South Africa boosts aerial support in fight against rhino poaching

A specially-designed military helicopter was unveiled on Thursday to bolster the current fleet involved in the fight against unchecked rhino poaching in South Africa. "With the GAZELLE (the helicopter) now part of the SANParks (South African National Parks) anti-poaching operations we hope that the fight for the rhino will reach a tipping point in 2014," said Ivor Ichikowitz, Chairman of the Ichikowitz Family Foundation, which donated the plane. "I want to reiterate what I said this time last year, we will not stand by and watch our rhino's be slaughtered and are sick and tired of unscrupulous criminals taking advantage of our natural heritage," Ichikowitz said during the ceremony at Letaba Shooting Range near the KNP in northeastern South Africa. The foundation has previously donated a Seeker MKII Surveillance aeroplane, which has been operating in the Kruger National Park (KNP) since December last year. The GAZELLE has been purposefully configured by Paramount, a leading African aerospace and defense group, and will vastly increase areas that can be traversed and has additional equipment to increase aerial support. It has a maximum airspeed of 310 km/h, a range of 670 km and service ceiling of 5,000 meters. The GAZELLE will bring the advantages of a light attack helicopter to the aid of anti-poaching operations the minute it takes to the air, the SANParks said. "A critical part of this helicopter's capabilities is its speed and the fact that the GAZELLE has a night vision capable cockpit - part of our contribution is to the training of the pilots to be able to fly at night thereby fundamentally taking the war directly to the poachers," Ichikowitz said. He said the foundation will be making further investments and is working with SANParks to assist in further training of the current rangers on advanced bush tracking techniques., following the pilot project completed in Madikwe. The year of 2014, he said, will also see the rolling out of a canine program together with Paramount and SANParks to provide tracker dogs. SANParks Chief Executive Officer David Mabunda welcomed this superior addition to the arsenal that is being deployed in the KNP. "We are grateful to have patriotic partners like the Ichikowitz Family Foundation, who have unselfishly been behind SANParks, supporting us with resources regardless of cost. "The Ichikowitz Family Foundation understand our needs, the GAZELLE and Seeker plane are just part of their greater involvement which has included provision of fuel, pilots, specialized training and operational capacity." The KNP bears the brunt of rhino poaching, having lost 548 rhinos since the beginning of this year. Nationwide, the number of rhinos poached stood at 891 as of Nov. 27, according to figures provided by the Department of Environmental Affairs.