Time Code

Type of Element

Content

00.00.30.01-00.00.37.18

Title

Johannesburg

Gauteng

00.00.34.02-00.01.04.13

Dialogue, interview

Walker: Money should not really be the object of what your desire is and what you want to do. Because we need young men and woman to be part this and it’s through commitment that you will ultimately make in this field, if that is what you chose to do, that’s gonna make a difference. You can make the difference. Believe you me you can make the difference. You don’t have to be Bill Gates to do it. You just do what you believe in.

00.00.51.04-00.00.56.23

Title

Clive Walker, Founder

Endangered Wildlife Trust

00.01.09.19-00.01.14.11

00.01.16.12-00.01.21.10

00.01.22.14-00.01.27.05

00.01.28.16-00.01.32.19

00.01.34.20-00.01.39.16

00.01.42.21-00.01.54.20

Titles

Cinéma Human presents

Jeffrey Mundell

Cinematography David Cawley

Music Judo Push

Direction Reina-Marie Loader

HORN

00.02.05.01-00.04.25.22

Dialogue, interview

Mike: I feel a bit detached … like … you come back and you think okay, I’m not going to be part of the brain-drain of skill and talent leaving the country. I’m going to come back and I’m going to invest whatever I can – my skills, my potential into the country. But then, then you start seeing that you, you’re just fitting into wherever you slot in. And you’re just doing whatever … the things that people like me do. And, which is go to work, another day another dollar … and … you know. I don’t … Apart from spending my money and making my money in this country, I don’t feel like I contribute all that much. It’s a tricky one. It’s tricky. I tell you what someone said to me once. They said, success is …what is it? Success is continually striving towards a worthy goal. So … do I feel successful in those terms? No. I think I’m not quite sure what my goal is. I’m not quite sure what point I want to make about what I’m doing or what point I’m heading to. What would make me feel like I’m heading towards a goal is doing … pretty much … or doing this – is joining your documentary team. And actually heading out into something unknown, but something that clearly needs help. Needs people to get involved. Is short on resources and people. I don’t know. I might not be right for it or I might be perfect for it. But it is worth me checking it out.

00.04.27.02-00.04.33.16

Title

The Waterberg Biosphere

Limpopo

00.06.02.12-00.06.32.06

Dialogue, interview

Abram: One of the strengths of this idea of what a biosphere reserve is, which is essentially balancing nature and people, is that we don’t do conservation in isolation anymore. People have got to be a big part of it. And I think this is where this whole issue of the rhino poaching problem, it is actually not just, you know, ‘losing a species’-problem. It is the whole variety of social factors and variables that are coming into play that we’re sitting with this problem.

00.06.35.13-00.07.07.22

Dialogue, interview

Rood: Pamwe Chete is a name that we got from the Zulu scouts. It means together forward. It is very, very important because unity and leadership and cohesiveness is extremely important in an operation. That is our HQ and that’s where we operate out of. That is where we also have our aerial capability – all logistically planned and operated out of Pamwe Chete, which gives us the flexibility to pretty much operate as far as Brits and surrounding areas.

00.06.33.05-00.06.39.24

Title

Pamwe Chete

Anti-poaching training facility

00.06.44.06-00.06.48.06

Title

Simon Rood

Nkwe Security Services

00.07.07.23-00.07.24.02

Dialogue, scene

Morning, Shorty.

Morning, morning, morning.

Are you strong this morning?

Yebo.

Ok. I want you guys to organise all the deployments, please. All the names, everything.

Ok.

Ok?

Only two.

Speedy Gonzalos.

00.07.24.03-00.07.26.22

00.07.26.23-00.07.29.02

00.07.29.03-00.07.30.13

00.07.30.14-00.07.31.17

00.07.31.18-00.07.32.22

00.07.34.24-00.07.37.16

00.07.37.17-00.07.40.16

00.07.43.01-00.07.46.00

00.07.46.07-00.07.48.11

00.07.48.11-00.07.52.09

Subtitles

How long are they going out for?

A long time. The whole month.

The whole month?

I don’t want to see them.

Okay.

So warn them that they can pack their kit.

A razor, some soap, and … and …

Okay. Let me first go and get those people.

Then, they will get the maps …

We will show them where they have to operate.

00.07.52.24-00.08.12.11

Kelly Abram: We have got a significant amount of people in the Waterberg, which are undereducated. The sort of skill level is very, very poor and we also have a problem with a certain amount of job creation. We have got the tourist industry here, but we also need to support that to create more jobs.

00.08.12.12-00.08.35.22

Dialogue, scene

Simon Rood: There is your chest webbing and your battle jacket. Keep it on. Those shoes also, you can put those in your bag, because all these civies will with you to the tent.

Mike: Okay.

Simon: So, you can still, you know, in the evening walk around in those. And your trainers, that is fine, but that shit, you’ll only – if you need to look for women will you need stuff like that.

00.08.35.23-00.08.56.10

Dialogue, interview

Mike: From what’s been said and everything, they start from, from scratch. They get rid of identity. I mean, I’m not a name anymore. I’m a call sign. I’m Mike Hotel. Which is kind of weird actually, because it is still my first name. because M is Mike and I am Mike.

00.09.15.14-00.09.17.24

00.09.18.00-00.09.20.10

00.09.20.11-00.09.21.18

Subtitles

Do you want to come?

Do you want to come and help?

Come!

00.09.31.24-00.09.57.17

Dialogue, interview

Abram: We are going to have a significant number of youth between the ages of sort of 20 up to 30, where they haven’t had employment. And as they get older then there’s less opportunities for employment. So, this is one of the challenges that we’ve taken on and this has led to one of the projects that we’ve started earlier this year, which is the Youth Environmental Service.

00.09.58.22-00.10.10.18

Dialogue, interview

Rood: We were approached to do their training for them. And you know, after the meetings with our ground ops and what we are doing for rhino conservation, it only made sense that we would train the rhino monitors up.

00.10.12.09-00.10.15.17

00.10.15.18-00.10.19.21

Subtitles

Brush the hair off. Don't you have a brush?

When you cut it backwards, it does not come off.

00.10.19.22-00.10.50.15

Dialogue, interview

Abram: We’re doing it within the sort of environmental tourism sector and they’re getting trained in the areas of wildlife security, obviously with the rhino poaching there’ s a lot job creation now in terms of now securing reserves and wildlife. Nature guides because again with the tourism industry there is plenty of opportunities for good qualified nature guides in the Waterberg area. And then to support services like housekeepers and chefs.

00.11.11.24-00.11.14.05

Subtitle

Yes, that looks nice.

00.11.15.00-00.11.16.17

00.11.16.18-00.11.17.24

00.11.18.00-00.11.19.21

00.11.19.22-00.11.21.11

00.11.21.12-00.11.23.04

00.11.23.20-00.11.25.02

00.11.25.17-00.11.28.12

Subtitles

Abel. A-B-E-L. Abel.

