A rhino has charged at and injured a suspected poacher in Namibia. It is a rare case of the animal, hunted for its valuable horn, being able to fight back against the perpetrators.
The incident occurred at the Etosha National Park on October 14, but was reported by the newspaper The Namibian almost a week later. A group of poachers illegally made their way into the park in order to hunt down the rhinos, the paper said.They were searching for a victim when a rhino “appeared out of nowhere” and charged at the men.
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One of the perpetrators, identified as Luteni Muharukua, fell as he was trying to escape and the animal inflicted a severe leg injury upon him.“His friends took and hid him (Muharukua) on a nearby mountain, and he was arrested there the next day by the police,” Simson Shilongo, police officer, told The Namibian.
According to the policeman, Muharukua was undergoing hospital treatment under police guard.The Namibian accompanied the story with a cartoon captioned: “The poacher, poached!”
Rhinos are being poached for their horns, the market value of which derives from their being considered to have powerful health-restoring properties in many Asian countries. The price of a rhino horn on the black market can reach up to $60,000 per kilogram ($1,700 per ounce), according to the Poaching Facts website.
Seven rhinos were killed by illegal hunters in Etosha National Park between June 2016 and June 2017, The Namibian reported earlier.