Security at Aquila Private Game Reserve near Touws River is being beefed up after a brutal attack by poachers at the weekend left one rhino dead and one battling for survival.
Two male rhinos and a female were attacked on Saturday morning by poachers who reserve owner Searl Derman believes were armed with chainsaws, machetes and pangas.
They were first shot with tranquilliser darts, which Derman said could cause fatal muscle and organ damage.
Aquila’s anti-poaching team found the first male rhino with his front horn removed.
Derman believed the team had startled the poachers – the animal’s second horn was only sawn halfway off when he was found.
“They wouldn’t just leave a R1 million horn behind,” he said.
The rhino, one of the first to be homed at Aquila, is now battling to stay alive.
“It’s been a very traumatic day. We’ve been trying, struggling, to get water to him and give injections,” said Derman.
The rhino suffered huge blood loss and a bad leg injury, he said.
The young female rhino was found with a dart in her shoulder, but had not been dehorned.
She was given an antidote and was recovering well, Derman said.
Aquila’s anti-poaching team set out to find the third rhino, which was unaccounted for.
Helicopters and a light aircraft scoured the reserve and eventually found the animal.
“It was a massacre,” said a shattered Derman.
“He must have had his face hacked off with a chainsaw and the horns axed off with machetes, from the cut marks we saw.
“It was the hardest moment of my life.”
The incident – the third attack on rhinos at the reserve this year – has prompted Derman to further bulk up security measures at the reserve.
Before Saturday’s attack, there were six rhino on the reserve.
Derman said he planned to buy additional “firepower”, and 24 guards had been placed at strategic points along the reserve’s boundaries.
Vehicles would patrol the veld 24 hours a day, he said.
Derman is offering a reward of R100 000 to anyone with information about the attack.
Provincial police spokesman Captain FC van Wyk confirmed yesterday that no arrests had been made.
A case of rhino poaching had been opened for investigation, Van Wyk said.<&eh>
- Cape Argus