Orphaned for its Mother's Ivory: Baby Rhino Left Alone as Poachers Slaughter up to 30 Animals in One Weekend in South Africa

Desdemona Despair

By Gareth Davies
5 July 2017

(The Daily Mail) – A heartbreaking photo of an orphaned baby rhino standing next to its dead mother after she was slaughtered by poachers for her horn has become the tragic symbol of a weekend rhino massacre in South Africa.

The picture of the calf was posted online by anti-poaching campaigners in South Africa on Monday after nine rhinos were killed on a private farm.

Another six rhinos were killed in just 24 hours on Sunday at a game reserve and further killings took the confirmed death toll up to 20 in one weekend.

Despite the white rhino being on the endangered species list with fewer than 20,000 white rhinos left in the wild, hunters are still slaying them for their horns, with 139 slaughtered in the South African province of KwaZulu-Natal alone so far this year.

South African filmmaker makers Bonné de Bod and Susan Scott, who are producing a tell-all film on the rhino poaching crisis called Stroop, posted the harrowing photo after it was shared by the rhino’s owner.

“Tragic killing of nine rhinos on a private rhino owners farm this weekend. Reports also coming in of other rhino poachings in last 24-hours,” they wrote alongside the harrowing photo.

Ms de Bod told SA People that there have been 20 confirmed rhino deaths this weekend and an unconfirmed figures as high as 31.

“And that is only from those we know about, those posted about on social media,” she explained.

“There’s a lot of poachings that we, the public, don’t know about. What we do know from this past weekend is shocking: six on Sunday night in the Mbhuzane area of Imfolozi from eleven gunshots at midnight.

“And nine rhinos poached on a farm in the Northern Cape.” [more]

Orphaned for its mother’s ivory: Baby rhino left alone as poachers slaughter up to 30 animals in ONE weekend in South Africa