Rescuing Imperiled Wildlife in South Africa

Dear friends and supporters of PNHF,

It si time for us to share news and rerport back on what the Phalaborwa Natural Heritage Foundation (PNHF) has achieved over the past couple of months. Below are some of the successes we had since our last progres report in November 2025;

We had severe flooding in our region during January 2026, it was the worst floods ever recorder in the Phalaborwa area. Roads, bridges, electricity and water supply infrastructure was damaged or destroyed. The conditions we experienced impacted us directly and greatly reduced our ability to do our work. The flood had financial impacts on our organisation as well after vehicle damages had to be repaired and escalation of costs on rescue operation due to increased difficulty to access animals in distress.

1. We've conducted 33 anti-poaching operations. 
2. Patrolled over 185,6km on foot.
3. Removed 613 illegally set poacher's snares and 1 large trap cage.
4. Discovered 7 poaching camps.
5. Discovered 24 animals illegally killed in snares and poisoned by poachers, these include  2 civet, 1 water mongoose, 3 spotted hyena, 2 white-tailed mongoose, 1 scrubhare, 1 bushbuck, 1 domestic cow, 6 impala, 1 waterbuck, 4 southern bush duiker and 2 kudu. 
6. Taken 256 local community members and international volunteers out on anti-poaching operations.
7. Successfully rescued over 30 animals. We darted and relocated 15 African Buffalo that broke out of a reserve and posed a risk of spreading disease. We darted and removed a snare from a male spotted hyena, the animal was also poisoned and went into a coma, we managed to pull it through and release it again. We darted and removed a snare from a waterbuck bull. We rescued two birds of prey, one white-faced scops owl with an injured wing that is still beig rehabilitated and one peregrine falcon that was found stunned and concussed on the ground, it was released after veterinary treatment. We rescued a variety of small creatures during the flood, a woodlands kingfisher, two laughing doves, 1 speke's hinged tortoise, 1 leopard tortoise, 1 serrated hinged terrapin and 3 flap-neck chameleons.
8. We assisted with the arrest of two snare poachers.
9. We hosted one conservation evening with guest speaker Jonathan Leeming on scorpion stings and first aid. We had 75 people in total attending the talk.
10. Presented a environmental education workshop to 20 Dutch students.

The repairs to our vehicles and high costs for the wildlife rescue operations requiring helicopters for the success of the operation has nearly drained our bank account and with the GlobalGiving Little x Little fundraising campaign coming up in a few days we are pleading with our gaurdian angel donors to please support us!

The above mentioned data and statistics gathered during the past four months has contributed to the conservation of our local biodoversity in the nature reserves, parks, tribal game reserves and neighbouring communities where we conducted operations. In some areas we have noticed a decline in snaring even zero snaring in certain properties, this is a big win for us and shows that our efforts are successful. 

We would like to thank each and every one of our supporters for making this possible. 

Your continued support is greatly appreciated by us and every animal and person benefiting from our efforts.

Links:

• Hyena Rescue
• Buffalo Relocation Operation

Dear friends and supporters of PNHF,

We are pleased to rerport back on what the Phalaborwa Natural Heritage Foundation (PNHF) has achieved over the past couple of months. Below are some of the successes we had since our last progres report in July 2025;

1. We've conducted 41 anti-poaching Operations. 
2. Patrolled over 262,45km on foot.
3. Removed 1028 illegally set poacher's snares, 3 bear traps, 2 spears, 4 fish traps, 2 fish nets, 3 porcupine traps and 2 large trap cages.
4. Discovered 15 poaching camps.
5. Discovered 67 animals illegally killed in snares and poisoned by poachers, these include 1 lion, 1 leopard, 1 spotted hyena, 1 white-backed vulture, 1 aardvark, 2 guineafowl, 11 nyala, 4 warthog, 14 bushbuck, 3 cape buffalo, 1 porcupine, 4 zebra, 15 impala,  3 waterbuck, 4 southern bush duiker and 1 kudu. 
6. Taken 339 local community members and international volunteers out on anti-poaching operations.
7. Successfully rescued 15 animals. We darted and relocated a large male kudu and a male plains zebra that found themselves in areas where they were at risk. We assisted with the capture and relocation of 5 lions that started killing cattle. We assisted with the confiscation of two South African Hedgehogs from smugglers, they were treated and released back into the wild, South African Hedgehogs are a protected species. We assisted with the darting of 1 endangered African Wild Dog to remove a snare from its neck. We relocated 5 African Elephant bulls from a high risk area with the use of a helicopter.
8. We collared a second female spotted hyena that is part of our monitoring project.
9. We assisted with the arrest of two wildlife smugglers that were in the possesion of two protected South African Hedgehogs.
10. We hosted conservation evenings with guest speakers Martial Rappo - Moholoholo Wildlife Rehabilitation Centre, John Davies - Vulture conservation and Hannah Edwards - Spotted Hyenas. We had 180 people in total attending the talks.
11. Presented a environmental education talk at a local school to over 300 students.
12. We purchased another 2 4G Trail Cameras that we are successfully using to monitor wildlife, focusing mostly on predators. The camers have also proven highly effective to pick up poachers moving through hotspot areas. Unfortunately 1 camera was destroyed by a spotted hyena and 2 were stolen by poachers.

The above mentioned data and statistics gathered during the past four months has contributed to the conservation of our local biodoversity in the nature reserves, parks, tribal game reserves and neighbouring communities where we conducted operations. In some areas we have noticed a decline in snaring even zero snaring in certain properties, this is a big win for us and shows that our efforts are successful. 

We would like to thank each and every one of our supporters for making this possible. 

Your continued support is greatly appreciated by us and every animal and person benefiting from our efforts.

Links:

• Good Things Guy Article
• Patrollin.org Article