South Africa Drones For Anti-Rhino-Poaching Patrol

garymortimer writes "The SA National Defence Force is considering using an unmanned drone helicopter to target rhino poachers, Defence Minister Lindiwe Sisulu said yesterday. She told a press conference in Pretoria she wanted state weapons company Denel to further develop an unmanned aerial vehicle it was working on so it could be used to help SA National Parks catch rhino poachers."

Arms race?

[Chrisq]

How long until the poachers use drones to hunt the rhino?

Predator

[Anonymous Coward]

This is a good use for armed hunter killer drones.

Drastic measures

[Rexdude]

Stick a tranquilizer gun in it to knock out the poachers from a distance so that they can be picked up. If they try shooting back, use a sniper rifle on them.

Execute poachers

[Viol8]

When a species is this near the edge something drastic needs to be done. If they were hunting the rhino for food I'd have some sympathy , but just to make money selling the horn to halfwit chinese for their idiotic herbal "remedies" or aphrodisiacs is inexcusable. And don't anyone respond with some western moral imperialism argument - we're beyond that niave political nonsense now. If poaching isn't stopped the rhino will soon be gone.

Re:catch ?

[yodleboy]

"I agree that poaching endangered species is a terrible crime, but death penalty seems excessive unless you also want to apply it to the subhumans who jack deer up in Wisconsin."

the difference being while deer may be scarce where you are, they are nowhere close to endangered and in some places are right up there with rats as an overpopulated nuisance. You want more deer? Ship them in. You want more rhinos? Ship them...wait a sec...

not standing up for deer jackers, just pointing out that killing 1 of 30 million deer (source wikipedia) is a less serious matter than killing 1 of 4000 rhinos (source world wildlife fund). Do people go to SA for anything besides safari type vacations? Lose a few more species and watch tourism decline to the detriment of the entire country. Still not sure if it should be a capital offense, but it's serious.