In the counter poaching battle, there are two basic categories of tracking dogs. Hot trail and cold trail. Hot trail dogs such as the Belgian Malinois, are primarily sight based and will take the ranger teams on target using a combination of sight and smell. They are highly trained animals who act as a force multiplier for the rangers, identifying the position of poachers and assisting in engagements and arrests. Then there are cold trail dogs such as the Bloodhound. These animals are able to track poachers for long distances, sometimes up to six hours after the poachers have been there. They are able to bring the ranger teams to cached rhino horns, weapons or even the poachers themselves. These animals are truly our best friends, directly contributing to saving the lives of both the rangers and the rhinos.
Over the weekend, our ambassador Samuel David Laurence dropped in on his old unit at Noctuam to say hi to the guys and most importantly, meet the two new counter poaching dogs who are an invaluable addition to the team. Roblin the Malinois and Dakota the Bloodhound are being deployed on the frontlines of the Greater Kruger National Park as well as the Kalahari. Ubuntu is immensely proud to have funded the re-training of Dakota and we know that she will do us proud wherever she is deployed.
We would like to thank Fred Wilke, Noctuam’s Managing Director for providing the access to their dogs. We are looking forward to catching up with the team at Noctuam later this year and seeing Dakota in action.
