The Kruger National Park has sadly announced a fatality among their elephants. The bull was killed by Mozambique based poachers, whose 4 sets of footprints were traced to the border. Now we just need DNA samples! The tusks were removed after the shooting. Major General (Ret) Johan Jooste reported the shock news in his - report from 15th May 2014.

Abe Sibiya is the Chief Executive Officer of the South African SANParks organisation. After the rhino and elephant losses in the rest of Africa, he sees this as a temporary targeting of South Africa, especially given Krugers's concentration on protecting their rhinos. Many have been killed in what amounted to a war situation recently. The balance of power in Africa could also be shifting as more nations join forces and use drones and even more armed forces to monitor the whole poaching process. The connection with terrorism can't be discounted either.

Mr. Sibiya categorically states, "We are saddened by this latest incident but are confident that the dedication and efforts of our rangers and our partners in the security sector will eventually prevail over this malady." Hopefully this means bad news for the poachers and their far eastern clients, as the international aid for conservation and strategic protection builds over most of the continent. We're hoping that smaller countries have all the firepower and support needed to prevent them from being the next targets of these greedy people.

This is the first elephant kill in KNP for 10 years, so they have to be congratulated on their surveillance. Mozambique is unregulated, with presumable very few elephant left in the border area. This is probably the best time for their conservation resources to be mustered to protect the Kruger from any more incursions. They would be open hopefully to collaboration against any such criminals operating in their country. And that human DNA would be so welcome to those of us who really want to know those involved in these acts of violence!

The rhino population of Kruger has already been decimated, leading to the original South African army intervention, poisoning of horns and dehorning. Here is the original news of those sad events in Desperation shows after black year for rhinos.