Last 15 rhinos in Mozambique park betrayed by rangers, killed by poachers

27 April, 2013
Mozambique's game rangers have helped poachers kill every single rhino in the Mozambique section of the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park according to the International Fund for Wildlife Management.
“It is tragic beyond tears that we learn game rangers have now become the enemy in the fight to protect rhino from being poached for their horns," said Kelvin Alie, Director of IFAW’s Wildlife Crime and Consumer Awareness Programme.

The game reserve had 300 rhinos in 2002, only to end up with the last 15 being killed last month.
The administrator of the park says that 30 rangers will appear in court soon, charged with being involved in the killings.

According to South Africa's Department of Environmental Affairs 180 out of 249 rhinos in the Kruger National Park have been poached since January 2013. Rhino horn is used by Vietnamese traditional healers who believe it has some medicinal value.

Medical science meanwhile has demonstrated that it is basically the same stuff as finger nails, and doesn't have any medical value at all.

According to livescience, wildlife managers have begun tranquilising rhinos in places like the Sabi Sand Game Reserve, adjacent to the Kruger park, and injecting parasiticide and pink dye into their horns. Any consumer who uses the horn will likely suffer nausea, stomach ache and diarrhoea, but probably won't end up dying.