SanWild Anti Poaching Unit (SAPU)

It has been almost three months now that I have been at SanWild and it is time to move on, although I think it is highly likely that I will make repeated visits back here whenever I can.  It is an amazing place, and the experiences I have had here have been of the type that no ‘tourist’ could hope to have.  So this will be my last unashamed plug for the exceptional team at SanWild.

For those of you who actually wonder what I have been doing, then I will try and figure it out myself.  As I have said in a few previous posts poaching is a significant issue here in South Africa, with both the high profile poaching of rhinos, but also the much more widespread poaching of ‘bush meat’.  So essentially the mission of the SanWild Anti Poaching Unit (SAPU) is to protect the wildlife on the SanWild Sanctuary.  To do this we operate in a mixture of overt patrols, so the local population (and consequently any poachers) know that we have armed anti poaching rangers and are therefore a hard target.  We also operate in a clandestine manner by both day and night to ensure that the local population are never sure exactly where we are.  We achieve this by open fenceline patrols, guard duty, clandestine observation and listening posts.

SAPU has a core of full time anti poaching rangers, who are a very dedicated and passionate group of individuals.  They work 7 days a week, 14 to 16 hours a day for 49 weeks a year, all for about the same amount as I would be paid in a month as a T2 Ranger with the NT Parks and Wildlife Service.  On average they would probably sleep in a bed about ½ a night a week, the rest of the time they sleep on the ground, getting covered with ticks.  The job is extremely boring, dangerous, unglamorous and as important as hell.  These guys are true heroes who “guard the wall against the barbarians”, to quote one of the Roman Historians (Pliny? – please post a comment if you know).  These guys are supplemented at times by ‘volunteers’ who generally come from overseas and have a military background.  These volunteers are also wildlife warriors of exceptional dedication as they pay their own travel costs and generally live under the exact same conditions as the full time rangers for nothing more than food and board (mostly a sleeping bag in the bush).

Because SanWild is a trust and relies on donations to fund it, the first priority is always the animals (as it should be), and SAPU operates extremely under funded and with poor outdated equipment.  These young men (and very occasionally women) give everything to ensure that the future of wildlife in South Africa is preserved.  Below are some photos of SAPU and our work.

Boot print of a poacher who cut our fence one night and was heading towards our position when something spooked him.  It is a bit hard to see in this photo but the heel has very distinctive 'horseshoe' shaped tread.

Another photo of the same poacher's boot print (the front), but also with dog prints overlaying it (it was probaby one of the dogs that warned the poacher of our presence).  This, plus the distinctive double level cut in the fence confirmed that it was a 'bush meat' poacher using dogs.

We back tracked this spoor (prints) across a road and into our neighbours property where he had also cut the fence.  We continued to back track until we came to a nearby village and outside one of the houses qwe found a very fresh track (shown in the photo above) which matched the poacher's boot print.  We then identified a man who had ducked inside his house and changed his boots for a pair of other shoes.

A photo of the boot which the man had changed out of, which was a perfect match for both our poacher's spoor and the spoor outside his house.  As a byline, this individual is now in gaol for another related offence.

Hennie and I sweeping a section of bush for snares.

A professional PR photo of a mission briefing (I am actually reading my shopping list).  We don't normally look as clean and neat as this.

The current 'Team' before my departure, from the left Barend, Charles (holding Oertjies), me, AJay and Hennie.