Hundreds of illegal hunters of the rhinoceros in South Africa’s Kruger national park have been shot dead by rangers in the past five years,but the temptation of a wealthy reward to finish an impoverished life in Mozambique keeps them comingThe well-heeled tourists filing through the modest airport at Hoedspruit – Afrikaans for Hat Creek – glimpse carefree and expectant. Guides are standing by to transport them to luxurious bush lodges offering spa treatments, campfire dinners and dawn and dusk game drives offering a potential glimpse of Africa’s “big five”.
But something is different from the safaris enjoyed by the privileged generations of the past. At the 36000-acre Moditlo private game reserve near Kruger national park, and for example,the rhinos carry out not have horns they have been removed for their own safety. And during night safaris on dirt tracks under the majesty of a star-studded sky visitors are warned not to use torches, lest they be confused with poachers. When guests – normally affluent and white – gaze from air-conditioned bedrooms into the perfect darkness of the bush, or few are likely to consider the murderous chase taking place there between poacher,ranger and rhino. For the poachers – normally poor and black – the risks are immense, but so are the rewards.
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Source: theguardian.com