Science

How Would You Save a Rhino From Poachers? Airlift Maybe?

WWF Saves 19 Black Rhinos from Poachers Lifting Them Via Helicopter

(Photo: WWF/Michael Raimondo)

While it may look more like these black rhinoceroses bound by their ankles and blindfolded are being kidnapped, they’re really being saved. The World Wildlife Foundation airlifted 19 rhino’s from the Eastern Cape province in South Africa to the Limpopo province and out of poacher’s reach.

This special operation to save the rhinos comes after the WWF found out from South Africa National Parks that this year alone 341 rhinos have been killed by poachers. And last week the Vietnamese Javan rhino was pronounced extinct when the last one was found dead from a gunshot wound.

According to New Scientist, the rescue mission used techniques thought to make the rather traumatizing experience easier to bear for the 2,000 to 3,500 pound creatures. The animals were tranquilized, blindfolded and lifted by their ankles by a helicopter. They are then put into trucks for the rest of their trip.

WWF Saves 19 Black Rhinos from Poachers Lifting Them Via Helicopter

(Photo via New Scientist)

“Previously, rhinos were either transported by lorry over very difficult tracks, or airlifted in a net,” said project leader Jacques Flamand to New Scientist. “This new procedure is gentler on the darted rhino because it shortens the time it has to be kept asleep with drugs, the respiration is not as compromised as it can be in a net and it avoids the need for travel in a crate over terrible tracks.”

Comments (57)

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  • anAmericanVet
    Posted on November 9, 2011 at 11:00am

    I know of a few RINO‘s I’d like to see tranq’d and airlifted out . . .

    Report Post » anAmericanVet  
  • twistin
    Posted on November 9, 2011 at 9:59am

    Give the poachers and their customers Viagra. No need to kill any Rhinos anymore…..

    Report Post »  
  • searching for the Truth
    Posted on November 9, 2011 at 9:45am

    However, if I were to be President, I would superglue one to my back.

    Report Post »  
  • searching for the Truth
    Posted on November 9, 2011 at 9:43am

    Their was a zoo in my town once that had a Rhino exhibit – the animal was so huge, that every time it started moving around it shook the earth. Ergo – a Rhino is earth shaking.

    Report Post »  
  • Gonzo
    Posted on November 9, 2011 at 8:06am

    Think that would work on Romney? He‘s the only RINO I’m worried about.

    Report Post » Gonzo  
  • Secessionista
    Posted on November 9, 2011 at 7:18am

    Just 10,000 years ago, Mammoths walked North America, and the Indians and/or their predecessors hunted them to extinction with slings and arrows. In a thousand years, man will not know what a wild animal looks like. “Wild” will be gone, and there will be no way to understand just what wild and free means or feels like. It ill quickly be forgotten, and humans will have no idea where they came from. Most city dwellers have no idea what it means to live free and wild even today. That means most of you, and I do not mean this in a disparaging way, but I mean it in a sad way. I wish you could know what it was like to be free, to be wild, to live life purely, to not be enslaved and fenced-in. Our economic system today, and our over-population, force us into cages. Very very tiny cages. Unnatural cages.

    Report Post » Secessionista  
    • Secessionista
      Posted on November 9, 2011 at 7:20am

      Nature will solve the human overpopulation problem if we do not. It will solve it with massive war, and massive disease,

      Report Post » Secessionista  
    • Bare Rock
      Posted on November 14, 2011 at 4:23pm

      In a thousand years after every wild animal is extinct we can just get in our space ships and go to some distant world with blue people and start making everthing there go extinct. I think I saw that somewhere.

      Report Post »  
  • drago
    Posted on November 9, 2011 at 6:28am

    As far as rino’s (sic) in this country, i would arm the poachers……

    Report Post »  
  • annie1
    Posted on November 9, 2011 at 4:40am

    This is exactly how Michael Moore gets around.

    Report Post » annie1  
  • R0bespierre
    Posted on November 9, 2011 at 4:33am

    “How Would You Save a Rhino From Poachers? Airlift Maybe?”
    I‘d shoot ’em in the face and shout “I AM THE LAW!”

