Buffalo Dream Ranch (BDR) was so named initially to hide its primary purpose of breeding rhino from poachers.  In a world where poaching is threatening the rhino to the point of extinction, John Hume, one of the world’s greatest rhino conservationists and a passionate campaigner against their extinction, together with an extremely dedicated team, protect and care for 1626 rhinos, of which 1044 have been bred on BDR.  BDR's mission is to “Breed Better, Protect Better”. 

John Fredrick Hume was born on 25th January 1942. He was raised on a sheep farm in the Cape Province of South Africa and later on a cattle farm in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), where his love of the land, and its animals, was nurtured. In 1992, at the age of 50, after having made a good living from developing holiday resorts, John bought his first wildlife ranch. Mauricedale Game Ranch, situated just south of the world renowned Kruger National Park, became a fabulous success with John combining his business acumen, his knowledge of farming, and his passion for wildlife. In 1993, he acquired his first rhino, and he soon fell in love with this iconic species. For the next 13 years, he successfully bred 143 rhino calves from a breeding herd of 130 Southern White Rhino, until tragedy struck in 2007. This was when he lost his first rhino to poachers. He realised then that Mauricedale's proximity to both the Mozambiquan border, and the Kruger National Park, exposed his rhino to far too much danger, and he made the difficult decision in 2008 to relocate to the safer North West Province of South Africa. This more remote location, as well as the flat expansive savanna grassland provided the ideal habitat for his rhino and afforded much better security options.

With the escalating poaching crisis, and consequent security costs rising exponentially, as well as the risk to human life becoming ever greater, more and more rhino custodians in Southern Africa started dis-investing in rhino.  John saw this as a grave risk to the future of rhino, and it prompted him to register the first Captive Breeding Facility for Southern White Rhinos in South Africa, to serve as a safety net for our dwindling wild rhino population numbers. And so, in 2009, BDR was officially founded. With the exceptional breeding accomplished by the project, additional land has since been acquired, onto which to expand the project to provide more habitat for the resident rhino. 

With no means to earn an income from breeding and protecting all these rhino, John decided to slowly start selling off his holiday resorts to continue funding BDR. Now, after 10 years, he has invested over US$100m of his life's earnings into the project, and he has sadly reached the end of his financial wherewithal to continue. He would thus greatly appreciate any support you could offer.

For a deeper insights into the BDR Project, and to meet some of the team, please see "Additional Resources" at the end of this campaign pitch, where we discuss:- 

• Managing Rhino
• Breeding Rhino
• Horn Trimming
• The Orphanage
• The Rhino Extinction Problem
• Poaching as it relates to Trade

But for now, back to the business of this campaign. 

Since the current scourge of rhino poaching started in South Africa in 2008/9 with firstly rumours, and then the implementation, of a Moratorium on Domestic Trade in Rhino Horn, extraordinary measures have been required to protect the last remaining rhinos roaming our planet.  Rhinos have been systematically poached (murdered) in South African national parks for their horns, reaching death rates of over 3 per day (over 1000 per year), and as a result these parks have had to significantly strengthen their security.  This increased security together with the ever-dwindling numbers of rhinos in national parks have shifted the threat of poaching, and thus the burden of protection, to private rhino reserves like BDR.  BDR's current operating costs run at over ZAR 5 million (US$ 400,000 @ R12.50 = US$1) per month, with more than half of that going directly to security. 

BDR's rhino protection program currently comprises the implementation of 60 permanently employed security personnel patrolling on foot and in vehicles, paired with elite reaction units of heavily armed soldiers. A helicopter with a full-time pilot flies regular patrols over the project.

It should be mentioned that, since the BDR's inception in 2009, the national number of rhino lost due to poaching in South Africa has reached well over 7000 rhino. BDR, however, has only lost a total of 32 rhino during the same period, and has just celebrated 15 months of no poaching losses.

Stefran Broekman, our Security Manager, with his elite armed reaction unit

Sadly, the days of solely depending on manpower for the effective protection of rhinos, are long gone.  In many cases where poaching takes place, it is the human element inside the security force that betrays the rhino.  Internal involvement is unfortunately the greatest threat in any wildlife reserve. 

BDR have thus opted for a counter-poaching strategy which allows them to reduce manpower and increase the use of technology.  They recently trialed the installation of a super high-tech electronic early-warning security system including radar and thermal cameras with intelligent video analytics, license plate recognition and other optical and audio sensors. Detection, target identification and tracking are handled by the technology system rather than having to rely on a human ops room controller, and is done outside the BDR perimeter, thus enabling BDR to address the threat long before it gets anywhere close to their rhinos. 

The human element is then only brought in once a target has been identified and confirmed to be a threat.  A reaction force is dispatched with helicopter and mobile vehicle reaction units.  These units are made up of well experienced reaction team rangers equipped to work day and night together with a K9 (tracker dog) ability to increase their effectiveness even more.         

