ANNOUNCING OUR 2024 GALA HONOREE: EZEMVELO KZN’S HLUHLUWE-IMFOLOZI K9 UNIT

“Protecting rhinos to save wildlife & wild spaces”

 “Ghost” is at the center of the Hluhluwe-iMfolozi Park K9 Unit, protecting rhinos alongside the brave ranger team.

We are delighted to announce our Wildlife Protector honoree for 2024, Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife’s Hluhluwe-iMfolozi K9 Unit.

The Umvikeli Wildlife Protector Award is Wild Tomorrow’s annual international award that recognizes an individual or organization working tirelessly to protect wildlife and wild spaces. This year at our Annual NYC Gala on Friday evening November 15th at the Plaza Hotel’s Grand Ballroom, we will recognize the Hluhluwe-iMfolozi K9 Unit’s brave work on the frontlines of the rhino poaching crisis at Africa’s oldest proclaimed nature reserve, Hluhluwe-iMfolozi Park, in KwaZulu-Natal South Africa. Dennis Kelly, section ranger and coordinator of the K9 unit at Hluhluwe-iMfolozi Park who will be in New York City in person to accept the award on behalf of the team.

South Africa has the largest remaining populations of wild rhinos in the world, but it's also the country hit hardest by poaching. In 2023, 499 of the 586 rhinos poached in Africa were killed in South Africa. Poachers have turned their targets away from the now heavily fortified Kruger National Park and its depleted rhino population to focus on the rhinos of KwaZulu-Natal. As a result, Hluhluwe-iMfolozi Park has become the most under-pressure reserve in the world for rhino poaching, losing 307 rhinos of 499 nationally in 2023. Demand for rhino horn in Asia has spurred the rhino slaughter as poachers supply the international criminal syndicates behind the illegal wildlife trade.

With a sense of smell 1000 times stronger than human, Ghost is a sniffing super hero! Here she sniffs at the skull of an elephant.

The fight to save rhinos at Hluhluwe-iMfolozi Park has never been so urgent, which is why its small, brave team of K9s and their handlers, are vitally important. The rangers and four highly trained dogs of Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife’s Hluhluwe-iMfolozi Park K9 Unit risk their lives daily to save rhinos at the park. Their secret weapon is their dog’s amazing noses. With a sense of smell 1,000 times stronger than a human’s, these trained K9s are experts at detecting the scent of a poacher.

At the center of the K9 team is Ghost, a 6-year-old Doberman-bloodhound cross, who is the star cold-scent tracker (aka head sniffer) for the team. While her two Dutch Shepherd teammates, Chief and Captain, can track scents for up to 6 hours and are specifically trained to make contact with poachers, Ghost’s bloodhound nose means she can detect and follow scents as old as 16 hours and longer. 

Chief and his K9 handler together in the response helicopter, on route to start sniffing out the tracks of poachers, with his ears safely protected by dog earmuffs!

When an incursion is detected within the park – whether it’s the sound of a gunshot, a track found by rangers on patrol, or a hole found cut in the perimeter fence - the K9 team springs into action. Supported by reserve intelligence including AI camera traps that can monitor and detect human shapes, the dogs and their rangers must first make their way within the 102,000-ha wildlife reserve (an area larger than Singapore) to the detected entry point of the poachers. Often a helicopter is required to quickly cover the vast distances across the wilderness, to begin their hot pursuit before the poachers can kill a rhino for its horn.

If a rhino has already been killed, the K9s pick up the poachers’ scent at the crime scene and track the perpetrators down to arrest them and give rhinos a chance at justice. It’s a race against time to save orphaned rhinos too. It’s a double tragedy when a mother is killed as the calf does not leave her side and often becomes a second victim to predators or dehydration unless the park’s rangers can find them in time.

Poachers are not the only danger to the team. The K9s must also sniff for signs of dangerous wildlife ahead, including lions and elephants, to keep them and their human handlers out of harm’s way while in hot pursuit. The K9s are deployed even on the darkest of nights without moonlight, the most dangerous time to be out tracking poachers.

Ghost, at 6 years old, is now ‘the old lady’ of the team, and while not yet ready to retire, has an energetic replacement being trained in the wings. One of Ghost’s greatest successes to date has been tracking a team of three poachers for five hours in a wilderness area of the park, resulting in the successful arrest of two of the three intruders. Sadly, she suffers from what her team has said is PTSD, becoming easily frightened and distracted when in close contact with the poachers. “It’s her job and she loves what she is doing, but we need to start cutting down her work, even though it makes her sad”, explains Dennis Kelly, section ranger and coordinator of the K9 unit at Hluhluwe-iMfolozi Park. “When it is time for her to retire, she will be adopted out to a loving home with a family with dogs, and space to run. She will get looked after”, assures Dennis.

There is a profound bond of trust between the K9s and their handlers.

Wildlife rangers are the unsung heroes of nature conservation, and they need all the support they can get, especially now that poaching has become increasingly sophisticated and militarized. As a vital part of the charity’s mission, Wild Tomorrow grants funds and equipment to support under-funded reserves and has provided uniforms, equipment and training to more than 600 rangers since their founding in 2015. This includes helping to equip the K9 unit at Hluhluwe-iMfolozi Park. Recently, Wild Tomorrow donated earmuffs to protect the dog’s sensitive ears from noise while inside the helicopter (video here). As part of the gala celebration, Wild Tomorrow will award the team, as the 2024 Wildlife Protector honorees, a $10,000 grant to support their operations.

“Receiving this award on behalf of the K9 unit is a real privilege and I am extremely thankful to everyone involved with Wild Tomorrow who funds and supports them. On behalf of the unit as well as Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife’s Hluhluwe-iMfolozi Park, thank you for this recognition,” says Dennis Kelly, section ranger and coordinator of the K9 unit at Hluhluwe-iMfolozi Park who will be in New York City in person to accept the award on behalf of the team. “On a planet where nature is being eroded faster than we can blink, we are proud to help conserve rhinos. Our work, by protecting rhinos, helps all species. It helps protect our wild spaces, which are very important to everybody on this planet.” 

Such good dogs, protecting rhinos for future generations.

Past recipients of Wild Tomorrow’s Umvikeli Wildlife Protector Award include:

·    United States Senator Chris Coons (2017) who co-sponsored the END Wildlife Trafficking Act

·    Dr. Dave Cooper (2018), a world-respected South African wildlife veterinarian who worked on the front lines, saving rhinos from the devastating impact of poaching.

·    Les Carlisle (2019), esteemed conservationist who has spent his career tirelessly working to protect wild spaces including establishing Phinda Private Game Reserve in South Africa.

·    World renowned author, conservationist and MacArthur genius, Dr Carl Safina (2021) whose writing and work thru The Safina Center, has connected hearts and minds to wildlife, generating the empathy needed to save life on earth;

·    The world’s first giraffe behavior researcher, Dr Anne Innis Dagg (2022), a pioneering woman in science, who forged a path of inspiration for emerging female scientists and junior conservationists.

More information and tickets for our 2024 Gala available here: www.wildtomorrow.org/gala2024