Rhino Mercy

01/23/2026

Here's a glimpse of the flood damage that our patrols are having to navigate! I suppose this situation makes it just as difficult for the poachers.

12/09/2025

Great story and is what makes our antipoaching strategy work in the long run....building 'environmental patriotism' with the next generation! The Bush Babies, Bush Grannies, and Black Mambas! Involving the 'past, present, and future' stewards of natural heritage!

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/16Dp5oHPPi/

12/07/2025

The world calls south(ern) Africa's bluff and maintains the international ban on 'trade' of rhino horn and ivory! Very good summary of why..... and what we have been saying all along!

https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2025-12-01-southern-africas-trade-agenda-implodes-as-and-with-it-the-veneer-of-a-successful/?fbclid=IwdGRjcAOie-VjbGNrA6J73mV4dG4DYWVtAjExAHNydGMGYXBwX2lkDDM1MDY4NTUzMTcyOAABHkPvOIdztgKjqGej9eTnbp60aEtno5Ncsyer_JH8aiUX0Q3y_xxMEnHvTCNE_aem_btENGT3_3xlCVFbTtHSf7Q&brid=0qxmIi8IuA2r4EaZx_jEfg

CITES CoP20 in Samarkand exposed a stark truth: the conservation model southern Africa has spent decades promoting is no longer credible.

11/28/2025

Here is an old article that explains why legalizing trade in rhino horn won't work.....

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1AahvMBX74/

Is your engagement ring to you what rhino horn is to the Chinese market? And how does this apply to arguments to legalise rhino horn trade?

11/18/2025

More evidence that "dehorning" doesn't deter poaching.

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/17cpXmgkur/

𝗦𝗜𝗡𝗚𝗔𝗣𝗢𝗥𝗘 𝗦𝗘𝗜𝗭𝗘𝗦 𝗥𝗘𝗖𝗢𝗥𝗗 𝗥𝗛𝗜𝗡𝗢 𝗛𝗢𝗥𝗡 𝗛𝗔𝗨𝗟 𝗪𝗢𝗥𝗧𝗛 $𝟴𝟬𝟬 𝟬𝟬𝟬 - Singapore has seized over $800,000 worth of illegal rhino horn and animal parts hidden in air cargo bound for Laos, authorities said Tuesday, in the largest haul of its kind discovered in the city-state.

Disguised as "furniture fittings", the stash was found 10 days ago after a cargo handler "detected a strong odour" coming from a package, Singapore's National Parks Board and air cargo handler SATS said in a joint statement. Singapore law officials were alerted, and uncovered "20 pieces of rhinoceros horns weighing 35.7 kilogrammes (78.7 pounds), along with around 150 kg of other animal parts", the statement said.

The haul's total value is estimated at around $870,000. This marks the largest seizure of rhinoceros horns in Singapore to date, the statement added. The 20 horns were identified as belonging to white South African rhinoceroses. Authorities are looking into the provenance of the other animal parts. Rhinos are protected under the Wildlife Protection Convention CITES, and international trade in their horns is prohibited.

The horns will now be destroyed in accordance with CITES guidelines, the Singapore authorities said. Rhino horns are considered status symbols and believed to have medicinal properties in parts of Asia. They are also carved into jewellery and household items, including combs, buttons and belt buckles. The largest previous seizure of rhino horns in Singapore was in October 2022, when 34.7 kg of the forbidden commodity were found in a South African man's bags at Changi Airport. The smuggler was sentenced to two years in jail in January last year.

The Switzerland-based International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) said in 2022 that poaching and the illegal trade in horns have decreased in recent years but remain grave threats to rhinos. It said more than 2,700 rhinos were poached in Africa between 2018 and 2021, of which 90 per cent were killed in South Africa, mainly in the Kruger National Park.

Home to nearly 80 per cent of the world's rhinoceroses, South Africa is a poaching hotspot, driven by demand from Asia.

Source: NATIONAL PARKS BOARD OF SINGAPORE / AFP - Algoa FM
Date: 18 November 2025

09/24/2025

This short message sums up our work at Rhino Mercy over the last 15 years..... so proud of our team and partnership with Transfrontier Africa over the years! Happy Heritage Day everyone!

Happy Heritage Day, South Africa!

