The Power of the Pack or is it the Schnoz… By : Johan van Straaten – Head Trainer of the K9 Unit (Dog Master)Although canines are one of the oldest tools used in the art of detection and tracking, they are still proving, without a doubt, to be the most effective. As head trainer or...Read More
The College was thrilled to welcome back our Running Wild participants this year. With the inaugural event happening last year in support of the College’s four-tiered approach to counter poaching, it was wonderful to be able to look forward to an awesome fundraising event sans the post Covid-19 pandemic restrictions. Laughter and fun were the...Read More
Strasburg, VA – The International Rhino Foundation (IRF) announced today a $100,000 grant to the Southern African Wildlife College (SAWC) to support training and anti-poaching operations to protect rhinos in the wild. The SAWC provides training to natural resource managers from across Africa. As part of its applied learning approach, the SAWC also directly operates...Read More
On 21 September 2018 the Department of Environmental Affairs (DEA) released an official press release with the latest statistics on rhino poaching. Below is the breakdown of rhino lost in the various provinces for the period January to August. It’s extremely encouraging that we have observed a decrease in poaching statistics over past few months....Read More
(Source – News24) The Hawks have announced a significant breakthrough in a two-year long operation that led to the arrest of two men suspected of being kingpins in a rhino poaching syndicate operating in Gauteng. The Hawks’ Colonel Johan Jooste said that the directorate, in cooperation with SANParks, had managed to disrupt the supply chain...Read More
(Source – defenceWeb – Africa’s leading defence news portal) Six SADC states, namely the close-knit countries of Botswana, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe have undertaken to co-operate in order to deal with the poaching scourge, particularly that of rhinos and elephants. The countries met last month in Mpumalanga for the fourth multilateral meeting...Read More
At the time of writing, no reliable statistics could be sourced on the number of rhino poached to date. Unofficial statistics estimate the figure to be around 300 rhino to date, as of end July 2018. Poacher arrests have however increased exponentially due to the new pack-hound initiative. These dogs have at least an 80%...Read More
The African Field Ranger Training Services Division was involved in several other training interventions during September. Most noteworthy was the start or the Selection process in the Zinave National Park in Mozambique. This process precedes the Basic Field Ranger training intervention planned for most of September running into October. The team consisted of Frank MacCarter,...Read More
Following a visit to the Southern African Wildlife College (SAWC) by the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW), represented by Dr Joseph Okori, IFAW Regional Director Southern Africa and Director of IFAW’s Landscape and Conservation Programme, a substantial three-year grant was awarded to the SAWC by IFAW Internationaler Tierschutz-Fonds GmbH. This grant will support and...Read More