How are you doing?

Samson.

Pleased to meet you.

Frans.

Joseph.

I'll have to ask you again for names, because I forget.

00.11.34.11-00.12.06.22

Dialogue, interview

Rood: There’s a lot of things that the average person doesn’t understand because they sort of read about it in the newspaper or they read an article or they may see something on the news. It is a very, very difficult profession and the average person doesn’t understand what it entails to be a field rangers. You know, they think it is a very romantic job, like a game ranger. It is sort of driving around in an open vehicle with a weapon and you know, your short sleeves cut off and in the sun. But no, that is a lot of non-sense, it is very hard. It’s very demanding.

00.12.10.03-00.12.16.22

Title

Lungisa

Rhino monitor sleeping area

00.12.18.19-00.13.11.24

Dialogue, interview

Mike: I’ve never been in anything like this. Like, I just dumped all my gear down in some tent in the bush, with six camper … camper, sleeper bed things. And, I actually don’t know what is going on. I don’t even know where what’s going to happen. Like, it’s just in the … it’s in the bush. It is kind of like … what it reminds me of is very much those first days of something new that is very big. That classic like you just don’t know where you are. First day of school, first day of university.

00.13.13.15-00.13.15.03

00.13.15.04-00.13.19.18

00.13.19.19-00.13.21.19

Subtitles

Here.

Let me go ask how many are in this tent.

I think it is four.

00.13.28.15-00.14.12.09

Dialogue, interview

Mike: You know what is tough for me is that everybody is looking at me like there is no fucking way I can do this like, or I’m just in the wrong place. Maybe that is me projecting, but I think it’s that … I mean I feel like completely disconnected. How I said like I felt before I feel disconnected living in Jo’burg. But I’m here at the coalface now and that disconnection is so apparent now where I’m right up against it with these are the people I don’t connect with. That my world is so far away from this.

00.14.12.10-00.14.24.02

Dialogue, scene

Mike: I’m just going to unpack.

Trainee: Okay.

00.14.29.17-00.14.41.24

Title

Illegal Pseudo-Hunting

North West

00.14.54.21-00.15.00.13

Titles

Confiscated Video

See also: ‘Killing for Profit’ by Julian Rademeyer

00.15.27.19-00.15.30.08

00.15.30.09-00.15.32.19

00.15.39.03-00.15.42.14

00.16.04.07-00.16.08.04

00.16.19.16-00.16.21.09

00.16.45.24-00.16.47.17

00.17.07.02-00.17.09.15

Subtitles

Claasens: Can you cock it?

Claasens: Okay, shoot it.

Steyl: Where must I shoot it? Huh?

Steyl: Is that one too low? Huh?

Steyl: It’s gone.

Steyl: It’s dead, huh?

Steyl: This one’s head is hard.

00.17.22.18-00.17.27.05

Title

Paul O’Sullivan

Forensic Investigator

00.17.15.06-00.17.34.22

Dialogue, interview

O’Sullivan: We received information that there were peoples buying lion bones and the information we received were that the same people that were buying the lion bones were also dealing in rhino horn. So I got a couple of my undercover guys to get out into the field and we managed to locate them and find out who they were.

00.17.40.20-00.17.48.11

Subtitle

Chumlong Lemtongthai

Found guilty of fraud and smuggling.

Sentenced to 30 years in prison.

00.17.51.07-00.17.59.11

Subtitle

Punpitak Chunchom (Peter)

A known facilitator for the Xaysavang syndicate based in Laos.

00.18.26.01-00.18.31.20

Subtitle

Nimit Wongprajan

Pseudo-hunter and permit holder. Yet, he never fired a shot.

00.18.01.23-00.18.53.14

Dialogue, interview

O’Sullivan: They would source the animals. Having sourced the animals, they would buy them and ship them to a location in the North West province where they would be shot and it was pretty much the same location every time. At the same time they sourced the animals they would send an email to a guy that was involved in human trafficking and tell him to they need X number of hunters. Now it is very convenient to have hunters that came from the East – because under the CITES regulations the trophy that, you know, that the horn or the trophy could only be shipped back to the country of origin where the hunter had come from. So, in this case they had all these Thai hunters and of course they weren’t really hunters. For the most part they were prostitutes that had been shipped to South Africa by human traffickers and spent maybe 2 or 3 years working on their backs. And then they would be sent back to Thailand.

00.19.10.18-00.20.16.09

O’Sullivan: Their passport would be held by the human trafficker. So … they would be told that they were going to have a weekend away at a safari ranch and they would be paid R5000 for having this weekend away. They knew nothing about the shooting process. And they’d be given wine to drink on the way there and then they would arrive at some nice safari ranch and have a weekend there with nice food and nice beds and not have to work with a customer. And then at some point during that visit they would be taken in a landrower out to where the rhino had been shot. And they’d be asked to pose there with the hunting riffle and a number of pictures would be taken. And their passport had already been supplied by the human trafficker and a permit would be made up in their name. Now, we looked at some of these trophies. Some of them weighed as much as 7-10 kilos. Well if you have 10 kilo of rhino horn, based on a 50 000 dollar per kilo price, you’re looking at half a million dollars.

00.20.16.10-00.20.21.03

00.20.21.04-00.20.25.15

00.20.25.16-00.20.30.11

00.20.30.12-00.20.36.02

00.20.36.03-00.20.40.17

00.20.40.18-00.20.46.08

00.20.46.09-00.20.52.00

Titles

After the animals are shot, their horns are cut off …

… and placed on a piece of wood.

They are now classified as ‘trophies’.

Often the horns do not fit the wooden base …

… while generally also arranged without care.

Temporary screws hold the horns in place …

… until they can be exported and sold on the black market.

00.20.52.01-00.22.18.00

Dialogue, interview

O’Sullivan: These girls, a lot of them came from very impoverished parts of Bangkok or other cities within Thailand where you could probably buy their whole neighbourhood for half a million dollars. So, it was unlikely that you were going to find this rhino trophy sitting on a wall in a house worth maybe 5% of the value of the trophy.

So, then we infiltrated the syndicate and we managed to get details of the shipping agent. And we built up a documentary trail. The horns were being shipped to Bangkok, but somewhere between the booking in of the horn and their arrival in Bangkok the documentation was changed, so when it arrived in Bangkok it stayed within the customs area and were shipped across to another plane and went to Laos. And we were able to track the person … that was a company called Xaysavang in Laos. We were able to track down the owner and the address of that company. So, what we are working on now is trying to put an Interpol red notices out for this guy, so that if he steps foot out of Laos, which is not a signatory to the Interpol convention. But if he steps foot out of Laos, we can perhaps arrest him. So, Mr Xaysavang would know that we are busy trying to create a possibility that he will not be able to move foot out of Laos.