This trial returned extraordinary results, with drastically reduced numbers of poaching events, and BDR would now like to expand this system to cover all 1600+ rhinos across the entire 8000-hectare project.   

The proposed solution will cast a virtual fence around, and a virtual blanket over, the entire project, allowing the incredible team at BDR to stay one step ahead of the very sophisticated poaching syndicates.  It is  a technology solution that serves as force multiplier, whilst reducing the human element.

The proposed solution unfortunately comes at an enormous initial capital cost of US$3 million (ZAR38 million), but will allow BDR to cut their monthly operational costs significantly, rendering the project way more sustainable into the future.  As already mentioned above, after investing over US$100 million of his own savings into his rhinos, and not being able to generate sufficient funding from the sale of horn, John has sadly reached the end of his financial wherewithal to continue funding this project. BDR is therefore looking for you to support the funding of this innovative security solution, so that they can better protect their rhinos.

Please donate now and do your little bit to help in the #WarAgainstPoaching and ensure the longer-term survival of one of the world’s most iconic species.

1. It goes without saying that you get the obvious satisfaction of playing your part in the prevention of  the extinction of one of the world's most iconic species - the rhino.  
2. You further get the satisfaction of knowing that every cent of your contribution here will go directly to this specific security solution, which will result in the protection of real live rhinos in the Captive Breeding Operation, that is BDR. 
3. Then there are the various rewards which allow you to become a much closer part of the BDR family, and which aim to keep you in touch with this amazing project into the future. These range from BDR news letters, to webcam access to live feeds of goings on at the Project, to personal visits hosted by John Hume himself, and where you get to meet the team. 

We hope you agree this is fair return, and that you decide to contribute.

If you are not in a position to contribute here, you can still play a really important part in this campaign by simply sharing a link with all of your family, friends, colleagues - in fact anyone you know who might care about saving the rhino. 

It also helps if you simply talk about what you have read here, and share the real facts about rhino captive breeding projects and rhino horn harvesting. For more information in this regard, go to Facebook or Instagram and follow @RhinoFacts.

There is, finally, a unique and innovative CryptoConservation initiative which might interest you outside of this IndieGoGo campaign. Look at RhinoCoin.com for more details. Unfortunately, due to US regulation of crypto markets, this is not an option for US Citizens, but is accessible to everyone else in the world.

Managing Rhino

The BDR Project is divided into multiple breeding camps, each about 500ha in size, and housing its own sub-population of rhino. Each camp has a dedicated Camp Master, as well as a Relief Camp Master to cover the period when the Main Camp Master is on leave.  The Camp Masters know every rhino in their respective camps intimately, and can identify each rhino from its unique ear notching and habits.  It is their duty to observe and report daily on their respective rhino, and they happily walk tens of kilometers in this endeavor.

Each camp is subdivided into 2 sections to allow for rotational grazing to occur. Every spring, just after the first rains of the season, the team close the middle gates and keep the rhinos confined to one section of the camp for approximately 3 months. This allows the grass in the 'rested' half of the camp to go to seed. When all the seed has been shed, the gates are reopened, and for the remaining 9 months the rhinos graze in the full expanse of their camp. During the winter months, additional supplementary feed is made available for the rhino, to ensure their nutritional requirements are addressed, and to maintain good health through the dry season.  Each camp has several water sources for the rhino, both from natural springs as well as earth-filled dams. Mud baths are provided in all the camps which the rhinos use regularly, especially when it is hot.

The natural vegetation in the camps is continually monitored by employing the services of a qualified and experienced Ecologist who conducts fixed point veld (field) condition assessments annually in each of the camps.  These survey results are integrated into the overall BDR Ecological Management Strategy.  BDR further provide for the nutritional requirements of their rhino through extensive and ongoing veld improvement projects, and indigenous trees are routinely planted in the camps to help re-establish the natural ecosystem of the land.  With the added help of a Nutritionist and a full time Wildlife Veterinarian, BDR keep their rhinos in excellent condition.

BDR is also spear heading valuable research into rhino, working in close conjunction with both national and international research institutes, to learn more about this iconic species, and they share this knowledge to help other rhino populations.

Johnny Hennop, BDR General Manager and some of his Camp Masters and Support Staff

Breeding Rhino

Over the past 10 years, BDR has successfully grown their herd of rhinos from an initial 250 to 1,626. They are hoping to finally meet their breeding target of 200 rhino calves per year, by the end of this financial year (Feb 2019), and then to sustain this for many years to come.  At the moment BDR have around 300 pregnant female rhino, and are on target to meet this BHAG (big hairy audacious goal).

