Kenya has embarked on an ambitious program of tracking and darting each rhino in order to implant hidden microchips as a way of combating an increase of poaching, says Kenya’s wildlife officials.
On completion the program will see more than a thousand rhinos with microchips implanted in their horns.
The officials hope their chips will help track these rhinos as well as tracking horns and as a result reduce the menace of poachers. This, they believe also will make it easier to arrest and prosecute the criminals.
It is believed that the soaring prices of ivory and horns in the illicit trade have prompted the massive increase in rhino poaching across many African countries.
In August this year Kenya authorities were surprised that a white rhino was hit dead in one of their most secure parks, the Nairobi National Park. In many years rhino horn is believed to be highly expensive in the Asian black market where it is being used for traditional medicine.
This massive micro-chipping program is being funded by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) which has donated the chips and scanners at the cost of USD15,300.00.
However, the Kenyan government has to mobilize more resources itself as this amount is viewed as just a small part of the total amount required for such a mammoth project. “With poachers getting more and more sophisticated in their approach it is vital that conservation efforts embrace the use of more sophisticated technology also to counter the killing of wildlife,” said the Kenya Wildlife Services (KWS) official who preferred anonymity.
The new initiative will serve to strengthen rhino monitoring and protection and also support anti-poaching mechanisms nationally and regionally.
“Furthermore investigations will be able to link any poached case to a recovered or confiscated horn and this forms crucial evidence in court contributing towards the prosecutors’ ability to push for sentencing of a suspected rhino criminal,” concluded the KWS official.
Besides preserving rhino populations this project could also help fight the organized crime whilst also boosting Kenya’s tourism industry, analysts say.
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