00.21.54.24-00.21.54.24

Title

Vixay Xaysavang (with Lemtongthai)

Syndicate Leader based in Laos

00.22.18.15-00.22.41.10

Title

Chumlong Lemtongthai and the Xaysavang syndicate have been responsible for killing 26 rhinos with fraudulent permits. As a result, 52 horns found their way into the black market. At the time of Lemtongthai's arrest in 2011, plans were already in place to kill another 50 of South Africa's rhino.

00.22.57.07-00.23.02.02

Title

Mike’s first drill

7am-10am

00.23.00.05-00.23.24.18

Dialogue, interview

Mike: I’m very worried about the drilling, because I think it is very technical and I’ve not done any of it. I’ve never done drilling before and everyone else who is gonna be drilling will have done it before. Whether it is these guys who have been doing it for a month already or it’s the guys who are coming back in, who have trained already and they’re just being refreshed.

00.23.34.17-00.23.50.02

Dialogue, interview

Mike: What I am going to struggle with, because the drill sergeant is Major BJ Mashebane, and his Afrikaans and English can be very difficult to follow. And that is what he drills in.

00.23.50.03-00.23.52.04

00.23.53.23-00.23.56.10

00.23.56.24-00.23.59.06

00.23.59.07-00.24.00.22

00.24.01.13-00.24.02.11

00.24.02.12-00.24.03.10

00.24.04.08-00.24.05.06

00.24.15.19-00.24.16.17

00.24.26.08-00.24.30.01

00.24.30.02-00.24.30.18

Subtitles

Jackets! Take them off!

Take off your jackets and fall in!

Take off your jackets and fill in!

As quickly as possible!

One!

Two!

Three!

Look in front of you!

Arms shoulder height, heels on ground, gut in, chest out!

Look in front of you!

00.24.33.22-00.24.41.02

Dialogue, interview

Mike: I’m just gonna get shat out from the dizzy heights and get told to run back and forth while I’m not learning to do anything because I’m gonna just get it all wrong.

00.24.45.16-00.24.47.09

00.24.49.21-00.24.51.14

00.25.09.19-00.25.11.02

Subtitles

Stand still, Mike! Stand still!

Go straight, Mike! Go straight!

Use your head!

00.25.31.16-00.25.34.23

00.25.34.24-00.25.38.06

00.25.28.07-00.25.39.24

00.25.40.00-00.25.41.19

00.25.41.20-00.25.43.22

00.25.43.23-00.25.47.09

00.25.47.10-00.25.50.11

Subtitles

When you start with something, you must struggle.

You can’t get everything like that …

It was the same for me …

What I do here …

… I also struggled and walked those steps.

I Didn’t fly to get where I am today.

I sweat a lot … I sweat a lot.

00.25.55.18-00.25.56.16

00.25.56.17-00.25.59.22

00.25.59.23-00.26.01.08

00.26.02.20-00.26.06.21

00.26.06.22-00.26.09.11

00.26.09.12-00.26.10.01

00.26.10.02-00.26.12.11

00.26.12.12-00.26.15.17

00.26.16.11-00.26.18.10

00.26.19.06-00.26.21.08

00.26.23.16-00.26.24.22

00.26.26.00-00.26.27.17

00.26.27.18-00.26.28.22

00.26.33.19-00.26.36.14

00.26.37.12-00.26.38.10

00.26.39.07-00.26.40.05

00.26.42.13-00.26.43.11

Subtitles

That is better.

Because you are doing what I tell you.

To the front!

No! If you can’t get this thing right …

…you’ll confuse everybody else.

Okay?

Yes, Major.

It’s not up to me! It’s up to you to get the others right!

It’s … ONE, TWO.

Pick up!

To the front!

No! Throw that thing!

You must throw it!

Throw it! You are a man! Your hands must work!

To the front!

Better!

Well done, Carcas!

00.25.34.24-00.25.39.11

Title

Sgt. Maj. Mashabane

Nkwe Security Services

00.26.46.20-00.27.31.22

Dialogue, interview

Mike: I think what is making me most tired is that there’s no clarity on anything. I don’t really know what is coming to me. So, I’m constantly waiting for the next thing. No-one is telling me anything. No-one is telling me what is expected of me. What is going to happen, what time things are going to happen. What I need to know. I like to have a good set of instructions that I can try and follow to the best of my ability. But, just thinking of movies and thing s like these Vietnam movies, war movies and soldiers and all that kind of stuff: These guys are like grunts. They don’t need to … like this seems how it gets treated. You don’t need to know anything. You don’t think.

00.27.31.23-.00.27.57.06

Dialogue, interview

Greeff: Now look, all operations should be done on what is called a need to know basis. That people that does not on that patrol doesn’t need to know where that patrol is. The guy on the ground is briefed on what he needs to know and he must accept that. He must do his thing. Do his job on a need to know basis and mustn’t ask for too much answers. Just do his job.

00.27.37.01-00.27.41.13

Title

Major Jack Greef

Anit-poaching tactical expert

00.28.00.09-00.28.06.15

Title

Traditional Medicine

Africa and Asia

00.28.13.12-00.28.35.02

Dialogue, interview

July: I went to Pretoria to work as a gardener there looking for greener pastures, when I suddenly fell sick there. And then I thought I was bewitched and then I had to come back home so that my family can take me to traditional healers - because that is the first place we go in our culture when we became sick.

00.28.38.21-00.29.21.06

Dialogue, interview

July: So, my bosses try to take me to the hospital, but I refused and when I get here I was … I wake up very, very sick in the hospital. But my family some how force me to come out of the hospital, took me to Botswana to a traditional healer, who also said I was bewitched. And then I had to come back home. And when I was at home I tried other traditional healers without any success.

When all the money was finished, that’s when WWS welcome base carers came to my house and they said they’ll take me to the clinic because during that time I had TB.

00.29.25.01-00.29.31.11

Dialogue, interview

July: When I got to the clinic they referred me to the hospital where I was diagnose HIV positive.

00.28.22.21-00.28.26.24

Title

July Letsebe

HIV Clinic, Waterberg Welfare Services

00.29.41.24-00.30.37.05

Dialogue, interview

Walker: If you’re a mother of two kids and one of them goes down with a very serious fever and you go to the traditional healer and that is what he or she prescribes for you. As a parent, you’re not going to argue with that. Your family grew up with that, your grandparents grew up with that.

Traditional medicine is a recognised usage and activity of people within our own country. We understand that traditional medicine is recognised and it is widespread. There are concerns in terms of certain species: pangolins, vultures, certain very, very rare plants, trees, bark. We have a problem in this country in terms of the usage and the utilisation of very rare and threatened species that are used in traditional medicine.