    Report Post » R0bespierre  
  • Diane TX
    Posted on November 9, 2011 at 3:44am

    There isn’t anyway to stop the poachers? That’s just bizarre. They must be of the “occupier” mentally.

    Report Post »  
    • lukerw
      Posted on November 9, 2011 at 3:57am

      We, as a Species, are Predators… and Preditors are genetically engineered to Hunt & Kill!

      Report Post » lukerw  
    • Dirty Harry
      Posted on November 9, 2011 at 7:00am

      Yeah, nice, Luggie. Hunters typically have something missing in their DNA which causes them to kill defenseless animals in order to regain the lost feeling of manliness. Never met a hunter who wasn’t a wimp.

      Report Post »  
    • drago
      Posted on November 9, 2011 at 7:50am

      @dirty harry aka encinom
      I would rather hunt man than animals, but its illegal here. As far as your comment saying you never met a hunter that wasnt a wimp, i know this to be a lie, as you’ve never left the confines of your mothers basement.

      Report Post »  
  • Californiasodbuster
    Posted on November 9, 2011 at 3:08am

    Sad to see magnificent animals slaughtered by humans greed over only one part of their body, i know you can speak better for us people to learn, very sad whats happening.

    Report Post »  
    • lukerw
      Posted on November 9, 2011 at 4:00am

      Save all the Humans, first… then let the “bleeding hearts” choose the next Species to be “saved”!

      Report Post » lukerw  
    • Dirty Harry
      Posted on November 9, 2011 at 7:02am

      Lookie, trust me, you don’t want a survival of the fittest mentality. You’d be the first to go, and then I’d pose with your dead body as a trophy and maybe hang your head on the wall in my man cave.

      Report Post »  
    • drago
      Posted on November 9, 2011 at 7:53am

      @dirty harry aka encinom
      Remember, once you leave the safety of your mothers basement, the vidoe game ends, and it could be your worthless corpse hanging on my wall….So bring it tough guy, if you dare….

      Report Post »  
  • Just4Rocks
    Posted on November 9, 2011 at 3:01am

    The biggest hurt is Africa‘s need to become a member of the world’s consumers. We feel happiness comes from having a lot of stuff. Our 40 hours a week production has changed the world. God has blessed us= may God forgive us. We’ve worked hard and as a group of people we have built more for our bosses and for others. I heard of the burning of the tusks years ago, what a waste; a Leaky was in the Damning action. The elephants died for nothing. damn, damn, damn.

    Report Post » Just4Rocks  
  • MeteoricLimbo
    Posted on November 9, 2011 at 2:32am

    You know dang well that Rhino is going to tell his pals he was blindfolded and picked up by a UFO.

    Report Post » MeteoricLimbo  
    • jenniebelle
      Posted on November 9, 2011 at 3:48am

      Brilliant. Thanks for that, best laugh of the day. ;-)

      Report Post » jenniebelle  
    • drago
      Posted on November 9, 2011 at 7:54am

      Lmao, too funny, and dont forget the probing…..

      Report Post »  
  • The Meem
    Posted on November 9, 2011 at 2:21am

    I think saving the animals is pretty cool, and I can agree also, if the animals were in the hands of private care takers, then they could be used for commercial purposes, as harsh as that sounds, like the American Buffalo. But getting them to bred in captivity is pretty difficult I would imagine.
    Too bad for the Rhino of Vietnam. So, now that there are no more Rhinos there what ever will they do. (This almost happened to the magnificent elephants in Africa.) This is really an example shooting oneself in the foot, cutting off the nose to spite the face.
    This is analogous to the liberals who want to take what ever they think they have a right to, I ask the same question. What will you do when you take all the “rich” peoples monies? Go after the middle class, then what. Finally killing off the the golden goose, I guess they will turn on each other.

    Report Post »  
  • Rational Man
    Posted on November 9, 2011 at 1:15am

    I’d get a bunch of people to help me vote them out of office and into retirement.
    Thats the safest place for them and us too……………..

    Report Post » Rational Man  
  • A Doctors Labor Is Not My Right
    Posted on November 9, 2011 at 1:15am

    (Repost)

    The way you save the rhinos is to find a way to make profit off of them (meat, hide, tusks, etc), and then to recognize private property rights over them.

