| Inside the battle against rhino poaching |
Sky News has been given extraordinary access to South Africa's new Rapid Response anti-poaching unit to witness the efforts being made to stem the deaths of rhinos in the country's largest national park.
The latest official figures on rhino deaths are extremely disappointing. Despite all the increased efforts and extra money being used to fight the rhino wars, the number of rhinos poached is up by nearly 30% in the Kruger National Park.
But the teams on the frontline insist they are winning.
'We will not give up. We will win this war,' pilot Jaco Mol said, as we flew through the sprawling two million hectares which make up the national park.
Pilot Mol flies one of two new 'Squirrel' helicopters now part of the park's armoury against the poachers.
'We now have four in our fleet to cover an area the size of Israel. It's a big area to police,' he said.
The park now has night vision equipment to scour the vast area.
It has also increased its K9 dog units to bolster its paramilitary-style approach to the poaching, and has upped the number of animals it's relocating to safer, secret locations on private game reserves.
The rangers believe there are between 12 to 15 groups of poachers operating in the Kruger at any one time.
They come in groups of about three, armed with hunting rifles, sometimes even silencers to cut down the possibility of being heard.
They can hack off the rhino's horn within a few minutes 'if they're experienced', explains Section Ranger Rob Thomson.
Then it's a mad dash to the Park's border fence, which could take days depending on how far they've come into the reserve.
'As far as your eye can see is the Kruger,' Pilot Mol said.
It's a graphic illustration of the area of land they're trying to police.
The poaching syndicates selling the horn on the Far Eastern black market, where the keratin can fetch tens of thousands of dollars, recruit from the poor communities along the Kruger boundary fence.
Cattle herders are used as 'scouts', apparently innocently moving their livestock along the fence while also acting as 'spotters' for both rhinos and the rangers.
'He just needs to phone the poacher when he sees a rhino at the river near the fence, the poacher comes back and next thing, the rhino's dead,' says Ranger Thomson.
'Rhino carcass. Twelve o'clock,' the Ranger points out the latest poaching victim to the pilot as we swoop down closer to the remains, minus the horn.
Rangers have already radioed in and are trying to follow the poachers' spoor.
But despite co-ordinating ground and air teams and mobilising a sniffer dog and his handler; the poachers' track appears several hours old.
Operation Save the Rhino also involves caring and rescuing those young left orphaned by the killings.
Without their mothers' protection, the calves are vulnerable to attacks by other wildlife.
But if a ranger spots an orphan, they will do their utmost to make sure they're taken to the Care for Wild Africa centre set up to cater for rhino young.
We're withholding the exact location in South Africa for the rhinos' security.
Despite the orphans being kept under 24-hour guard, one has already been poached.
The centre is staffed by volunteers - many from abroad - who pay for the privilege of working up close and personal with some of these endangered creatures.
The owner is Petronel Nieuwoudt, who runs the non-profit making company.
'If we don't do something to save the next generation of rhinos, then the species really will be wiped out,' she warns.
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