All language subtitles for Hunted by a Myth (2017) Eng

(tranquil music)

- [Narrator] Today, two
shots accompany the sunrise,

and call Dwayne and his
anti-poaching team on the alert.

This has become quite usual
in this Zululand reserve in

the province of
KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.

- [Dwayne] Moving from
reserve to reserve for the

past ten years I've been
working as a ranger in the bush,

it has its ups and downs.

- [Narrator] Ever day on alert
and every day increasing his

efforts to avoid another
rhino getting killed,

but these efforts are
constantly draining and

increasingly in vain.

The rhino is a species that
is over 40 million years old,

it has no natural predators,

and today is a rock in
the wildlife ecosystem.

Rhinos are being increasingly
hunted for their horn,

for an illegal trade and a demand that is

perpetually driven by myths
from across the world.

They are attacked, shot
and mutilated on lands that

have been their habitat
for millions of years.

All because of the false
belief that their horns have

powers of potency and healing.

The truth is rhino horn is
nothing more than simple keratin,

the same as a human fingernail.

The situation has become critical,

and whilst this devastation
continues to drive

more support from groups
and communities alike,

it is still not enough.

- [Narrator] Rhino are
poached ruthlessly in

an increasing amount every day,

because of the myth around the

medical purposes of rhino horn,

prevalent in Asian culture.

- As far as I know people are killing the

rhinos to get their horns
to sell on the market,

because they're worth quite
a lot of money on the market,

I don't know why,

because the rhino horn is just keratin,

it's the same as our fingernail,

so I don't know why people are hacking the

faces of these rhinos
just to get fingernails.

- [Narrator] Some doctors
refuse to talk about this or

explain the reason and value of what has

become recognised as simply myth.

- [Narrator] Even behind closed doors,

the topic of rhino horn is taboo,

among suppliers and consumers alike.

Although the communities
around anti-poachers are

beginning to understand
the nature of the problem.

- Overseas in the Asian counties,

the rhino horn is also
for medicinal purposes,

and now it's also a status thing.

They can put it in their
house and they obviously get

recognised for having
this item In their house,

it's like and they are increasing their

status within their neighbour
hood or whatever it is.

- [Narrator] Aside from status,

myths around medical
benefit of rhino horn still

drives a large part of the demand.

- The culture around obtaining things like

horn and tiger pines and whatnot is,

well I think it's commonplace
in China and a lot of the

myth behind it is mainly to
do with sexual performance,

and people like to
consume these products to

improve their sexual performance,

obviously it's not justified,

there's no guarantee that
having tiger penis is

going to make you any better,

because it isn't.

- [Narrator] In Vietnam,
demand for rhino horn has

grown exponentially in the last few years,

from more and more
claims that it has cured

cancer an other deadly disease.

For some time now,

and in some communities,

mixing rhino horn into cocktails,

as if it possessed some
kind of psychoactive effect,

has become almost
fashionable and a sign of

prestige in some circles
of the wealthy and elite.

This vanity and trend plays
its part in explaining why the

price on the black market
is higher than that of gold,

or even cocaine,

the issue of rhino and black
market trade extends far past

the control of demand driven
by myths in Asian culture,

it had become a global problem,

we are no longer only dealing
with the extinction of

a species that is over
40 million years old,

but a demand for a substance
that is attracting the

darkest methods of the black market trade.

The deeper we dig in,

a more complex situation unveils itself.

South Africa is home to the
largest concentration and

population of rhino on the planet,

and along with it the most targeted and

entrenched poaching issues.

Whilst the problem is most
prominently apparent in

South Africa,

countries such as China,

Vietnam and Mozambique are
equally complicit in the trade.

All with governments and
institutions that seem to

only shyly comply with

international protection recommendations.

As a recent example,

in April 2016,

the South African court of
justice ruled in favour of

legalising rhino horn
trade within its borders,

although this decision
has not affected the

ban on international
trade imposed by CITES,

it has been a step closer towards the

legalising of the rhino trade,

which is itself a question
frequently debated at all levels.