    This is how the buffalo were saved from extinction.

    See here.

    Stossel – ‘The Tragedy Of The Commons’ 12/5/10 2 of 4
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vo_OB6iX_5o

    Report Post »  
  • Californiasodbuster
    Posted on November 9, 2011 at 1:02am

    Better save them before the muslimes and asians make them extinct, their horn turns these people on.

    Report Post »  
    • Anonymous T. Irrelevant
      Posted on November 9, 2011 at 1:13am

      Boiled dust bunnies turn these people on. I would love to give them all our commercials about Male Clinics and ED, as I am tired of them being run when my young daughters are in the room.
      I don’t normally side with the WWF, but on this, I do. Now, I wish they would put the remaining Bengal tigers in a safe country away from the poachers in India.

      Report Post » Anonymous T. Irrelevant  
  • libertytreecaretaker
    Posted on November 9, 2011 at 12:58am

    An AR-30 in .338 lapua magnum. That should remove any body part you want from a poacher, from a distance he won’t hear the crack of the rifle before it kills him.

    Report Post »  
    • mrbuff1959
      Posted on November 9, 2011 at 1:32am

      I am thinking more on the line of ahellfire missel from a predater drone.

      Report Post » mrbuff1959  
  • Eliasim
    Posted on November 9, 2011 at 12:53am

    I wouldn’t save the Rhinos. Why? Because for the same reason that controlling mentality is why there is over seven billion people in the world, and also why there are droves of poachers wanting to poach the Rhino in the first place.

    Report Post »  
    • teebubba
      Posted on November 9, 2011 at 1:14am

      I heard recently that rhinos kill more humans than any other animal nowadays.

      Report Post » teebubba  
  • Eliasim
    Posted on November 9, 2011 at 12:46am

    It’s interesting to me how the English accent and wordage is surfacing more and more in the media.

    Report Post »  
  • KickinBack
    Posted on November 9, 2011 at 12:42am

    I’ll believe that Obama can win re-election when pigs fly. But rhinos, that doesn’t count.

    Report Post » KickinBack  
    • Eliasim
      Posted on November 9, 2011 at 1:02am

      He would win assuming the U.S is remotely normal when the time comes. The pathetic Republican candidates will make sure of it. It will be Herman Cain versus Obama or Hillary Clinton. Herman Cain’s accusers will slowly fade away into the background but the sexist trap has been set and women will flock to Hillary. To me that is the most likely scenario.

      Report Post »  
    • Eliasim
      Posted on November 9, 2011 at 1:04am

      And then if it was up to Bill Clinton she will have three terms.

      Report Post »  
    • KickinBack
      Posted on November 9, 2011 at 1:20am

      The only reason Herman Cain is going through the “sexist trap” is because the liberals know that it seems too awkward calling him a racist. Therefore, they want to get rid of him through that, so they can go back to calling the other candidates racist.

      Report Post » KickinBack  
  • banjarmon
    Posted on November 9, 2011 at 12:42am

    Flying Rhinos….Don’t stand under them!!!!
    The same goes for political RINOs which are worse!

    Report Post » banjarmon  
  • pamela kay
    Posted on November 9, 2011 at 12:41am

    You beat me to the punch on that one. I was going to answer………..Get rid of all of the progressives first, then weed out the wannabes…problem solved.

    Report Post » pamela kay  
  • truckinwife
    Posted on November 9, 2011 at 12:40am

    This is what sort of news I like to see, people helping, working together for good not evil.

    Report Post » truckinwife  
    • Dustyluv
      Posted on November 9, 2011 at 12:49am

      I guess you dont care if my tax dollars are taken to do something like this either. If it was done with private money, that is fine. Done with taxpayer money, I say let the animals get poached….Of course this was in Africa, so I am sure our tax money supported this BS in sme way…

      Report Post »  
  • AhLeahIris
    Posted on November 9, 2011 at 12:32am

    Up up and away goes Romney! Oh, wait, this isn’t a “make a caption” story?

    Report Post » AhLeahIris  
    • netmail
      Posted on November 9, 2011 at 12:38am

      I thought the first photo was Chris Christie…..

      Report Post »  
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