London - Flying low in a helicopter over the African bush, there’s a formidable new weapon in the battle to save the black rhino from the gangs of poachers who threaten their very survival.
For Afghanistan veteran Prince Harry has placed himself at the front line of a war against the illegal trade in rhino horn.
He rides with a helicopter team swooping over Northern Namibia’s national park. When a rhino is spotted, a dart-gun is used to tranquillise the massive animal. Then the prince deftly chainsaws off a large chunk of horn without damaging vital tissue, and draws blood for DNA sampling.
Rhino horn regrows just like fingernails, and the absence of the trophy horn is intended to put off the poachers.
A conservationist providing logistics for Harry’s trip said: “He is tremendously caught up in the drama of helping to protect the country’s black rhinos. He has come here at a time when Namibia is hugely challenged by increased poaching, and he is doing his bit.”
Harry is a member of the team working with wildlife vet Dr Peter Morkel in Namibia’s national park.
The prince is determined to raise awareness of a crisis which is robbing Southern Africa of thousands of black rhino each year. He is travelling under the auspices of the Zoological Society of London and of the Tusk Trust which funds many African initiatives to protect the rhino.
Out in the bush, temperatures range from the high 30s in the daytime to well below freezing at night. Harry, 30 – who retains the rank of captain with the Household Cavalry – has been living under canvas with the team of vets and wildlife rangers.
Rising at dawn to be able to spot herds at first light when they become active, a rugged breakfast will be a couple of dozen eggs scrambled in a wok-like pot over an open fire, shared with the team.
Dr Morkel’s convoy of rough-terrain vehicles carry a refrigerator for provisions and the drugs he needs for darting and a freezer for meat.
A hot day in the arid, desert-like terrain will be survived with occasional rest and plentiful water, along with hot coffee from a camping stove and quantities of biltong, strips of dried beef popular as a nutritious snack in Southern Africa. Supper will inevitably be large beef steaks or lamb chops cooked over an open fire along with potatoes wrapped in silver foil washed down with a cold beer.
The team sleep in roof tents on the top of their vehicles, parked in a circle around the fire, to reduce the risk from scorpions, snakes, or being trampled by bigger beasts in the night.
Harry is considered fortunate by Dr Morkel’s contemporaries for having the chance to learn at his side. The vet was the first proponent of de-horning as a deterrent to poachers. A colleague of Dr Morkel told The MoS: “Peter is passionate and dedicated. Harry could not have a better teacher.”
Before joining Dr Morkel, Harry spent a week in Tanzania, where locals have labelled the Selous game reserve the “elephant killing fields of Tanzania”.
Over 21 100 square miles – twice the size of Switzerland – 67 percent of the reserve’s elephants have been killed in the last four years by poachers who sell their ivory to the Far East market.
In Thailand, China and Vietnam, rhino horn, when ground into powder, can fetch £40 000 (about R700 000) per kilo and is touted as a miracle cure for all manner of ailments, including cancer.
It is also made into wine and is considered a delicacy for the rich to serve at parties. Medically it has no merit whatsoever, it is just keratin – the same as hair.
Harry has spent the past ten days in Namibia as part of a three-month stint working with conservation groups in Africa. He leaves next week for Botswana to pursue his mission. He has already said he will spend time with the country’s tribesmen, and the bushmen of the Kalahari will be high on his list.
Meanwhile, in Namibia, wildlife campaigner Marcia Fargnoli has warned that the country is now on the radar of crime syndicates.
Organised, Mafia-like gangs are spreading from South Africa into the country, where 60 rhinos have already been killed for their horns this year.
“There is never enough funding to combat it,” she said. “It is a matter of passion and will.”
Harry has said he is determined to be an example of the passion and will needed, and he is fulfilling a personal dream by going back to nature in the remote African bush, far from any tourist route.
Mail On Sunday