June 2017| 75
Instead of just throwing money at the problem, which
consequently doesn’t end up in the community, the
Mambas create long-term local buy in. During Craig’s
eleven years in Balule, the price of armed security and
other anti-poaching services have rocketed and he
believes that throwing money at “AK47s and German
Shepards” is fuelling an industry not dedicated to
actually preventing the crisis. There is the idea that there
is a whole industry riding on the back of the rhino crisis.
The following day we were lucky enough to join the Black
Mambas on their morning and evening patrols.
ur first atrol was with oy, insekiree, Proud and
Shadu. Our aim was to get to the Mambas comfortable
around us and we got off to a shaky start t’s very easy
to ask questions that naturally lead to yes or no answers
like, ‘ s your ob di cult ’ ‘ es.’ ‘ o eo le res ect your
work ’ ‘ es.’ ‘ o you en oy your work ’ ‘ es’.
However, it didn’t take us long to realise we were going
at things from the wrong direction. We needed to make
ourselves and them more comfortable. The natural thing
to do was tell them a bit about ourselves and this mad
cycle expedition we’re doing. It allowed everyone to ease