00.30.37.06-00.32.00.05

Dialogue, interview

Walker: Rhino horn is highly sought after by South East Asians. They have sought after that for at least 3000 years. It’s used in traditional medicine. It is believed to reduce fever and a multitude of ailments associated with South East Asians. And the one situation that we don’t fully understand and appreciate is that tablets are not just made out of 100% rhino horn. They’re mixed with other ingredients. Chinese traditional medicine is a highly evolved subject and it’s been going on for a long time. You cannot just dismiss traditional medicine and turn around as we have the tendency in the West to say – Well, why don’t they just go and buy aspirin? It’ s only going to by R30, it’s not going to cause the death of a rhino and it’s going to work just as well. That is highly arrogant of us as Westerners to say. The Western drug does do the job a far great deal more successfully. But when you’re dealing with traditional medicine, you’re dealing with a long history of ancient medicines and you cannot just dismiss it.

00.32.00.18-00.32.40.07

00.32.09.05-00.32.40.07

00.32.14.21-00.32.40.07

00.32.19.13-00.32.40.07

00.32.21.19-00.32.40.07

00.32.25.22-00.32.40.07

00.32.30.05-00.32.40.07

Titles (Typewriter)

Case Number 57/01/2013

Items Recovered: 1x .458 Rifle

5x .458 Ammunition

1x Axe

2x Cell Phones

Suspects Arrested: Joseph Tamele (Shooter)

Mpenyane Mthembu (Sangoma)

00.32.00.18-00.30.01.23

Dialogue, interview

Lottering: We’ve received information that people has gone to a certain sangoma. During our observations we actually observed how the weapon gets removed from the vehicle, muti (or the traditional medicine) gets pored onto this weapon to insure that it will shoot straight. How the people themselves wash themselves with it. How they get over the fence and then proceed to where the rhinos were. And then once they’ve killed the animal and come out that they would then also bath or wash themselves again in these traditional medicines. We’ve also had instances where carcases were mutilated. Eyes and ears, lips, toenails and tail was removed from the animals. And this is all been used as traditional medicine to help the sangomas so that the groups can get stronger and not being detected.

00.32.44.07-00.32.48.10

Title

Barend Lottering

Nyathi Anti-Poaching Unit

00.33.26.01-00.34.19.11

Dialogue, interview

Walker: You’re dealing with a substance now that’s selling at 65000 supposedly dollars per kilogram. That is enormous money! That’s enormous money! And if you don’t know where your next meal is gonna come from and somebody says to you, listen here is 10 000 in your back pocket if you tell us where to go in your reserve that you work in. You know, that is putting huge pressure on somebody who doesn’t know where his next meal’s coming from. And yes, you could say it is greed, but I’ve always believed that it’s the …. Those men in the front row are the victims of this. Those that are in the shadows, they’re the ones who take no risk whatsoever. They’re the ones who are really making money. They’re not losing their lives.

00.34.55.19-00.34.58.18

00.35.02.04-00.35.05.07

00.35.07.17-00.35.11.12

00.35.11.13-00.35.12.11

00.35.12.12-00.35.14.16

Subtitles

Come here, come here, come here!

He’s fighting! Are you fighting with us?

Where do you come from? What do you want?

I want rhino!

What do you want rhino for?

00.35.09.07-00.35.17.00

Title

Ambush training for rangers

Pamwe Chete

00.35.15.04-00.35.47.22

Dialogue, interview

Walker: People are forced into this out of circumstances of that they find themselves in. No money, no job, no prospect of a job. And suddenly the prospect of being involved without any risk to yourself, just by a tip off, is very difficult for a person to turn away from that. So, we need to look at the socio-economic – not just the economics of this. We need to look at the social aspect of it.

00.35.48.16-00.35.53.11

Title

Final drill before deployment

7am-10am

00.36.05.18-00.36.24.06

Dialogue, interview

Mike: Alpha November is surprisingly old for how he looks. He looks like an 18 year old, but he is … I think he is about 28. The guys call him lawyer because he talks so much. He is very, very friendly and really a straight up, good guy.

00.36.23.21-00.37.01.14

Dialogue, scene

Mike: It’s about making a story out of all of this. Making a story you can tell the world, so that the world is interested in the problem and interested in everything that is going on here.

Alpha: If the poacher, if these guys if they want horns so they make sure the rhino is dead.

Mike: Sometimes, sometimes. Ja, it’s easier.

00.37.07.18-00.37.10.05

00.37.10.06-00.37.13.15

00.37.13.16-00.37.25.13

00.37.25.14-00.37.28.09

00.37.28.10-00.37.31.10

00.37.31.11-00.37.34.07

00.37.34.08-00.37.37.23

00.37.37.24-00.37.40.24

Subtitles

Sergeant Major! Deliver the rangers ...

Rhinos – they are killing them!

The rhinos – they are killing them!

Sergeant Major! Deliver the rangers …

Rhinos – they are killing them!

Sergeant Major! Deliver the rangers …

Rhinos – they are killing them!

The rhinos – they are killing them!

00.37.48.18-00.38.18.17

Dialogue, interview

Rood: It’s a grind, I mean you know, from the beginning. With the selection, which is harsh. And then they go on to the training, living in tents. So, they got to … They endure hardships and definitely you know, maybe after three months they say, well, it’s not getting any better because there’s so much training involved that definitely they throw the towel in. They say enough is enough. We’d much rather sit at home or at a shebeen on a weekend, have a cold beer instead of being out in the bush living in a little tent in a sleeping bag.

00.38.19.05-00.38.21.11

00.38.21.12-00.38.23.10

00.38.23.11-00.38.25.09

00.38.25.10-00.38.29.15

00.38.29.16-00.38.31.17

00.38.32.11-00.38.35.03

00.38.35.04-00.38.37.11

00.38.37.12-00.38.40.23

00.38.40.24-00.38.43.17

00.38.43.18-00.38.46.17

00.38.46.18-00.38.49.23

00.38.49.24-00.38.53.11

00.38.53.12-00.38.58.02

00.38.58.03-00.39.01.13

00.39.01.14-00.39.05.09

00.39.05.10-00.39.08.18

00.39.08.19-00.39.12.22

00.39.12.23-00.39.15.17

Subtitles

You must build yourself.

You’re here to build your future.

Nobody else can do that for you.

I can’t help you if you don’t want to yourself.

So, you must do it yourself.

Protest dancing and this job don’t go together.

There are some good people here …

… but some of you are not right …

… because you’re busy fucking up other peoples’ lives!

People are done struggling …

… which means you can finish this training.

But when you find a job, you won’t be able to work …

… because your heart is not right from the start.

But others will find a job and advance.

But some, won’t be able to work.

The rats will eat your qualification certificate.

Because it won’t work for you. You have to!

Your brain and your heart must work.

00.39.24.07-00.39.51.12

Dialogue, interview

Mike: What happened was that the final call was, right, we’re all getting deployed into ... we are going out to placements on, I think, I suppose, different farms in the area for us to learn how it is to be in the bush. And that that will be until the end of the month and that was the final call on it. And next thing we knew, five guys had packed their bags and had given up the course.