After this ruling while
poaching will still be illegal,

poachers are now able to
freely move rhino horn

within south African territory,

but are still faced with the
challenge of smuggling it

internationally where they can

command extensive prices and profits.

In addition to the tragedy
of finding more and

more dead rhinos,

there is the horror of
the suffering that they

endure after being shot and mutilated,

with their horn removed,

rhinos will struggle for
hours before they die,

even with help from humans who find that

sometimes there is nothing they can do.

Too often the damage is too
extensive and not recoverable.

This is Timba,

a rhino found after
poachers had mutilated him

for his horn.

Despite best efforts from
vets trying to save him,

the damages were so extensive,

he couldn't recover the
movement of his leg and

drowned after 14 days of
struggle and suffering.

(melancholy music)

Some of the closest vets cannot help but

feel fully responsible for
the cruelty of humanity.

- I think people start to realise that a

lot of people should
try to get away with it,

we caught a couple of
poachers here already,

and the one guy said to us,

you know I get 70,000
Rand for this little horn,

that's three years salary for me,

do you understand?

And even if you take Mozambique,

something like 78
percent of rhinos shot in

Kruger is from Mozambicans,

it's the poorest country here in Africa,

but now they're suddenly
building brick houses,

got TV screens,

all from rhino horns,

so now the ball is rolling,

ha, look what John's got,

a new home,

a brand new vehicle,

wow, he's got a TV,

oh, hey he's got a cell phone,

so now they all want to jump on the band

waggon and start hunting.

In the Kruger Park
there's nothing less than

20 hunting gangs every day
hunting elephant and rhino.

The reason why more poachers
poach every day now,

is because everybody is aware,

and seeing their friends
coming so well off,

so much money and making,

so benefiting from the rhino,

so you know that Mozambicans,

and I've had the bullet,

they take the path of rhino
that I said were dead,

and they said to me, Brain,

they follow the tracks of the poacher,

when they get to the Mozambique border,

they just stand at the side and say

"Thank you for the horn",

and the communities there,

they lift him up on their shoulders,

and they walk, "hero!"

because everybody is getting
to the infrastructure,

they're building homes, schools,

clinics,

they've got brick houses,

four wheel drives,

bowmen to protect their cattle from lions.

They're benefiting, the
community is benefiting,

as opposed as how they
used to live before,

with their old shit,

couldn't go to school,

a child no shoes and malnutrition,

snot running out of his nose,

you know, so how do you stop that,

so what happens is,

what's happening now is the rich guys,

the schemers in the background,

go to an innocent little guy
who hasn't got much food,

and I know this for a fact,

here's 50,000 Rand in your pocket now,

and here's a rifle,

go there, they got rhino

and he's the one going,

the innocent guy,

and my heart bleeds,

I've actually caught poachers,

and I said to my wife,

my wife Beth,

I said honey,

when I brought him home,

I said make some give him some coffee,

I said now don't come again please,

do you understand,

that's the innocent one,

so these innocent guys,

who've got no education,

cannot even write,

get caught up,

and I tell you, I'd go the same way,

if a guy pushed 50,00 into my hand,

he hasn't had that his whole life,

and he's a rifle,

so those are the guys
that are actually getting

shot to the park and getting caught.

Innocent,

so it's a middle man who's
now liaising with the

exporters from Uputu
out to China and Asia.

- [Narrator] In a country
where employment is

scarce and no minimum wage,

the average household
survives on less than

2300 Rand a month,

approximately 160 US dollars,

the opportunity to earn 50,000 dollars to

poach a horn becomes very tempting.

In the context of the black market,

the price of gold is
40,000 dollars per kilo,

while the price of rhino horn is

almost double at 75,000 dollars,

and if you consider than
the average weight of a

horn from an adult rhino is
between four to five kilos,

that means an average rhino
horn can range in value

between 300 to 400,000 US dollars.

Even if the poachers only
receive a portion of that,

it is no surprise that the risk for

reward is very attractive.

