It took Noddy Tshabalala only one minute to find the bullet. Treading softly among the scattered remains of a recently killed rhino, she swept a metal detector over the largest part of the carcass. The detector whined.
"There," said Kobus de Wet, head of the Kruger National Park's crime investigations unit. The machine was silent. "Back a bit."
Tshabalala moved the detector a hair's breadth. A long beep. De Wet knelt and dug gently into the soil with his gloved hands.
"There," he said, and held up a bullet.
It was a .357 calibre round, fired roughly two weeks ago, probably by a practised shot using a high-quality hunting rifle.
The crime scene was a tiny clearing in the thick bush, about 80km southeast of Skukuza camp.
Like any crime scene, the area was cordoned off until De Wet and Tshabalala had completed their first thorough sweep of the ground.
While his assistant continued sweeping the clearing for other clues, De Wet turned his attention to the carcass. There was little left. In the time between the shooting and the discovery of the carcass by rangers, hyenas and vultures had fought over the remains, tossing them about the clearing.
De Wet pointed to gouges on the animal's upper jaw where the poachers had hacked off its horns.
"Axe," he said.
The Kruger National Park is losing about two rhinos a day to poachers.
The stakes are high: according to a recent report on the Bloomberg business news website, rhino horn trades for as much as $65000/kg (about R650000/kg), making it more costly than gold, on the black markets in Asia. It is used as a cure for fevers and as a hangover remedy in Vietnam.
The potential earnings have attracted the attention of organised crime. The poaching is largely controlled by syndicates based in Mozambique.
"If you take out the syndicates, then you really solve the poaching problem," said retired army major-general Johan Jooste, who is head of the Kruger Park's anti-poaching operation.
The two investigators have worked hundreds of crime scenes but the job never gets any easier.
They recently found an injured female rhino near Satara camp.
"They had cut her tendons," said De Wet, "so she was sitting [on her haunches] for about a week."
She was the 397th rhino poached in Kruger this year.
There was no more evidence to find. The bullet was bagged and sealed. Perhaps it will turn up as a match. De Wet shrugged. Perhaps.
By:
Times LIVE
"There," said Kobus de Wet, head of the Kruger National Park's crime investigations unit. The machine was silent. "Back a bit."
Tshabalala moved the detector a hair's breadth. A long beep. De Wet knelt and dug gently into the soil with his gloved hands.
"There," he said, and held up a bullet.
It was a .357 calibre round, fired roughly two weeks ago, probably by a practised shot using a high-quality hunting rifle.
The crime scene was a tiny clearing in the thick bush, about 80km southeast of Skukuza camp.
Like any crime scene, the area was cordoned off until De Wet and Tshabalala had completed their first thorough sweep of the ground.
While his assistant continued sweeping the clearing for other clues, De Wet turned his attention to the carcass. There was little left. In the time between the shooting and the discovery of the carcass by rangers, hyenas and vultures had fought over the remains, tossing them about the clearing.
De Wet pointed to gouges on the animal's upper jaw where the poachers had hacked off its horns.
"Axe," he said.
The Kruger National Park is losing about two rhinos a day to poachers.
The stakes are high: according to a recent report on the Bloomberg business news website, rhino horn trades for as much as $65000/kg (about R650000/kg), making it more costly than gold, on the black markets in Asia. It is used as a cure for fevers and as a hangover remedy in Vietnam.
The potential earnings have attracted the attention of organised crime. The poaching is largely controlled by syndicates based in Mozambique.
"If you take out the syndicates, then you really solve the poaching problem," said retired army major-general Johan Jooste, who is head of the Kruger Park's anti-poaching operation.
The two investigators have worked hundreds of crime scenes but the job never gets any easier.
They recently found an injured female rhino near Satara camp.
"They had cut her tendons," said De Wet, "so she was sitting [on her haunches] for about a week."
She was the 397th rhino poached in Kruger this year.
There was no more evidence to find. The bullet was bagged and sealed. Perhaps it will turn up as a match. De Wet shrugged. Perhaps.
By:
Times LIVE
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