Some of you might have seen a post I shared on the Pilanesberg Facebook page recently taken from IOL online and naming some of the best places in South Africa to see rhino, Pilanesberg among them.

More than the article itself, I was interested by the comments that had been posted. One comment asked why the article (and its writer) were “snitching on our rhinos”. Another asked “is this a good thing to advertize?”, and yet another said “at this moment some Rhino poaching syndicate boss is probably printing this page and purchasing the tickets for his underlings.”

A couple of years ago I wrote a similar article for Mweb which “advertized” the abundance of black rhino to be found in Etosha National Park in Namibia. I was met by an even stronger response. I was called “South Africa’s biggest idiot” by one commenter, and the general barrage of abuse hurled at me (and at Mweb for publishing the article) got so out of hand that, disappointingly, Mweb soon took down the article rather than allowing me to encourage further debate and respond to the comments from a more measured and less emotionally-driven perspective.

With all of the above in mind, I thought it would be interesting to gauge the feelings of our Facebook fans on this issue. Above the link to the IOL article, I prompted them with  the following questions:

“Should this kind of information be made so readily available considering the rate of poaching in South Africa? Are such publications merely “snitching on our rhinos”, or is it not important to keep encouraging people to see and appreciate these beautiful creatures in the hope that these same people might then help (directly or indirectly) in the fight against poaching? Do we really think that the poachers don’t already know where the rhinos are?”

dennis-burn2

The response from our fans was overwhelmingly different from the comments posted on the article, and on my older Mweb post.

Here’s one of the comments:

“Poachers know where to find rhino whether or not it is advertised. I had the same discussion a week ago with people that wanted to know why I say in which reserves I take my photos of rhinos. This information is readily available on internet etc. I would say as long as the EXACT locaton is not disclosed. Just my opinion”

Another commenter said that having been encouraged to see rhinos in the wild by such articles, she was now an avid campaigner for their well-being.

From an economic perspective, we should also remember that the fight against rhino poaching is a very costly business. Telling people who might be particularly interested in seeing rhino where they might be most likely to find what they are looking for means more money coming through the gates which means more money towards conservation and anti-poaching projects

Sadly, it seems that the vast majority of South African publications and platforms have failed to really consider some of the questions and points raised above. Frightened by often ill-informed commenters, they have just decided that rhinos are out. No pictures of rhinos, no posts about rhinos. Nothing. Full stop.

Surely at the very least we should be looking to broaden the conversation and really pick apart the issue? Shouldn’t we be trying to take a more diverse and proactive approach that looks to educate and inform people in a positive way, rather than just fueling their anger with stats of how many rhinos have been slaughtered?  To my mind, the media has failed drastically here. That needs to change. Is continuing to “advertize” where you can see our rhinos a step in the right direction? Personally, I think that if it’s done in the right way it can be . . .

Please  continue to share your thoughts on this