Sheila believes that these
issues can be addressed

within communities if they
are given opportunities,

her initiative,

Dance to be Wild,

works to educate children
through dancing to

engage with these issues
for a better future.

- That's what happens
with poverty you get the

exploitation of people that
are battling for money,

and they are being offered
a huge amount just to

kill a rhino.

Yet they're not making all the money.

You get your kingpins and the
people taking it overseas,

that's where the millions are being made,

and I believe the poachers and

actually being an other from
of exploitation on Africans.

- [Narrator] However as a long
term solution this can not

resolve the whole problem
on the ground today,

and rhino are still being hunted and

anti-poaching efforts continue.

- We're based up in in the
Northeast coast of South Africa,

we are very hard hit by rhino poaching,

and we see probably on
average one or two cases a

week at the moment of poaching incidents,

this year alone we've lost over 105 rhino,

and we're first of December today,

so the year isn't finished yet,

and it's been an increase
year on year for the

past couple of years.

Big frustration is that
we as law enforcement,

not as the aviation side,

but the guys on the ground
more so is that we are

fighting an asymmetric warfare,

one's got to be careful
of the term warfare,

the criminal the suspect,

they can do whatever they want,

unfortunately we are bound
by so many regulations,

so many rules,

that it makes our job very very difficult,

and together with that,

I would say a lack of political will,

and the lack of backing
we have both locally and

internationally in terms of making real

efforts to address this issue.

(dramatic music)

- [Narrator] Anti-poaching
units are extensively trained

with tracking and paroling
techniques and are able to

cover ground effectively when alerted.

Units patrol by air, as
well as on the ground,

working together to keep track
of rhinos and poachers alike,

this is never easy and
unfortunately very often,

poachers evade these effort
and flee into the bush.

(dramatic music)

While the anti-poaching
unit has to leave the

mission with no positive result,

the situation is even
worse 17 kilometres away,

where a storm reaches the
KwaZulu-Natal region and

another rhino died last night.

- [Narrator] Often vets work
in tandem with these teams

to help find clues for
an attack on a rhino and

help understand what
happened and track the

poachers responsible
for another dead rhino.

- I had a quick look see to see
if we could find the bullet,

there was a signal from
the metal detector but it

was deeper than we had
equipment to take out,

so we've come back again today to redo the

whole scene properly and
hopefully find obviously what

killed this particular rhino,

it's pretty obviously what happened to it,

it's a shot that went in
behind the left shoulder here,

through the top of the heart
and bottom of the lungs,

it probably impacted somewhere on the

inside of the other leg,

and that's where we're going
to start looking today.

- The red stars are In the context of

people shooting at each other,

and the blue stars where we had--

- [Narrator] In order
to get better results,

anti-poaching units also
work with the intel gathering

organisations operating
within the communities to

stop the poachers before they start.

Robert is an undercover
agent whose been able to

infiltrate the poaching community,

and set up a meeting with known poachers.

with any luck he will be able
to gain information about

their activity and help
the anti-poaching units

catch these criminals.

(speaking in foreign language)

The truth stands that as
long as a common solution is

not agreed upon with a
coherent effort to fight and

educate toward a common goal,

it will not mater how many
anti-poaching units are

supported and deployed,

nor how brave and well equipped they are.

Their efforts will not be enough,

if we don't face this problem
with determination and

don't commit to a common goal,

the rhino will continue to
be hunted, to extinction.

The CITES treaty signed
by over 180 countries,

including the likes of
south Africa, Mozambique,

china and Vietnam,

where trade is most
prominent has banned the

trade of rhino horn as far back as 1973.

It's goal is to protect
endangered species,

and to promote plant conservation
by controlling trade of

more than 30,000 species
through a system of

import and export licences.

Nevertheless,

CITES recommendations are not
always thoroughly applied,

and during our investigation,

it becomes apparent,

that there is a need to
explore other solutions.

