed and crushed and crushed. Whatever

402
00:22:19,720 --> 00:22:21,520
Speaker 3: we're doing now is clearly not working.

403
00:22:22,680 --> 00:22:25,200
Speaker 2: Jonathan Franklin, thanks so much for speaking.

404
00:22:24,840 --> 00:22:25,439
Speaker 5: With me today.

405
00:22:25,720 --> 00:22:26,480
Speaker 3: Thank you very much.

406
00:22:27,440 --> 00:22:29,280
Speaker 2: Thanks for listening to us here at The Big Take.

407
00:22:29,520 --> 00:22:32,719
Speaker 2: It's a daily podcast from Bloomberg and iHeartRadio. For more

408
00:22:32,760 --> 00:22:36,919
Speaker 2: shows from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or

409
00:22:36,960 --> 00:22:39,400
Speaker 2: wherever you listen, and we'd love to hear from you.

410
00:22:39,680 --> 00:22:43,080
Speaker 2: Email us questions or comments to Big Take at Bloomberg

411
00:22:43,119 --> 00:22:46,639
Speaker 2: dot net. The supervising producer of The Big Take is

412
00:22:46,760 --> 00:22:51,640
Speaker 2: Vicky Vergalina. Our senior producer is Catherine Fink. Rebecca Shasson

413
00:22:51,800 --> 00:22:56,040
Speaker 2: is our producer. Our associate producer is Sam Gabauer. Raphae

414
00:22:56,080 --> 00:23:00,520
Speaker 2: alum Sely is our engineer, with additional production assistant from

415
00:23:00,600 --> 00:23:06,400
Speaker 2: Magnus Henriksen, Nielli Haremio Plata and Abrea Ruffin. Our original

416
00:23:06,480 --> 00:23:10,200
Speaker 2: music was composed by Leo Sidron. I'm west Kasova. We'll

417
00:23:10,240 --> 00:23:12,240
Speaker 2: be back tomorrow with another Big Take