All-female anti-poaching squad in South Africa
September 23, 2015 7:22 AM   Subscribe

The Black Mambas are an all-female anti-poaching squad in South Africa. They patrol the borders of the Greater Kruger National Park, where wild rhinos live. The women in the squad come from the surrounding townships and patrol un-armed.
posted by colfax (14 comments total) 16 users marked this as a favorite
 
Heros!
posted by MrGuilt at 8:01 AM on September 23, 2015 [4 favorites]


I think they should just flood the market with fake or artificial tiger balls, ivory all that stuff. The price drops, and all of a sudden poaching isn't profitable enough. I wonder how effecntly we could grow tiger balls and ivory in a lab?
posted by Canageek at 8:10 AM on September 23, 2015 [3 favorites]


The Black Mambas are an all-female anti-poaching squad in South Africa.

Kill Bill Vol. 3
posted by Fizz at 8:41 AM on September 23, 2015 [10 favorites]


I think they should just flood the market with fake or artificial tiger balls, ivory all that stuff.

Pink tusks help too, though still considered controversial by some conservationists.
posted by Fizz at 8:58 AM on September 23, 2015


Interesting choice to name a unit of unarmed game wardens after one of the biggest, deadliest snakes on the continent.
posted by Pirate-Bartender-Zombie-Monkey at 9:00 AM on September 23, 2015 [1 favorite]


I'm curious if the success is because they pay them less than armed male guards and can thus afford more of them.
posted by srboisvert at 10:42 AM on September 23, 2015 [1 favorite]


1. this is the article we should be linking to which actually has the details and information. The OP links to an article which is a rewrite of an article in glamour magazine about the group ffs.

2. Poaching in South Africa is a huge crisis at the moment and none of the US article mention this. In 2007, 13 Rhinos were killed by poachers in South Africa. In 2014, 1215 were. That is something surprising not mentioned in the article.

3. They are unarmed, but they are not fools. All of the women have "paramilitary training" and "Grade E security training". They are professionals being trained for a role.

The OP article manages to make this sound like some kind of hopeless vanity project, defusing traps and doing the grunt work - if I had stopped and just read the OP I would have come off with a much more negative impression of their work than ended up with after reading the actual article. While the men do the real jobs when it is clearly not. They are highly trained to a specific purpose (finding fresh initial signs of poaching so that armed anti-poachers can then move in on an area).

"From the south african article: “Former soldiers and old-school conservationists had doubts that the Mambas could effectively protect wildlife, but the success of our female mambas has triumphed over the scepticism.”
posted by Another Fine Product From The Nonsense Factory at 11:42 AM on September 23, 2015 [12 favorites]


Not so sure about traipsing about in an African jungle unarmed.

I kayak in S/W Fl. and when I beach and make camp for the night I am a nervous wreck worrying about gators.
posted by notreally at 11:53 AM on September 23, 2015 [1 favorite]


First of all, these women are trained rangers (with paramilitary experience) working in a national park (primarily a Savannah), not random people traipsing about in an African jungle. Second of all, as someone who *does* wander around African jungles unarmed, it's not the animals which are concerning. It is the poachers.
posted by ChuraChura at 12:18 PM on September 23, 2015 [4 favorites]


I thought the second video had some really interesting points, particularly what they said about the women developing a type of institutional memory about the ground they patrol. Since they walk the same paths every day, it is much more obvious to them than it would be to people who only patrolled irregularly if a stone is out of place or if there is a hole in the fence that wasn't there before, which helps them identify places better where the poachers are trying to get in.
posted by colfax at 12:32 PM on September 23, 2015 [1 favorite]


@ ChuraChura, Damn Strait!

On the pink tusks horn thing... First you need to catch and anesthetize the elephant or rhino, the color it turns out isn't as noticeable as the pictures which periodcly show up on Facebook.
It isn't that effective and this ain't ' Wild Kingdom' anesthetising rhinos and elephants is risky for the animal and the people in many ways. Over $1000 USD to do, per animal.
Better to really patrol and to shoot poachers caught in the act.
The Black Mambas are super!
posted by Katjusa Roquette at 1:29 PM on September 23, 2015


Came for the Kill Bill reference, was not disappointed.

Also, though, I wish them success, & I'm hunching that they'll find a good deal of it.
posted by foodbedgospel at 3:31 PM on September 23, 2015


"Damn Strait!" Aye, and it's mony a canny sea captain wot has muttered the like.
posted by carping demon at 8:42 PM on September 23, 2015 [1 favorite]


Sorry, Typo, should have been 'Damn Straight'!'
Didn't mean to curse George Straight! :)
posted by Katjusa Roquette at 9:08 PM on September 23, 2015


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