WE are going to start showing rhinos in the Mara
Since rhino poaching started increasing rapidly in South Africa a number of years ago WildEarth, along with many others, decided to restrict available information on the whereabouts of rhinos. For example in the Kruger National Park this meant no longer including rhinos on their sighting boards, for WildEarth it meant avoiding the showing of rhinos on our LIVE broadcasts as much as possible.
Whether or not there is actual value in doing so is debatable, given that poachers mostly rely on local networks for their info, but we have fallen in with this policy. At this point in time we have no intentions of changing that for South Africa.
As most of you know we have started broadcasting from the Maasai Mara in Kenya recently and there are rhinos there as well. This raised the question whether or not the situation in the Mara is the same as in South Africa. And whether WildEarth should show rhinos in Kenya on our broadcasts.
We’ve carefully considered this, not just internally but also by speaking with people on the ground in the Maasai Mara who are intimately involved with park management and law enforcement. The opinions and views expressed by them in these discussions have made us comfortable in the belief that showing rhinos in the Maasai Mara will not increase their risk of being poached.
Therefore we have decided that we will for now stick to the policy of not showing rhinos in South Africa, but that we will show them when we encounter them in Kenya. This difference in policy being based on the differences that exist between the two areas.
We hope that you, as we are, will be looking forward to the occasional black rhino sighting from the Mara and the opportunity to enjoy the sight of these magnificent creatures in the wild.
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