How SANParks’ K9 anti-poaching unit is reducing poaching in national parks

For the past 13 years, poaching has changed the nature conservation-orientated person into a soldier.  

This is the sentiment of Samuel Madalane, who is the K9 anti-poaching unit manager at the Kruger National Park.  

Tracking dogs and remote surveillance through cameras placed in strategic areas are some of the anti-poaching security measures implemented to fight poaching in the park.  

The 32-year-old game ranger believes the introduction of the K9 Unit by South African National Parks (SANParks) in 2012 has dramatically reduced poaching in the KNP.

“We have been hit hard here and we have lost a lot of rhinos and with that we had to introduce dogs,” he said. 

Madalane started his career in special operations in 2012 and subsequently joined the K9 unit. Although based in Kruger, this passionate game ranger operates in several parks to fight poaching.  

“We are called anywhere to go and assist,” he said.  

He said he had been privileged to be able to operate in many places, and he knows all the sections within the Kruger National Park.

“After a year I became the dog handler,” he said.  

He joined the anti-poaching unit in 2014 when it had only three dogs.  

Working with his sergeant at the time, who was a dog handler, he was called into missions where he developed and honed his skills.

In his first deployment, he attended three calls in one day to arrest poachers.  

“We went to Crocodile Bridge. While we were flying there, I could hear from the headset that at the Malelane section they had visuals of poachers. We decided to go straight to Crocodile Bridge. We landed, tracked for a few metres and arrested the poachers. Then we went to Malelane,” he said.  

When they arrived at Malelane an interception had been made and the poachers were arrested. On their way back to Skukuza they received a call that gunfire had been reported in another section of the park.  

“We diverted and went to that mission 55km north of Skukuza. That's how bad it was back then but the dogs have lessened that number,” he said.  

He added poaching numbers are declining and in 2019 they dramatically decreased.  

According to the SANParks website, well-trained dogs such as the bloodhound and Belgian Shepherd, or Malinois,  are used to track poachers in the field and detect firearms, ammunition and wildlife products that enter and exit through park gates.  

The dogs can follow an hours-old scent over impressive distances. Tracker dogs are deployed by helicopter or vehicle and operate throughout the park. 

Madalane said the K9 anti-poaching unit in the Kruger National Park has grown from three to 55 dogs and  has extended to other national parks with 75 dogs across the country.  

He said their safety when fighting poachers is in God’s hands.  

“We have lost rangers due to contact made with poachers in the park. We have rangers who have been shot at and some survived. Our lives are in the hands of God.”

He said their safety is also determined by their skills. Madalane developed his passion when he watched his father, a retired nature conservationist, who worked for Limpopo Parks for more than 34 years.  

“When I started, I was 20. At the time I went to college and when I was 22 that's when I went in and have done lots of operations,” he said.  

Surveillance cameras installed at intensive protective zones are also yielding good results in the fight against poaching.

Madalane said they helped them pick up suspicious vehicles inside the park and they are able to monitor the vehicles and deploy rangers to investigate. 

“Through this system, we have been very successful. Poachers are being detected at the fences and the river,” he said.  

Kruger National Park spokesperson Isaac Phaahla said the zones are where they have a viable population of rhinos which they want to protect.  

The surveillance camera systems are equipped with a speaker and can capture images during the evening.  

“We put in speakers to chase the animals away, such as an elephant coming to rub himself there. And we can chase away someone who wants to fiddle with the system” 

On Tuesday poacher Siyabonga Freedom Ndlovu, who was arrested with two accomplices in 2016 around the Stolznek section of the park, was sentenced to 32 years in prison by the Skukuza Regional Court.  

Prosecutor advocate Lot Mgiba said Ndlovu was initially released on bail and absconded. He was  rearrested last year.  

At the time with three other accused, rangers found him in possession of six rhino horns and subsequently discovered three rhino carcasses.

Mgiba said: “We are trying our best by giving effective sentences to send a clear message to the community that poaching is a very serious offence.  

“The K9 unit played an important role.”

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