Durban – Rhino poaching has shown a dramatic increase in KwaZulu-Natal with at least 159 rhinos having been killed in 2016.
Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife spokesperson Musa Mntambo said: “There has been a big increase in the number of rhino killed. Our arrests have also increased.” Mntambo said that October and November had seen an increase in rhino poaching across the province.
He said that there had been 129 arrests during 2016 in relation to rhino poaching in the province. In 2015 the number of rhino poached in the province was 97. By early November 2016 the Mercury newspaper reported that 132 rhinos had been killed in KwaZulu-Natal, which means that 27 rhinos have been killed in the past two months alone.
The dramatic increase in the number of rhinos lost to poaching prompted KwaZulu-Natal premier Willies Mchunu earlier this year to announce the formation of an Anti-Rhino Poaching Task Team.
