After much thought and deliberation I have decided on an end goal of what I wish to achieve.
After speaking with my Dad about a friend of his, a former S.A.S commando who now helps prevent poaching of rhino horns, I've decided it's something I would like to do.
I'm going to organise for me to meet this guy when he comes to Australia in 6 months or so and speak to him about what's involved and what he does and confirm but i'm fairly sure this is something I want to do.
At Christmas this year I plan on opening my wildlife park to the public here in rural Australia and over the next 5 years I plan to build up my savings and experience working with wild animals. The species we have here are vastly different to anything found anywhere else in the world and pose different threats so it will be a whole new experience in a place like Africa.
Poaching
Poaching is the illegal hunting or capture of wild animals, usually this is due to some sort of misguided belief that part of the animal is medicinal in some way, or for so called "precious" materials like ivory.
Taking a rhino horn doesn't have to be the end of it's life but in most cases they will kill the animal anyway, same goes for an elephants tusk, it's unnecessary, cruel and usually motivated by nothing more than greed.
People in mostly Asian countries are willing to pay massive sums of money for these items with elephant tusks (ivory) going for up to $2,000 a pound and on the black market in South Africa, the horn of the white rhino sells for up to $3,000 a pound, but on Asian black markets it wholesales for five to 10 times that, and retail prices can go up astronomically from there. There are stories of people paying upwards of $100,000 for a single Rhino horn.
This image recently won Wildlife photographer of the year and shows a recently killed and de-horned Black Rhino.
The image was featured in National Geographic and was taken by Brent Stirton, named memorial to a species
Unfortunately this image represents a dark reality for a whole slew of wildlife around the world. What I do now, rescuing and rehabilitating injured wildlife is rewarding, but I feel like I could make a bigger difference somewhere like Africa. With some of the most magnificent creatures to ever walk the earth slowly becoming extinct I'm almost sure it's a losing battle. But in saying that, I'd rather fight and lose than just watch it all happen.