00.39.51.21-00.40.53.04

Dialogue, interview

Munro: There are many occupations now in the modern world where you don’t have to put your life at risk, you don’t have to be physically uncomfortable. You don’t have to make yourself unpopular with your fellow human being. And you don’t have to put yourself in the firing line not only of poachers, but also by being injured by wild animals or getting old fashioned deceases – I’m referring to things like tick bite fever, malaria and things like that. For most modern urban orientated societies those things are something you read about in books of yesteryear. But this is one, and I use the work vocation deliberately, this is one vocation where those things are real and in your face very single day. I think it’s important that people need to know that before they join up. And once they are in it, when times get hard and you are hungry and you are cold and you do get sick and you haven’t seen your family for some time then you need to draw on the strength that will come from your fellow rangers who are all suffering in the same way.

00.39.56.12-00.40.02.15

Title

Lawrence Munro

Rhino Operations Unit Manager,

Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife

00.40.55.24-00.41.00.19

Title

Deployment

Pamwe Chete Rhino Monitoring Sectors

00.40.58.00-00.41.03.13

00.41.03.18-00.41.04.01

00.41.04.04-00.41.04.22

00.41.04.23-00.41.06.23

00.41.06.24-00.41.12.21

Dialogue, scene

Mike: Do we have to eat that food until the end of the month? Do they bring us more food?

Jaluka: Yes.

Mike: Oh, okay.

Jaluka: When the food is finished, then we call.

Mike: Then we call: Bravo Juliette, Bravo Juliette, we’re hungry. Bring us food.

00.42.39.05-00.42.59.17

Dialogue, interview

Mike: I don’t think anybody is here because they are passionate about nature conservation and rhinos. I think they are here because it is an opportunity. It’s an opportunity in a flat job market.

00.43.15.17-00.43.45.23

Dialogue, interview

Mike: I’m trying to get my head around it being that. That this is about a job and it’s about being a potential cash owner. As opposed to this being a passion for saving a national heritage, you know, our rhinos. But maybe that is how this must work – that saving rhinos does open up those avenues of employment for people who need employment.

00.44.04.11-00.44.57.14

Dialogue, interview

Rood: Accountability, I think it’s a word rather lacking in Africa, but accountability from the rhino poaching and from the landowners side is again referring to the landowners having rhino and not being accountable for having adequate security on the ground to look after the rhino. So, they must be accountable and I think it is a very similar link to private industry – security industry that has firearms. You have a tremendous responsibility. And if you lose a weapon or there is negligence, then you know, there are problems – you are going to pay a fine or be declared unfit to possess a weapon. And I think the same should apply for landowners that lose rhino. Everybody is aware of the poaching, so they have to be accountable and they must insure that their rhino are safe guarded.

00.45.20.12-00.45.23.17

Subtitle

We aren’t making progress with the rhino bulls.

00.45.23.22-00.46.22.16

Dialogue, interview

Greeff: The private rhino landowner keeps that animal for a specific reason and he will not divert from that. If it is non-consumptive you got a very …. a more sensitive owner, who’s a lot more protective of the animal – normally. He’s got the animal there for aesthetic reasons and he’s got a tourism project or program going. And the tourism brings him cash and he is sensitive towards the needs of the animal, which is protection. And in most cases we find that those types of guys do put in patrols and those patrols are paid for by the tourist operation going on. But then you have the other side of things, where the rhino owner has got the animal there purely for consumptive reasons, which is hunting or selling the animal - or latest now, harvesting the horn. Consumptive – he uses the product.

00.46.22.17-00.46.42.05

Dialogue, interview

Rood: On some of the private reserves that we operating on, I don’t want to mention any names, but there are some of them that I really take my hat off too. The guys are extremely proactive. And yet on the other reserves they’ve lost rhinos, some 6! And they had absolutely nothing on the ground. I think, it is an utter disgrace to be quite honest.

00.46.42.06-00.47.04.17

Dialogue, interview

Greeff: After 5 years of heavy poaching, he’s got no security in place. Either the guy is stupid, he’s an idiot and he doesn’t realise what is going on. Or, he doesn’t care that much about the animal. He is profit driven, absolutely profit driven. He wants to make as much as he can out of that animal when he does unitise that animal.

00.47.15.18-00.47.55.07

Dialogue, interview

Greeff: With the potential sale of horn that might take place, many of these owners have just simply removed the horn from the animal, put in the safe and he’s happy now. His investment, the price he paid for the animal – covered. It is in a safe. So, the animal can now be shot. He doesn’t care. So there is still no security in place. I question, you know, whether the type of person, which remove the horn or put the animal in an enclosure waiting for a hunter and doesn’t put in security, whether we really need that kind of guy, because I don’t think they contribute to rhino conservation on the long term.

00.47.55.08-00.48.36.08

Dialogue, interview

Walker: You cannot just think that you can have an animal like a rhino and plonk it onto a large piece of ground and then go back to Johannesburg and hope that everything’s going to be okay. Now why go and get yourselves involved in rhino conservation, because it’s socially acceptable and smart and then do nothing about training people to actually insure that investment, because when the state loses a rhino it belongs to the nation. So it is no one individual. But an individual landowner loses a rhino, that is a massive loss.

00.48.38.18-00.48.44.21

Title

Ant Baber, Founder

Save the Waterberg Rhino

00.48.36.09-00.49.12.06

Dialogue, interview

Baber: My name is Ant Baber. I am the son of a cattle rancher and my father … well, our family has been in the Waterberg since 1886. And our biggest sort of defining day was the day we introduced our first rhino here. That was 17 years ago. Everything came to a shattering halt one Sunday afternoon. It was half past three in the afternoon when I received a phone call from one of my guys saying you know, he’d heard, I think it was six shots, one afternoon.

00.49.22.04-00.51.23.20

Dialogue, interview

Baber: Someone saw a one-year-old calf, a little heifer calf, running blindly through the bush on its own. And you know, rhino calves and their mothers, they’re never more than two metres apart – ever. And as soon as we found its tracks, we found a massive blood trail with it. So, we knew the calf had been wounded and obviously something had happened to the mother. On the little rhino calf’s tracks we found the tracks of three guys running after it. Obviously, they wanted just that tiny little stub of horn. As soon as we got onto those track, I think the poachers became aware that we were on to them and they left the rhino tracks and they headed for the closest road. A chap who worked with me for many years, he’s a very good tracker and eventually he tracked and found the calf lying in the bush, still alive. And we darted it and put it into a boma. And it was amazing. It ate some food, drank some water. But unfortunately hours after she got to us the calf died. And what had transpired is, a bullet had gone, been shot low in the chest and had the bullet exited, it would have been fine, she probably would have recovered. But the bullet ricocheted off the inside of the rib cage and went through all the internal organs. So, she was, you know, this little calf, it had no chance of survival. We had to actually backtrack the poachers to eventually find the cow. And it’s a very a sort of sad sight seeing an animal that you’ve seen grow up from, you know, from a youngster, you know, have first her first calf, have her second calf and there she was lying with half her face chopped off. And you know … to this day, you know, we are talking two years later we still, we still haven’t – they still haven’t apprehended anyone.

