Black rhino in South Luangwa National Park: their distribution and future protection

Abstract

It became clear in 1979 that commercial poaching was drastically reducing the numbers of rhino in Luangwa Valley and the Zambian Government, through its National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) and the World Wildlife Fund, responded by setting up Save the Rhino Trust (SRT). Neither past nor present numbers and distribution of these animals were sufficiently known to provide a baseline for monitoring the effects of the poaching and the author carried out research on behalf of NPWS and SRT during 1981–82 to assess the status of the rhinos in the Luangwa Valley; FFPS was among the financial supporters of the work. Here he describes the problems that the task presented and the development of a technique that will provide a way of assessing the effectiveness of future anti-poaching operations. The study's findings that 72 per cent of rhinos that die in Luangwa do so from poachers' bullets led to a recommendation for a change in patrol policy; this was adopted by SRT in 1983 and its success is being monitored.