- Hello, my name is Ben Brown.
I'm a filmmaker and photographer,
and we are in the Kruger National Park.
After meeting my girlfriend Nicole in South Africa,
she would often tell me about the challenges
facing the rhinos.
After seeing it for myself firsthand last year,
I began to understand the reality of the situation.
Now we're both here,
to get the latest updates on the war on poaching.
The war on rhino poaching is not a new topic.
Rhinos have been wiped out in many African countries
with the largest population now living in South Africa,
in the Kruger National Park.
In 2014, over 1,200 rhinos were poached in South Africa.
The following year, that number was reduced to 1,175
thanks to the efforts of Unite Against Poaching.
The demand for rhino horn is at an all time high,
causing an average of 10 poachers
to enter the park each day.
With the number of incidents increasing,
it's incredible to see the park gain more control
of the situation and reduce the number of poached rhino.
- My name is John Turner,
National Chairman of Conservation Services
in the South African National Parks Honorary Rangers.
The rhino crisis changed all our lives, um,
about seven years ago.
A rhino poacher is basically for the horn.
They leave the carcass behind.
They don't take any meat or anything like that.
And, um, contrary to public opinion, um, the horn
is 70 percent used for ornamental purposes, jewelry.
Uh, 30 percent is used for medicinal purposes.
And in the East, it's a great status symbol.
Rhino horn is now probably the most expensive, uh,
commodity on this planet, um, it's certainly overtaken gold.
Things like gold and platinum, by far.
They'll end uses, end up paying up to 95 thousand dollars
US dollars a kilogram.
Originally when this crisis hit us,
the first thing we had to do was re-train all
our field rangers and re-equip them.
We started with uh, a couple of dogs, uh,
all some seven years ago or so.
And uh, I think the dog population's grown to about 50 now.
Our success rate with catching poachers has improved hugely
with, with the use of dogs.
We have tracker dogs, which follow spur for us.
We would take days to possibly, to track and catch a poacher,
whereas the dogs cutting that down to hours now.
We then are looking now, and working towards,
getting sniffer dogs in to work at our gates,
for sniffing for obviously animal parts,
and also for arms and ammunition.
The, the rhino's in a good state in Kruger.
Um, in 2015, we’ve managed to show a reduction
in the number of animals lost.
And, um, we're confident that we can take this on,
and we will eventually win this war.
- Okay, we're off to go and find Ben and SP.
They're hidden somewhere in the bush,
and we're going to take the tracker dogs with us.
We're gonna test out their skills, and hopefully
they're gonna snuff them out.
Let's see! Let's go!
So how long do you train the dogs
before they go out into the wild and track poachers?
- Every dog, it, it depends.
Um, but it's average between six to eight weeks.
- Okay, and how long has Badger
been working in the field for?
- Badger has been working in the field for two years.
It is a big far, a big far area, so when you go there,
um, there's obviously always dangerous game there
you have to be aware of, poachers are heavily armed,
um, so it is, it is occupational hazard, if I can put it like that.
But, a good dog can work from the promise for probably about
three to, what, seven years.
Then when the dogs have done and they're retired, uh,
they either get the choice to go with their handler, and
you can go on pension with your dog.
- We can hear something.
That's so amazing. That is absolutely incredible.
- How's it feel being caught?
- It feels pretty good.
It's hard to understand the lengths these volunteers go
to protect the rhinos, until you experience it yourself.
After having the opportunity to spend some time
with the volunteers, staying in their camp,
you understand the passion and the love they have for the
park, the rhinos they protect, and each of their dogs.
From sniffing out arms and ammunition, to tracking poachers,
which ultimately leads to increased arrests,
it's clear to see these dogs are playing a huge role
in the war against poaching.
Limited funding means efficiency is key
in this increasingly expensive fight against the poachers.
The war is by no means over.
But there is more hope than ever
to save this beautiful species.