00.51.49.00-00.52.43.21

Dialogue, interview

Mike: Pusu, he is in a position of responsibility and he’s got a younger brother who needs school fees and that sort of thing. Jaluka is a really good tracker, like, this guy knows direction. He can shift … we turn ourselves around and he knows how to get home. But then you wonder, because he struggles with authority. Because, Abel is number one in command. He’ll give an order, but it would be kind of bucked. Sammy’s here because he wants a car. That’s his dream. Sammy wants to drive a car. He and Jaluka, they’ve got eyes like hawks … like, they see stuff before I can’t even see it until it moves in the bush, but they’d be like stop … there.

00.52.45.01-00.53.20.15

Dialogue, interview

Abel: I used to be a paramedic. The thing is, I came across so many challenges and then like, it was very difficult because like I was alone. By the time I was doing well, there were people around me and then, like, most of them they are family. So, by the time I fell, everything fell apart, they were no longer there to like kind of help me grow and be the man of my own again. So it was kind of difficult for me.

00.53.45.19-00.54.36.04

Dialogue, interview

Munro: I have noticed the relationship between frequency and presence. And sometimes I think we might be good at frequency but low on presence. A ranger on the ground in the field, is going to deter a rhino poacher. If a rhino poacher sees a rhino and 50 meters away sees a group of armed rangers, he will not logically go and poach that rhino. But if he sees the rangers walk past the rhino every hour on the hour, well then he knows he can poach the rhino in the time in between. So, frequency I would say is not sufficient to stopping rhino poaching. We do need presence. Obviously, we are going to have to get inventive as to how we create that presence and how we maintain that presence.

00.54.36.24-00.55.15.15

Dialogue, interview

Rood: The rhino monitors are there, and it was put in place to facilitate and to insure that the landowner has a sustainable means of protecting his rhino. You may have a reserve, which is a lot smaller. Doesn’t quite have the turnover and the finances to pay for private security company like ours where you have armed field rangers on the ground. So what we are saying is that you have to give them all the options – from the bottom end to the top end and the landowner can send us their staff – their loyal staff. We can train them up as rhino monitors. And then at least on this particular reserve they would have area coverage.

00.55.16.09-00.55.22.15

Title

The Past and the Present

South Africa

00.57.22.21-00.57.26.01

00.57.26.02-00.57.33.01

00.57.34.09-00.57.35.22

00.57.35.23-00.57.39.03

00.57.39.04-00.57.46.03

Subtitles

Also, this has lost some definition.

It must have passed here, I think, yesterday.

Those tracks on the road …

… do you think they are the same one?

Let’s just follow this one to the road and then we’ll see.

00.58.01.06-00.58.07.09

Title

Dr Ian Player, Founder

Wilderness Wildlife School,

Rhino Conservationist

00.57.57.24-00.59.26.00

Dialogue, interview

Player: It was the hunters in the 1800s, who were the ones who were responsible for wiping out the rhino. I mean there were hundreds of thousands of rhino right from Kuruman in the Cape to the Zambezi in the north. And they were systematically slaughtered in much the same way that they are being slaughtered now. And by 1893, 1894 no lesser man than Frederick Courteney Selous said that the white rhino was finished, that they’ve had it. And then there was a man, Sir Henry McCullen, who was hunting down at the junction of the Black and the White Umfolozi River. And he was hunting black rhino and he shot two rhino. And to his astonishment they turned out to be white rhino. And this immediately led to a huge outcry in what was then the colony of Natal. And the governor then proclaimed the Umfolozi Game Reserve and Hluhluwe Game Reserve and Lake St Lucia as parks. And they were the first parks in Africa. And that is why we owe such a huge debt to the white rhino, because had it not have been for the white rhino it is unlikely that there would have been parks.

00.59.26.01-01.00.30.23

Dialogue, interview

Munro: We know that in the Southern part of Umfolozi Game Reserve for example in the 80s there was an effort made by the government of the time to put firearms into that area to assist with political instability. Times have changed and gratefully our country has moved forward, but many of those firearms were not recovered and I don’t think it is a small coincidence that now we are actually finding firearms or ballistics that are being retrieved from rhino carcasses match the type of firearms that were put into that area by the previous government.

The poachers have made use of the typography. They know the lay of the land. Many of these poachers that we find especially in the southern part of Zululand were in fact trained by the previous government in a paramilitary role and those skills have not gone away. And unfortunately, I think, currently now in the present information age those skills when married with modern technology things like cell phones, are proving to be a deadly match – for us, and most certainly for the rhino.

01.00.37.05-01.01.04.20

Dialogue, interview

Player: I’ve had to fight for them, I’ve had to fight very hard. But with great willingness because they are a wonderful, innocent beast. Absolutely innocent. The white rhino is nonaggressive at all. The black rhino can aggressive, but the white rhino not at all.

01.01.33.05-01.03.27.11

Dialogue, interview

Baber: Out of the blue a year ago, I think it was on the 1^st of July, we were out in the bush and there we found the tracks of a two-year-old calf on its own and immediately my heart sunk because calf on its own means mom’s got a problem. And we sent out every one searching and unfortunately we found this beautiful big cow, you know, she’s been shot. In this case, they spared the calf. Now looking a year later, where we had another calf from another cow exactly the same age. The calf who lost its mother – it was actually 22 months. He was 22 months old when his mother got killed. He is half the size of the other bull calf, who grew up with his mother. In fact, the orphaned rhino calf is the same size as a one-year-old calf. Tragically, one of my staff who was involved, someone he knew or someone knew of him, knew where he worked and it was the lure of money. And basically, they offered him R35000 to say, you know, when we were off the property. You know, when I wasn’t around and they waited for their moment. We are involved in the tourism industry and for us, if we didn’t have the rhino it would have a huge knock on effect on our business. You’d think once you’ve been hit once, you know, maybe that was your turn, but we were hit twice. You know, so it’s seriously heavy blow. But everything and everything in life happens for a reason and so our little Save the Waterberg Rhino initiative has grown out of this tragedy.

01.03.36.24-01.03.53.03

Dialogue, interview

School kid 1: I’m very, very, very happy, because I didn’t see rhinos, but today I’m lucky to see this rhinos. I’ll make sure, I’m going to help.

01.03.53.09-01.03.56.14

01.03.56.15-01.03.59.04

01.03.59.05-01.04.01.06

01.04.01.07-01.04.04.06

01.04.04.07-01.04.06.16

01.04.08.08-01.04.13.03

01.04.13.04-01.04.16.00

Subtitles

I will be able to understand people …

…when they are talking about rhino.

Like when they want information from me …

… asking me where I’ve seen rhino.

I will not have the right to tell that person.