This excellent breeding performance is achieved through establishment of large sub-populations of at least 20-40 founder breeding cows per camp. To adhere to the competition effect, each camp has more than one dominant breeding bull, as well as several sub adult males within the herd, to allow for natural selection by females. All breeding is done 100% naturally without any artificial intervention. To conserve natural social behavior and dynamics, calves and juveniles are allowed to grow up along with their dams (mothers) in their relevant camps.

To prevent and reduce the incidence of possible inbreeding, strict records are kept of all matings, matings leading to births, all births, as well as recorded dams and sires. This ensures that proper population dynamics are maintained and managed by way of an up-to-date studbook.

Additional land onto which new breeding sub-populations can be established, by relocating sub-adult progeny born to the project, is constantly purchased for habitat expansion. This ensures that sub-adult progeny are removed from their dams and sires, as well as ensuring that the current camps do not exceed their relevant carrying capacities. When rhino are translocated into these new camps, a few are selected from each of the existing breeding camps to ensure the newly established camp has the broadest possible gene pool.   Any bulls not required for mating are housed in dedicated bachelor camps where they will spend the rest of their natural life.

The BDR Team recently celebrated two incredible landmark moments for their project which are discussed below.

• Platimum - BDR's 1000th Rhino Baby

Meet Platinum.  He is BDR's 1000th rhino calf born onto the project in the North West Province on 6 April 2018, after 10 years of the project's existence.  He weighed between 50-60kgs at birth and he is doing very well. 

• Gugu - BDR's first F2 progeny

Meet Gugu (Zulu for "precious"). She is the very first ‘second generation’, or F2, calf born onto the BDR Project on 23 May 2018. She was born to 6.5 year old rhino heifer Natalya and rhino bull Griffin (who is incidentally Platinum's elder brother).  Daphne, Gugu's grandmother, arrived at BDR on 21 July 2010, and gave birth to Natalya on Christmas day 2011, 17 months after her arrival.  

Horn Trimming

Rhino are unique in that, unlike other horned animals, their horns have no boney core, and is comprised primarily of keratin, which is very similar to your own hair or nails. Just like your hair and nails, rhino horn grows back after trimming, at a rate of around 10cm per year. This equates to around 1.5kg of new horn from a male, and 0.75kg from a female, every year.  Rhinos on BDR are routinely trimmed, primarily to render them less attractive to poaching syndicates.  BDR would ideally only like to trim every 2.5 years, but with the insidious poaching crisis underway, it is currently done every 1.8 years per rhino. With their new security system in place (the target of this CrowdFund), BDR hope to be able to extend this trimming interval to as long as 3.5, or even 4 years per rhino.

This trimming process is regulated by the National Environmental Management: Biodiversity Act (NEMBA) (Act No. 10 of 2004) and the Threatened or Protected Species (TOPS) Regulations, 2007. For a rhino horn to be trimmed, a permit must first be acquired from the Department of Nature Conservation. The trimming process then  takes less than 20 minutes per rhino, and is conducted under light sedation and under the supervision of a qualified and experienced Wildlife Veterinarian. The horn is trimmed using an electric saw about 8cm above the growth plate where there is no bone, nerves or blood vessels. It is an entirely painless process as well as non-permanent. In other words, the horn grows back and therefore needs to be routinely trimmed as a poaching deterrent.  The whole process is witnessed by officials, and the horns are immediately removed by professional security firms into safe-custody vaults off the property.

BDR has been doing this for the past 10 years and currently has around 6.5 tonnes of stockpiled rhino horn stored in safe custody in vaults around South Africa.

Dr Michelle Otto, our Wildlife Veterinarian, with her team trimming horns

Rhino Orphanage

The Orphanage on BDR was established to take care of any rhino calves found in distress or at risk of dying. Rhino cows and calves in the camps are monitored very closely by the Camp Masters, and management is alerted as soon as any problems arise. The decision to remove a calf for hand-rearing is never taken lightly as BDR prefer that dams (mothers) raise their own calves, feeding them their own mothers milk. Calves on BDR, however,  can be removed for any  of the following reasons, to give them a fighting chance of survival:

• Weak calves;
• Calves from mothers that die from natural causes or poaching;
• Nutrition deprived calves, where perhaps the mother's milk has dried up;
• Injured calves;
• Abandoned calves;
• Calves separated from their mothers and who fail to reunite; and
• Calves from mothers who have a record of not raising their calves to adulthood.

The Orphanage facility consists of a building that has a kitchen for preparation of milk, temperature controlled rooms where very young and sick calves are cared for and medical care can be administered, some store rooms, 6 smaller rhino camps, and 5 larger rhino camps. 

