Animals
Curiosity against poachers: rhino tracking dog for South Africa
Matthias Klein, bitch “Gooods Kulava Kutiva” and Perdita Lübbe-Scheuermann. photo
© Andreas Arnold/dpa
Cruelly good business: A kilogram of rhino horn can fetch tens of thousands of euros on the black market. In the fight against poachers, tracking dogs are also used. But that takes training.
A young mixed breed dog rampages and sniffs at emergency vehicles and shelves in a fire station. It seems as if the nimble and almost untamable four-legged friend just wants to play. But Gooods Kulava Kutiva is in the middle of the apprenticeship. According to the dog trainer Perdita Lübbe-Scheuermann, her name means “curiosity” and that will also be her job in the future. With her fine nose, she is being trained to be a rhino horn tracker and is scheduled to move to South Africa Poachers in the Kruger National Park are spoiled for business.
“She’s just right for us. She’s crazy and is wild and persistent and that suited us perfectly,” says Lübbe-Scheuermann, who runs a dog school in Griesheim in southern Hesse together with her husband. The one-year-old bitch was too much for her previous owners. “She was always on the gas and they just couldn’t handle her.” Nicole Tomera from the animal shelter in Viernheim drew her attention to the dog. “We received them in February.”
A volunteer job
For a few weeks now, Kutiva has been trained and conditioned by Matthias Klein in the Alsbach-Hähnlein volunteer fire department. The 43-year-old police chief inspector is head of the service dog squadron at the police headquarters in Darmstadt and works with the dog on a voluntary basis in his free time.
In the beginning it was cruel, says Klein. “She lay in the room for an hour and didn’t do anything anymore.” Then it got better, now it’s a lot of fun. Kutiva has to sniff through numerous magnetic tin cans between shelves, cars, hoses and uniforms. If she finds something suspicious, she lies flat on the ground and reports the hit. When the training is expected to end in April, she will be able to sniff out rhino horn, ammunition, weapons, pangolin scales and ivory in the fight against poachers.
Unlike humans or drugs, the horn is a special challenge. “It’s nothing more than fingernails,” says Klein. “It doesn’t smell for humans. But the dog can smell its way in.” The dogs are mainly used at the gates of a fenced off area of the Kruger National Park and are supposed to check vehicles there. But they are also used on surfaces and in rooms. “We currently have four dogs downstairs,” says Lübbe-Scheuermann. She receives daily feedback from the dog handlers as part of her “Save the Rhino” project.
Hundreds of poaching cases
According to South Africa’s Environment Ministry, 448 rhinos were poached nationwide last year. In the first half of 2023, 231 animals were killed. Several successful arrests and prosecutions have been recorded and poaching of these animals is declining, the ministry said. The environmental protection organization WWF considers the Ministry’s figures to be credible. “There are still unreported cases,” says poaching expert Katharina Hennemuth. The ministry only publishes figures for cases in which the dead rhinos are found.
Lübbe-Scheuermann and Klein do not trust the figures from the ministry, which they believe are too low. “The state is sweeping it under the carpet and those responsible on site believe that there are many more,” says Lübbe-Scheuermann. Klein would be surprised if the numbers are correct in a “corrupt country” like South Africa. “There’s also tourism involved.” The Kruger National Park is almost as big as Hesse. “Certainly not all dead rhinos will be found there.”
“The horn continues to have large sales via black markets, especially in Asia, and is in demand there for traditional medicine because of its high value, but also as a status symbol,” says WWF expert Hennemuth. Rhino horn is considered one of the most valuable illegal wildlife products in the world. The incentive to poach is correspondingly high and the criminal networks are accordingly well equipped and organized. “Corruption plays a big part in both poaching and smuggling out of the country.” According to the WWF expert, the sniffer dogs are a good support. They could provide important added value in the fight against illegal wildlife trafficking. According to the WWF, the rhino population in South Africa alone has decreased by at least 8,000 animals in ten years.
Rhinoceros as a delicacy – and fashion drug
According to Lübbe-Scheuermann, with dwindling rhino populations, more and more attention is being paid to pangolins. The meat is a delicacy in Asia and the scales are processed into a fashion drug. The animals would be smuggled to Asia “by the ton,” explains the expert.
She and her husband launched the “Rettet das Rhino” project in 2012, says the 58-year-old, who also wants to publish a rhino children’s book next year. They came across poached rhinos on three safaris. That’s why the project was started. “We are very involved with all the anti-poaching units in South Africa.” Kutiva has been the seventh dog to be trained since 2012. However, the association relies on donations for its work, including for veterinary bills, equipment, camera traps and petrol money in South Africa.
During the training, the young bitch will now also have to deal with other stations. She must learn to block out all distractions and other smells. A visit to a zoo is also on the agenda. She also has to learn who she is better off avoiding. Dogs are prey for lions and leopards. “We booked our flight for April 8,” says Klein. It’s not a problem for Kutiva to find her way around again straight away. “She just likes people.”