I am happy, because since my birth I’ve never seen a rhino.

But today, I have.

01.04.16.01-01.04.18.09

Dialogue, interview

School kid 1: And I will never, never forget that.

01.04.26.10-01.04.30.09

01.04.30.10-01.04.33.23

01.04.33.24-01.04.39.23

01.04.39.24-01.04.42.22

01.04.42.23-01.04.46.22

01.04.46.23-01.04.51.16

01.04.53.00-01.04.58.12

Subtitles

Some of us, we watch the TV news.

We see a lot of poachers come here and …

… we feel bad, because our mothers work on game lodges …

… lodges like Welgefonden, where they see rhino.

Then we watch TV and see many rhino are dying.

So, we get worried that our parents will come back home …

…and say that they’ve lost their jobs.

01.04.58.19-01.05.01.01

Dialogue, interview

School kid 1: Something like that.

01.05.01.02-01.05.03.10

Dialogue, interview

School kid 2: We feel bad because of rhino.

01.05.03.11-01.05.08.22

01.05.08.23-01.05.12.10

01.05.12.11-01.05.18.06

01.05.18.07-01.05.20.11

Subtitles

If there were tighter security …

… these poachers will not be able to kill the rhinos.

If these rhinos are killed, our parents will suffer.

Even us, we will suffer.

01.05.20.12-01.05.38.00

Dialogue, interview

Teacher: What we want is that the government must play their role and also as a community we need to play a role. And our role as a community is to be informed and also be alert, of all the poachers who come to our community, because statistics shows that people who poach rhinos get information from the communities.

01.05.42.04-01.06.47.14

Dialogue, interview

July: When we grew up, this township was not here until after the election. So, most people around here were staying on the farm. So, as a school child when I came back home during the school holidays, I will go and work in the field, and then to make some money to buy myself shoes. And then like on Christmas time when the school went into recess, I will go and work and get some. So, it was working in peanuts and maize meal and beans, all those kinds of works. But it was never a tourist area. But now, if you drive around, you’ll see it turning into a tourist area. So people are going into tourism, which is a good thing, but it needs some sort of skill so that the customers that come in feel well served. So we need quality. And mostly there is no training for such things around here.

01.06.55.23-01.07.13.23

Dialogue, interview

Abram: Dr Rupert Baber who’s the chairman of the Biosphere, he did a study a number of years ago, looking at the employment level of Matric students coming out of just one of the high schools in Vaalwater and two years after they matriculated, only 2% was in employment.

01.07.13.24-01.08.02.05

Dialogue, interview

July: So you need to go somewhere. But when you look at the unemployment rate here, people who are working are working may be around here just simple jobs, which is not enough to send someone to a training. Most children they finish Matric here and the stay at home. And what will they do next if their peers are driving BMW’s, Mercedes? They’ll hear on TV that someone poached somewhere, made this lot of money. And it start building in their mind – that what if I go through that fence and they never saw me, what if I make it. So I also become someone special. Not knowing that that is all wrong.

01.08.02.06-01.08.05.10

Title

No Tapes. No Vote.

01.08.02.06-01.08.25.08

Dialogue, interview

Abel: We don’t earn so much. And those people who are just sitting and just doing the talking, they earn much. And they’re just doing it for themselves. Not for communities, you see. There are no job creations there, you see. And then if we get to keep these rhinos, then there is job creation.

01.08.30.15-01.08.49.04

Dialogue, interview

Abel: I’ve read something there that says these rhino horns … its some kind of medicine. And then, how can you say this is a medicine while people are dying, while rhinos are dying?

01.09.00.00-01.11.25.08

Dialogue, scene

Abel: These horns … they kill the rhinos, they chop the horns. These horns, we don’t use them in our country. So, these people they kind of export those horns. So, who is exporting the horns, and then how are these people going to kind of export these horns, because we have some borders, you see.

Mike: Exactly! It’s inside! It’s people in this country who are helping this stuff get out.

Abel: Ja, you see. So, it is us here in our country actually helping these people, né, survive, you see.

Mike: Exactly. And they take horns that are our country’s horns and they use it in another country – for stupid reasons.

Abel: You see. So this thing, it starts here, with people who shoot, people who kill. And then it goes up there, you see, towards people who are working …

Mike: I mean think about like today, that … those two rhino we find up there. Those poached rhino. The caw and the calf. How? We’ve been walking around this farm for what five days now.

Abel: For six days.

Mike: For six days. And we struggle to find rhino. How does a guy run in here, find two rhino, flatten them.

Abel: You see. So … I don’t say there was an inside job there, but somewhere, somehow inside job is there, you see, because these guys they kind of come and go straight to the rhino. They shoot, they take the horn and the leave.

Mike: And those rhino, they’re not at a waterhole or anything like that. They are in the middle of nowhere!

Abel: Ja, in the middle of nowhere, you see, and they were gunned down and their horns were gone. So, somewhere, somehow inside job is there.

01.11.25.09-01.13.36.20

Dialogue, interview

Mike: You know, you read about all this stuff and you can see pictures, but you are always one step removed. And it’s funny, because you make this picture in your head of … of how the problem feels. But, when you actually see them, it feels very futile. Like it feels like it’s not that, it’s not as big a deal to come in and flatten an animal and take its horn and buggar off, because you read about it and there is a hype about it and you think each an every poaching is this passive drama. The animal gets dropped and they chop the horn. It’s simple! It’s so simple! These animals are so flippen helpless. They just come in, they drop a rhino, they take the horn and they buggar off. And it brings it home how quickly this can happen. Because, yeah, in this area there are rangers, there are choppers, there are hunters, there are landowners, farm managers. And here are two poached rhinos and apparently they got poached in the daytime. But you can’t … you can’t do nothing, you know. I mean, what ranging and rhino monitoring – it’s a deterrent. It has to happen. There have to be people on the ground to at least try and hold this wave of poaching at bay, while better solutions are made.

01.13.38.21-01.13.43.16

Title

End of Deployment

Return to Pamwe Chete

01.13.54.14-01.15.11.23

Dialogue, interview

Abel: Say some of these poachers, they are from the government, you see. If the government starts maybe some projects on how to protect these rhinos. And then, maybe add some security. Maybe, kind of, protect these people who are protecting. Then somehow this thing is going to work. Because some people they do this job, at the same time they are in great fear. You see, because someone comes here and then he offers you some big cash and then you kind of like: ‘no, I’m not into that cash. You see, I’m here to protect, I’m not here to kill.’ And then they will start like making some plans to eliminate you, you see. So, if you accept the cash, you kill the rhino. If you don’t, they kill you. So, if maybe the government can maybe kind of increase some protection. That would be helpful for me.

01.15.11.24-01.15.28.17

Dialogue, scene

Abel: We are home. We are going to wash now.

Mike: We are going to wash.

Abel: Wash!

Mike: Wash!

Abel: We are going to take a long shower.

Mike: A long much needed shower.