De-horning the rhino,

and the possibility of a
controlled and licenced trade,

is one of the initiatives that people are

defending in order to address demand,

make rhino less attractive to
poachers and save the species.

- If we dumped five tonne of
rhino horn in Vietnam every year,

which is what we are capable of doing

without killing rhino,

how is that going to
increase the killing of our

rhino in the Kruger National Park,

I think if you have a
logical mind you will answer

that question that it's
not going to increase the

killing of the rhino,

it's going to decrease
the killing of the rhino.

- We don't normally de-horn black rhino,

because they use their
horn in a day to day basis,

because they eat leaves so they need to

manipulate trees and move
them about and stuff.

White rhino they eat grass,

and they don't really need the horn,

the only thing rhino
use their horn for is to

fight each other.

It's much safer for our
rhino if we de-horn them,

because they are much less
attractive to poachers,

obviously if they can get
a complete rhino horn its

worth a certain amount of money,

and if they can only get
a little amount of horn,

it's worth a bit less,

so you still get some amateur
poachers who go after them,

but the organised crime,

they would rather go for a
complete horn on a rhino,

it does really do the
whole rhino any harm,

they still eat, breed, sleep,

play in the mud, eat grass,

and then in about three
years the horn simply

grows back again anyway,

so if you de-horn them you
have to do it constantly.

(suspenseful music)

- [Narrator] While it still looks brutal,

the rhino does not suffer any pain,

and the vets work together
with the team to help the

animal have the least
disturbing experience possible.

The rhino are usually
darted from a helicopter,

but also from the ground
in smaller reserves,

eyes and ears and covered to avoid noise,

disturbance and damage from the saw.

A pen is used to mark
the point of removal,

usually seven centimetres from
the base of the front horn,

and five centimetres from
the base of the back horn.

While under anaesthesia,

a chainsaw is used to cut
the horn off horizontally,

the stump is trimmed to
remove excess horn at the

base and then smoothed and
covered with Stockholm tar,

in order to prevent cracking and drying.

Although this solution
seems to contribute to

reducing the number of rhinos poached,

some people claim that
de-horning is incredibly costly,

due to the effort of finding the animal,

and the costs associated with
the mobilisation process,

especially if needed on a constant basis,

the actual cost depends
on several factors,

but it is estimated to be from
620 US Dollars per animal in

the Kruger National Park to 100
dollars in private reserves.

Not everyone supports
the de-horning of rhino

and legalising of trade,

it is an issue much
disputed across the world,

but there are still people
betting on saving the

rhino with this alternative.

- One of our problems with
rhino survival is that a

dead rhino is worth
more than a live rhino,

so if we can change that,

and we could easily change
that with legalisation,

because at the moment,

it's not,

again I say,

it's not the demand that's killing rhino,

it's the way that demand is supplied,

we are putting more emphasis on saving the

horn than saving the rhino's life,

and if we legalise the trade in horn,

rhinos in this country
will immediately double and

triple in value,

because people will be
able to perpetuate the

breeding of the which they can't now.

- [Narrator] The conversation
on whether it will

have a positive or negative
impact are ongoing,

and arguments for both sides
are plausible and prevalent.

- Look it's like a temporary stopgap,

they're still shooting rhino horns off,

because he's going in
the full moon hunting,

and he looks and sees a rhino,

they've even shot hippo at night,

thinking it's a rhino,

so that's the vision they've
got in the full moon,

so they see, they cock, they shoot it,

and it's got no horn,

but then they still take
the little bit which is

worth 100,000 Rand,

so it might be a slight deterrent,

but it's not up to me to answer.

- As a person I'm totally against that.

I think we've got to
remember that the trade in

rhino horn is controlled by criminals,

by legalising it, what are we endorsing,

and also if we legalise
it what measures have we

got in place to actually
control that legal trade,

when we look at what's happening today,

we don't even have the capacity
to control legal trade.

- There's no solution,

the only way is you'd have to
put them in barricaded camps,

with heavy armed rifles,

or they can all be wiped out,

sorry,

and even the rangers themselves
they're all involved,

they're all involved underhand,
underhand, underhand.

