Sometime during the night of Sunday the 1st and the early hours of Monday, July 2nd, a group of at least three poachers entered Sibuya Game Reserve.
They were armed with, amongst other things, a high powered rifle with a silencer, an axe, wire cutters and had food supplies for a number of days – all the hallmarks of a gang intent on killing rhino and removing their horns.
One of our anti-poaching dogs alerted her handler at about 4.30 am Monday morning that something was amiss. At the same time the handler heard a loud commotion coming from the lions so he suspected that this was what had alerted her and was not concerned. It is not unusual to hear them at night. However, it now appears likely that the dog had been alerted by something else out of the ordinary coming from the lions.
At about 4.30 pm on Tuesday, July 3rd, one of our field guides on game drive alerted the Anti-Poaching Unit that there appeared to be human remains as well as other items in the immediate vicinity of the lions. I was immediately called to the scene where along with the APU we found the high powered rifle, gloves, wire cutters and the remains of a back pack with food, water and other supplies. We immediately alerted the Indalo (Association of Eastern Cape Game Reserves) Anti-Poaching Cluster and the Police.
Clearly, the poachers had walked into a pride of six lions and some, if not all had been killed.
“They strayed into a pride of lions – it’s a big pride so they didn’t have too much time,” Mr Fox told AFP news agency.
“There seems to be clothing for three people. I’ve not heard of it before in our area.”
“We’re not sure how many there were – there’s not much left of them.”
“I think we had a stroke of luck here that the lions got to them before they got to the rhinos. We lost three rhino in March 2016.”
Mr Fox said that the reserve was still open to guests despite the incident. “It’s still business as usual, it doesn’t change anything we do,” he said. “The comments on our Facebook are all talking about karma and warnings.”
As it was already dark it was not possible to investigate the area until first light at which time we arranged for our vet to dart the entire pride of lions so that Police forensic teams assisted by our Anti-poaching unit could comb the immediate area for clues. At this stage it is not clear exactly how many poachers were killed but the Police forensic team continue to investigate
Nick Fox – Reserve Owner