A white rhino cow was killed and her horns removed early on Sunday, bringing to four the number of rhino killed at the Lombardini Game Farm near Jeffreys Bay in just less than a month.
The cow was found with a single bullet wound to the head.
Eastern Cape provincial police, who, solely, are mandated to handle all rhino poaching inquiries, on Sunday confirmed the incident, saying it had taken place at 1.45am.
This follows a gruesome attack at the same game farm on the weekend of November 10 when poachers killed a pregnant cow, whose unborn calf could not be saved, and a bull, which died a few days after the attack.
The poachers involved in that attack were however unable to remove the horns from the two adult rhinos.
Lombardini owner Johan Lottering on Sunday confirmed the poaching incident, saying it had been carried out in the absence of a full moon.
To date, and across the country, attacks on rhinos have generally taken place in full-moon conditions.
“It was a shock, particularly because it took place during a dark moon,” Lottering said.
“The November incident also took place under similar conditions, a new moon and bad visibility. I think the poachers are getting braver.”
He said it was impossible to tell whether the same poacher or poachers were involved in the latest two attacks.
“What can we do?” Lottering lamented.
“We have to accept what has happened and put things in place to minimise these attacks,” he said, going on to compare the farm’s security challenges with other crimes.
“I mean, if they can steal electricity cables from the Gautrain, [imagine], what they [criminals] can do when you have 38km of fencing to secure.”
Lottering said the attackers had cut a section of fencing to access the property and shoot the rhino cow.
“We will have to look at increasing security and consider all measures to stop these incidents. We will have to establish a 24-hour guard on the property,” he said.
While the previous attack there is believed to have been carried out with a .375 rifle, Lottering said a smaller calibre weapon appeared to have been used in the latest incident, but it might have been a dumdum (expanding bullet) round.
This would have increased the effectiveness of the smaller calibre projectile.
The weekend attack marks the fifth time that rhino poachers have struck at the 1,200ha farm – which is between Jeffreys Bay, Humansdorp and St Francis Bay.
The latest attack brings the total number of rhino killed there to eight, which includes the unborn calf which died with its mother in November.
Police spokesperson Captain Khaya Tonjeni said: “. . . one animal was shot and horns hacked. All stakeholders were called and all resources deployed. The incident happened at 1.45am [on Sunday].”
Tonjeni, who revealed that detectives were still at the scene late on Sunday afternoon, said no arrests had been made yet.