- 6.6.

6.8.

- Well you gotta get to Asia and China,

but you're not going to change it,

you say how do you believe that rubbish,

it's the same as a horse's hoof,

he'll say to you,

why do you believe in Easter Bunny and

Tom Thumb and Christmas day,

and Father Christmas, that's rubbish too,

so don't condemn us,

so you can't have the pot
call the kettle black,

so we have a problem.

- [Narrator] however many
resources have been put

towards addressing the problem,

and anti-poaching units increase their

efforts every day to
avoid having infiltrators.

IN Africa, policies against
ivory trafficking have

been successful,

and there is a sense
that this will pave the

way for the rhinos.

So the importance would be to
educate all parties involved,

that as with elephants,

we can make a living rhino
much more valuable than a

dead one hanging as a trophy on the wall.

In 1982,

Japan was the world's
biggest rhino horn importer,

it was only after its population
gained awareness of the

situation that it's practises changed,

and nowadays the myths
have been dispelled and

demand practically annulled.

The same shift occurred in South Korea,

where awareness and education played a

far more effective part
in resolving the problem.

Changing one market alone
will not solve the problem,

and a global effort must be
made if a true solution is

to be found.

- To me it was we said
to the Vietnamese we

are never going to sell
you another rhino horn,

not through hunting,

not through live de-horning of rhinos,

we are not going to sell you
another rhino horn ever again,

go away,

they did go away,

they went to Mozambique
and did a deal with the

poachers in Mozambique,

and that's where they are
being supplied from now,

rhinos that are being killed
for to supply that demand.

- [Narrator] Anti-poaching units have to

patrol the borders in all
areas where poachers can

go to get a rhino horn,

there are hundreds of
miles to be covered in a

land with about 20,000 rhino.

But in the mean time the
vets who discovered the

carcass of the rhino poached
In the last thunderstorm,

realised that this was a mother,

and they have lost the
baby calf from the scene.

Baby rhino are very fragile
without their mother,

and usually can only last
about 24 hours alone.

The rangers and rescue party
now have to work against the

clock if they are to avoid
finding yet another carcass.

(inspiring music)

- The sad thing is she
had a baby, it's orphaned,

but the good thing is we found it in time,

and we manged to save that baby,

so that gene can carry on,

its not the end of them,

I think that besides losing the mother,

we managed to save the
baby and I think it's a

good end to that story as well.

- [Narrator] Rhino can
live up to between 40 and

50 years old.

The average calf spends the
first two to three years with

its mother before becoming
completely independent,

so depending on when a rhino is rescued,

the caring and reintegration process lasts

anything from two to five years,

or until the rhino seems
able to share with other

rhinos and defend itself,

in some cases the rhino is never ready to

go back into the wild.

Petronelle, and her
organisation Care for the Wild,

focus on the rescue and
recovery of orphaned rhino,

and ensure their survival and eventual

reintegration into the wild.

- [Narrator] She has rescued
over 200 rhino and has

kept them under her care for
between two and ten years,

and sometimes even more.

The future,

we're gonna have a lot of rhino,

we have to focus on their life,

there's enough people saying,

look at this goal post,

look at what they've done,

there's a lot of them still alive,

make sure they stay alive.

- [Narrator] To keep them safe, all these

organisations work together,

even with other parks to improve results.

- [Narrator] As that
conversation continues to

gain information from poachers,

their activities are
revealed and more details are

gathered for anti-poaching units.

(speaking in foreign language)

- [Narrator] As the discussion ramps up,

Robert leaves the poachers
with enough intel to

ensure sharing it with the authorities.

This collaboration with
intelligence organisations and

anti-poaching units has
produced the best results,

and has allowed the anti-poaching
units in South Africa to

arrest more than 300 criminals in 2015.

With this kind of intelligence at hand,

anti-poaching units are better
equipped to track poachers,

and close in more effectively
on potential hunting spots,

so as the sun sets the
rangers begin their search.