Abel: Ja! We are going to see ourselves in the mirror!

01.15.28.18-01.15.31.22

01.15.31.23-01.15.34.02

01.15.34.03-01.15.39.12

01.15.41.01-01.15.43.01

01.15.43.02-01.15.46.01

01.15.52.24-01.15.56.03

Subtitles

Jaluka’s gained weight!

Yes, he looks like a fat rat.

He did the cooking. That is why he got fat.

What did you eat that made him fat?

It was the soup that did it!

Man! You got fatter than Jaluka!

01.16.17.13-01.16.18.10

01.16.32.13-01.16.36.13

Dialogue, scene

Mike: Thank you!

Mike: Is there more?

01.16.24.21-01.16.32.12

Dialogue, interview

Mike: I mean, you get to know these guys, hey. And there is just unbelievable potential in people. That is what you come to realise.

01.16.36.14-01.16.57.04

Dialogue, interview

Mike: All those guys there have an incredible amount to offer. And I really hope they stick with it. You know, they are part of that solution. And I hope it benefits them a lot. I think it needs to be a two-way flow.

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01.17.06.07-01.17.08.09

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01.17.14.05-01.17.18.08

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01.17.26.05-01.17.28.10

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01.18.01.16-01.18.04.22

01.18.04.23-01.18.09.12

01.18.09.13-01.18.12.19

01.18.12.20-01.18.16.01

01.18.16.02-01.18.19.08

Subtitles

Some people see rhino, buffalo and they want to run away.

So, you’re scared of buffalo?

When I looked back, I saw the buffalo.

So, I looked around for a tree to climb into.

Isn’t that running away?

When we were walking towards the bank…

… we saw the buffalo right in front of us!

So, the Major General was telling the truth when he said …

… we’ll be on top of the buffalo, ‘cause they were right there!

Mike: You can’t see them. You can’t see them.

They were so quiet!

There is no way you can run away!

The bank goes down really steep.

It is steep, steep, steep!

Haven’t you been there?

That bank! God! And you know …

… when we saw the buffalo, we were starting to climb up.

We were really tired.

He started looking in both directions …

… and I said: No! Don’t panic!

01.18.22.21-01.18.28.20

Title

The Border

South Africa-Mozambique

01.18.22.23-01.18.38.21

Dialogue, scene

Penn-Sawers: See, they went under the fence.

Penn-Sawers: Yeah, they’ve gone under the fence, hey.

Penn-Sawers: They were just running.

01.18.38.22-01.19.21.10

Dialogue, interview

Penn-Sawers: So close to the border. Cut it off. Cut the horn off. It comes off within – once the animal is down – it probably comes off in about a minute, two minutes. Fifteen minutes later they are in Mozambique. Safe heaven, which is a big problem that this park is experiencing at the moment – being right on the border. And the Kruger National Park is experiencing the same thing. And we’re working on trying to get a hot pursuit operations back into Mozambique, but at this stage there isn’t anything. And if we do go into Mozambique with Mozambique authorities, we got to leave our weapons behind. And we know that they are armed. Obviously they are armed. They’ve got a riffle at least, but in many cases it’s three or four of them with AK-47s, which then puts you at a distinct disadvantage when you’re going into Mozambique.

01.18.57.24-01.19.04.02

Title

Richard Penn-Sawers

Conservation manager

01.20.12.19-01.21.45.20

Dialogue, interview

Penn-Sawers: Yeah, it looks like it was sleeping just over there. And they got pretty close to it. And then shot it. And what Dave Cooper is saying, the vet is saying, that it kind of went in behind the ear, over here and then it travelled along the backbone, which was its coup d’grace, because that is how it died. Normally a shot down the ear, he believes, wouldn’t have killed it, but would’ve missed most of the vital organs if it had missed the neck bone or the spine and then gone straight through, because they do you solid. The bullet doesn’t expand. It goes through as much of the animal as possible to cause as much damage as possible. I think we’ve got fairly lucky here that it died so quickly. It seems as if there is only one bullet, which is unusual. Normally, they aim for the biggest target and then the animal runs for a couple of hundred metres. And then they walk up to it when it is really winded and then shoot it. If they bother to kill it. Sometimes they just do it while the animal is still alive. Which is seriously barbaric, hey.

I think, yeah, they didn’t use a bush knife here. I think they used a bow saw. It looks like they may have used a bow saw, because it is very, very neat. And they’ve gone right down to the bone. So they got every bit of the horn possible. Quite often they leave a little ring of the horn where they’ve cut it off. But this time they’ve taken everything. So these guys are old pros. And I think they are old military – military guys from Mozambique that we are experiencing here at the moment. And obviously, I mean, take the horn, twenty-fifteen minutes and you’re back in Mozambique – safe haven.

01.21.47.07-01.22.03.17

Dialogue, scene

Penn-Sawers: Ja!

Vet: It’s 9 mills.

Penn-Sawers: 9mm. So, it could be a Mauser. It could be a .308.

Vet: We’ve got 9 bar.

01.22.03.17-01.23.01.10

Dialogue, interview

Walker: We as humans do not have the right to exterminate something – even if we think it’s of now value. A rhino might be of great value to somebody in South East Asia, but to you if the rhino disappeared tomorrow’s going to make any difference to your life? The majority of people on planet earth – no! No! It is not going to make any difference. Life is just going to carry on in exactly the same way. What happens when we start not worrying about anything that disappears? Then we eventually get that mind-set where we don’t care too much about each other. So what if the Afghans will disappear? It’s not going to alter your life. When we get that mind-set, where we don’t – and it’s Mandela day today. So, we need to be reminded about what he thought about how we should be as human beings.

01.23.05.17-01.24.07.24

Dialogue, interview

Mike: This animal is a problem solver. It’s an opportunity to solve a problem. It’s an opportunity. I mean, who knows what it can bring us in the future if we keep it. You know, when you think about the people poaching this animal then they chop off that horn and that horn goes to another country and that individual or those few individuals, they benefit from that sale. But if that animal is alive then it’s there for the benefit of so many more people. It’s a job creator. So many jobs. To protect it, to guard it, to bring other people in to appreciate it. I don’t know, there is so much good that can come from having the animal.

01.24.38.05-01.25.27.23

Dialogue, interview

Mike: I think taking on this challenge and finding solutions to this challenge, is such a worthy objective. It’s linked to so much history in our country. It’s also linked to so many direct problems in our country. So that in order to solve this problem of the rhino, or overcome this challenge with our rhino, will mean that we will have to overcome so many other challenges in our country, and when we get that right our country is going to be a great place. The alternative is just too terrible to contemplate.

01.26.54.12-01.27.17.18

Title

As long as humans remain the ruthless destroyers of other living beings,

they will never know health or peace,

because as long as humans massacre animals, they will kill each other. - Pythagoras (6th Century BCE)

01.27.25.02-01.29.53.03

Credits