09/07/2025

Yet again, more evidence that dehorning does NOT deter poaching! There is an alternative.

🚨 Rhino Horn Smuggling Bust in Bangkok

Thai Customs officials have arrested a Vietnamese man at Suvarnabhumi Airport after discovering 5 pieces of rhino horn worth 6.9 million baht hidden in his luggage.

💰 Estimated street value:
฿6.9 million
~US$215,000
~R3.78 million

The suspect was travelling from Angola to Laos via Thailand when intelligence officers flagged him as high-risk. On 6 September, his bags were searched, and officials found 6.86 kg of rhino horn.

He now faces charges under Thailand’s Customs Act, Wild Animal Reservation & Protection Act, and the Animal Epidemics Act.

👏 Authorities reaffirmed their commitment to stopping the illegal trade in endangered species under CITES.

🦏 Every arrest is a step forward. But the message continues: our rhinos still need our help.

🔗 Source: Nation Thailand

09/04/2025

Whether the conversation involves American wolves or African lions, balancing the 'preditor/prey ratio' in closed systems is critical to maintaining healthy wild and pristine landcapes.

It’s Food for Thought Friday! A recent research paper published this past spring analyzed the effects of wolf reintroduction on riparian areas in Yellowstone National Park. Data collected from 2001 to 2020 shows a 1500% increase in willow crown volume! Before wolf reintroduction, elk overbrowsed willow trees and other woody vegetation along the edges of rivers. The return of wolves and the pressures of potential predation have helped keep elk moving on the landscape, allowing the return of beavers and other species who are important to wetland ecosystems.

Photos from Ripple et al. "The strength of the Yellowstone trophic cascade after wolf reintroduction." More information available at https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2351989425000290
_

09/04/2025

The challenge is on!!!!!

08/26/2025

Here's "what's on my mind" Facebook.....thank you for asking.

In light of the John Hume & Gang indictment, the South African parliament should, 1) immediately enact a total ban on domestic trade in rhino horn (get in line with the rest of the world), 2) demand agencies to conduct an exhaustive inventory of all rhino horns in the custody of both the public and private sector, and 3) burn all stockpiles immediately! And finally, stop using 'sustainable use' theory to disguise the 'get rich quick' scheme that has plagued SA.

08/22/2025

Our feelings exactly......

‼Martha is Dead and You Killed Her‼

Repost Roar Wildlife News: Machine guns. Bound guards. A rhino matriarch lured with food, executed, and hacked to bits for her horn. That’s how Martha, a beloved elder of her herd, died in a KwaZulu-Natal reserve. And let’s be clear - she didn’t die “tragically.” She was slaughtered for you.

To Asian horn users - Congratulations. You traded a living, breathing giant for dust in a bottle, trinkets on a shelf, or fake “medicine” that heals nothing. Your vanity and superstition killed Martha. You’re not wise, powerful, or spiritual, you’re complicit in barbarism and murder. Every gram you buy comes soaked in blood.

To poachers and traffickers - Don’t fool yourselves, you’re not “providers.” You’re butchers. You carve up mothers and leave orphans to starve, all for someone else’s delusion. You don’t stand tall in your communities; you crawl in the shadows, feeding on death. Your ancestors are rolling in shame. They didn’t toil, fight, and live to have their legacy smeared with blood and greed. You’re not honoring tradition, you’re killing it.

Meanwhile, scientists are now making horns radioactive just to catch you in the act. Imagine that, an entire species forced into nuclear defense because humanity can’t curb its stupidity.
Martha’s death should haunt every user, every middleman, every trigger finger. The world sees you and history won’t remember you as clever or strong, it will remember you as the reason rhinos vanished.

So go on then! Grind it down, snort it, swallow it, worship it. Convince yourself that powdered keratin, no different from your own dirty fingernails, somehow makes you strong, noble, eternal.
It won’t.

It won’t cure your sickness. It won’t make you a man. It won’t give you status or respect. All it does is expose you as gullible, pathetic, and complicit in the butchery of a mother who should still be alive.

Martha’s blood is on your hands and no matter how much horn you consume, you’ll never wash it off.

08/20/2025

Another nail in the "sustainable use" coffin. Truly, nobody should be surprised.

John Hume, the South African who bred the world’s biggest rhino herd, has been arrested on charges of smuggling of the endangered animals’ horns.