Rescuing Imperiled Wildlife in South Africa

Dear donors and friends of PNHF,

Phalaborwa Natural Heritage Foundation (PNHF) would like to share the following successes achieved since our last progres report in August 2022;

1. We've conducted 16 anti-poaching Operations.
2. Patrolled over 96km on foot.
3. Removed 430 illegally set poacher's snares.
4. Discovered 3 poaching camps.
5. Discovered 44 animals illegally killed in snares and poisoned by poachers, these include 7 cape buffalo, 6 waterbuck, 5 zebra, 1 sable, 1 blue wildebeest, 14 impala, 4 nyala and 3 poisoned whitebacked vultures.
6. Taken 207 local community members and international volunteers out on anti-poaching operations.
7. Successfully rescued 8 animals. We darted one adult spotted hyena with a very bad snare around its mouth and head and assisted in putting a tracking collar around another adult spotted hyena in an attempt to mitigate human wildlife conflict. We caught and moved a large male leopard that recantly had a snare around its neck, it had moved out of a local reserve and was at risk of being shot. We assisted in capturing and relocating a white rhino from an area with high poaching activity, after it broke out of a reserve. We assisted in the rescue of a pangolin that was illegaly being trafficked by poachers. We also rescued two baby warthogs that were left orphaned in suspicious circumstances, they will be rehabilitated and released back into the wild. Among many other small wildlife species, we rescued a Banded Mongoose that was trapped by dogs in yard.
8. Unfortunately every story doesn't always have a happy ending and we ended up euthanizing a waterbuck bull and buffalo bull after our veterinarians decided their injuries were too severe to treat. The economic loss of the animals killed in snares and the two we had to euthanize amounts to an estimated R420 000.00  
9.  We organised and hosted a conservation presentations about wildlife veterinary operations and the impact of snaring, at a local organisation, presented by wildlife veterinarian Dr, Joel Alves.

The above mentioned data and statistics gathered during the past three 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.

We would like to thank each and every donor for making this possible. Unfortunatly the statistics from the past three months indicate a massive rise in snare poaching in our area, we already have multiple operations planned for the next two months and hope to make a positive impact on the onslaught our local wildlife is currently undergoing.

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

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