All calves are started on teated 2l cool-drink bottles to teach them to suckle well.   From there they progress to the special bucket-bottles seen in the picture below. The youngest calves are fed every two hours around the clock, and from two weeks this can be changed to every 3 hours.  As they grow older, night feeds are reduced and duration between feeds is extended.  Calves are weaned off both milk and human contact from 16 to 18 months, but remain in the Orphanage until they are about 3.5 to 4 years old and have enough confidence to be re-integrated back into one of the breeding camps.

Feeding time in the Orphanage

An important principle practiced by the BDR Orphanage is to ensure that these rhinos do not see humans as companions. They are always kept with other rhinos of a similar age, or with surrogate sheep. They always remain wild animals with the intention of successful integration back into the larger camps as soon as is feasible.

The facility is currently managed by a Veterinary Nurse (Sr. Claudia Andrione in the picture below), a junior and senior assistant, two general workers and two domestic workers. They currently take care of 45 rhinos, 6 sable antelope, 2 cattle calves, 1 buffalo calf and 1 sheep.  The facility also conducts research into fetal growth during gestation of rhino cows.

Sr. Claudia Andrione and some of her team

The Extinction Problem - A Rhino in Crisis

In the early 1800's there were estimated to be over a million White and Black rhinos in Africa. By the early 1950's there were less than 450 white rhinos left, and they were all located in the Umfolozi Game Reserve in the now Kwazulu Natal province of South Africa, and being threatened by disease (Anthrax) .  Thanks to Dr Ian Player,  the Natal Parks Board (now Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife) agreed to the principle of "sustainable use" and started selling and moving rhino all over the country for hunting purposes.  Watch this Vimeo video using the link below from @TheConservationImperative for the full story.

https://vimeo.com/135540882 

Poaching as it Relates to Trade

Just like diamonds, rhino horn is revered by many people all over the world as a status symbol, often in the form of knife handles, libation cups, jewelry (beads and bangles)  and more. It is also an ancient cultural belief, held for thousands of years in the Far East, that rhino horn cures illnesses.  As a result there is a healthy international demand for rhino horn, which simply cannot be denied. Despite education campaigns, demand is not being reduced, and the poaching has not abated, fast enough.   
Unfortunately, CITES, an organisation initially intended to support the fundamental tenets of 'Conservation' and 'Sustainable Use' and 'Trade in Endangered Species' (the TES in the acronym CITES), has been infiltrated and totally corrupted by animal rights NGO's who believe no animal should die or be used by humans - not even for food! Despite the fact that rhinos do not have to die in order to harvest their horn, CITES, as a result of pressure from these animal rightists, have successfully banned trade in rhino horn internationally for the past 43 years . 

Rhino horn trade in South Africa remained legal throughout this ban period, but things started to change in 2007.  In that year there were  a mere 13 rhino deaths to poaching in South Africa.  With regulation tightening up, and rumours of the impending Moratorium on Domestic Trade in Rhino horn, starting in 2007 and finally being implemented in 2009, the scourge of poaching in South Africa sky rocketed to over 1000 rhinos poached per year in 2013 right through to 2017. See below a graphic, originally from WWF and annotated with some key dates, and you make up your own mind if Trade Bans and Poaching are linked in any way.

Now, it is a simple fact that no ‘conservation project’ can continue to survive without a sustainable income from somewhere.  The logical source of this income for a rhino conservation project would be from trade in sustainably harvested horn, off live rhinos. John thus felt it was really important to establish his constitutional right to sell his legally and humanely harvested horn in order to fund the continuation of his BDR Project.  After winning his initial  case in the High Court of South Africa to dismiss the Moratorium on Domestic Trade in Rhino Horn, as well as winning the 3 subsequent appeals by the Department of Environmental Affairs (DEA) against the High Court finding, (which went all the way up to the highest court in our land, the Constitutional Court of South Africa,) it remains a sad fact that the DEA continues to hamper permitting processes in South Africa to such an extent that a year later it has been near impossible to trade rhino horn.

All of this ongoing anti-trade activity, from animal rightists, CITES and the South African Government, has sadly had the dire effect of swinging a perfectly healthy LEGAL trade, which should rightly benefit the people and economies of Southern Africa, to an entirely unhealthy and insidious ILLEGAL trade environment. The unfortunate side effects of these totally irresponsible decisions by CITES and the poor performance of the South African DEA include:

• the current scourge of poaching of over 1000 rhinos annually in South Africa alone, just to supply this illegal trade with poached horn off dead rhinos
• all proceeds of poached horn lining the pockets of criminals (mostly sponsored by large syndicates and benefiting  the 'few' including various African government officials and other powerful elites)
• the real conservationists who really care about rhino are prevented from earning suitable income from rhino, rendering breeding and protection projects a liability
• deprivation of local communities to a rightful and sustainable income earning potential from  their own wildlife
• the disappearance of  multiple (nearly 100 in the past 4 years) private rhino owners from the Southern African conservation landscape.

DOCUMENT ENDS