They suspect that within these grounds,

poachers have targeted nearby
rhino and are lying in wait.

The team have a first
sighting and prepare to

approach potentially armed poachers.

(dramatic music)

(speaking in foreign language)

(speaking in foreign language)

- [Narrator] But to preserve
life, not only of this species,

but of all those that are
endangered, demands our awareness,

the global change of paradigm,

and an approach to taking action.

Unless old patterns and
methods are shaken off,

any containment policy
that is implemented will

not be enough.

- We have to changed the failed policy.

The policy we are following is
failing the rhinos miserably.

We have to change it,

and we are running out
of time to change it,

we are also running out of numbers,

the very numbers of rhino that
could save it from extinction

are being obliterated by the poachers.

(speaks in foreign language)

- [Narrator] While governments debate the

economics of de-horning,

Sangomas understand the problem from a

point of long standing ancient values,

(speaks in foreign language)

(inspiring music)

- Five count do free style.

Who knows what freestyle is?

Of course, who's going to volunteer to

show me your freestyle?

Show me your freestyle, come on.

(crowd cheers)

five, six, seven, eight.

(crowd claps and cheers)

- I think that teaching kids
to dance is fun for children,

and children learn better
when they're having fun,

and we can go and teach them
about rhino conservations and

what's happening to our rhinos,

but how often can we
tell them that with out

rounding an awful something
else that they're having

fun all the time,

and basically dance
lessons give us access to

those children on a weekly basis,

sometimes on a daily basis,

because at Dance to be Wild,

we dance, eat, sleep, dream
about saving wildlife,

and that carries through
to every part of their day

and it becomes a way of life for them,

we don't have to go an
lecture them all the time,

because there's a certain
amount of time you've

got to do that,

and it had to become part of the way they

live as African children.

Now you're animals and you're bigger and

you've got children,

and you want to be able to take your

children and you grandchildren and

we'll still have these beautiful animals.

Well In this fight against rhino poaching,

we've got the side in Africa in

embracing Africans into conservation,

we also have to stop the demand which is

largely coming for the Asian counties,

now dancing is really popular in Asia,

and it's really important that we use this

vehicle we've got of dance,

in the same way that we're doing
with Africans, with Asians.

(crowd cheer)

- With Dance for the
Wild and what Sheila's so

great at doing,

is that we go to schools
and approach them,

and we go to schools
surrounding places like the

Kruger National Park where
many children haven't

even had a chance to see a rhino,

and we are trying to show
the locals and Africans how

they need to embrace their
heritage and their wildlife,

so it's such an important
thing for Africa,

so the way we get the children involved,

by creating awareness and
going and entertaining them,

you get their attention
if you do a little fun

dance In the beginning,

you don't just go and
preaching about the sad

things and about the rhino poaching,

because any child is going to get bored,

you've gotta get their attention,

so the best way to do that is by dancing,

they all love it,

and they have a great response.

(crowd chanting)

- So if the criminal elements
approach them they've got

enough self esteem and value
themselves to value the

fact that their South African
wildlife actually plays

such an important part,

and they turn down the criminals
that are exploiting them.

(singing and cheering)

(slow dance beat)

(upbeat guitar music)

(slow hip-hop music)

(slow hip-hop music)

(slow hip-hop music)

(cheering from crowd)

- They want to know about the rhino,

they're starting to dance,

because I told them to throw the rhino,

now they want to find out about the rhino,

what is the rhino,

so by teaching the kids,

it will contribute to the future,

because these kids will
grow up knowing the

rhino is important,

they will respect the rhino.

- [All] Say no to rhino poaching.

- [Narrator] Poaching
is not only a result of

illegal trade, profits,
or lack of resources and

coherent policies when
trying to fight against it,

it is an issue that runs
deeper, that poses the question,

what is it going to be,

destruction or conservation,
what are we committed to,

what are we teaching
our future generations,

the answers we give to ourselves
will depend not only on the

survival of the rhino as a species,

but also on that of our own.

(tranquil music)