Plight of the rhino brought to the screens

Chantelle Melzer is a Vryheid resident who is making a name for herself in the wildlife photography and video industry. Recently, Chantelle shot and produced a short film for The Isibindi Foundation called ‘Saving Our Rhino’. This film has subsequently earned her two prestigious awards at the 2022 International Tourism Film Festival Africa (ITFFA) event held in Cape Town on May 6. She took home a silver award in the international competition and a gold award in the Africa competition (both in the Sustainable Tourism category) for her video. “We are thrilled with the awards, which we hope will highlight the critical role the anti-poaching and K9 units play in the fight against rhino poaching,” says Paige Gehren, chairperson of The Isibindi Foundation. “We are also extremely proud of our talented and passionate videographer, Chantelle Melzer from Wild Visuals Collective, who beautifully captures the bravery of the men and women and their special dogs on this front-line. The anti-poaching and K9 units require our unwavering commitment to continue their outstanding work. The award recognition, together with the film, all work in conjunction with each other to spread the message and garner support,” says The Isibindi Foundation manager Luke Martin.

“Basically, I made a short video for The Isibindi Foundation which focuses on the K9 Unit (dog unit) based at the Hluhluwe-iMfolozi Park. The main purpose for creating the video was to highlight the important role played by the K9 unit in combating rhino poaching and to generate support and raise funding to expand the size of the existing K9 unit.

To achieve this, it was essential that the video had an impact, and conveyed a sense of the tragedy of the ongoing rhino poaching crisis in our country. This was followed by showcasing the effectiveness of the K9 unit and an appeal to assist The Isibindi Foundation to facilitate the addition of more dogs and handlers to the unit.” said Chantelle as she explained her thoughts behind the short film. The video was launched on the foundation’s website and shared widely across social media platforms to get the message out and to raise funds. It was then also entered into the ITFFA by Isibindi’s media liaison, Tumbleweed Communications.

But who is the girl behind the lens?

When speaking to Chantelle, it is clear that she is passionate and dedicated to making a difference, especially when it comes to saving rhinos, which are under ever-increasing threat. She obtained a B.SC degree in Natural Sciences with the view to getting more involved in the field of research. However, it was her artistic and creative side which turned into a full-time occupation in the form of photography. Her first foray into videography was less than four years ago which makes the awards received at ITFFA even more impressive.

“My greatest wish is for my work to make a REAL and positive difference to the wildlife that I love so dearly. I have strived to combine my two passions of art and wildlife in such a way as to hopefully benefit conservation. One of the ways I hope to achieve this is by creating meaningful artistic images that are aimed at capturing the hearts and minds of people in order to create awareness and additionally to contribute directly to organisations that are fighting hard to save our precious wildlife. My love for nature and all things wild runs deep. I cannot imagine a world without wildlife, and it would feel very wrong not fighting to protect it.”

What is the most memorable moment in her career?

“The most memorable and moving experience, was meeting Sudan – the last remaining male Northern White Rhino on the planet, who died a short while afterwards in March 2018. It is hard to describe what I was feeling at that moment, because the range of emotions that hit me was really quite diverse and somewhat overwhelming. It was incredibly exciting as well as a privilege and great honour to stand right next to the gentle-natured Sudan and capture photographs of this magnificent beast! At the same time, I was stricken with sadness that he was the very last male of his species left in existence. If the current scientific research and efforts to save the species from total extinction are unsuccessful, the entire species will be lost forever. I felt utter disgrace that mankind has allowed, let alone caused this to happen and I felt embarrassed to call myself human in his presence. After having spent a full day at the conservancy and several quiet hours alone with Sudan, we needed to be on our way. Walking away from him was much harder than I thought it could ever be, and to make it even harder, he jumped up and started following us, as if he had not had enough head scratches for the day. I couldn’t help but burst into tears,” she said, describing her encounter with Sudan. Chantelle named a dramatic portrait of Sudan taken on that day “The Face of Extinction”.

A last word from Chantelle…

“Sudan is a constant reminder that we cannot allow this to happen again. We need to ALL start working together. It does not matter whether we have different views on issues such as the legal trade of rhino horn – we need to work together! We need to put our differences aside, drop the ego and change our attitude towards others who are fighting the same fight, even if the methods differ. At the end of the day, we all have a common goal: to SAVE THE RHINO. Until individuals, companies and organisations fighting to save the species can find common ground and start working together, it is a losing battle. It needs to be about the rhino!”

Ezemvelo Wildlife media liaison Musa Mntambo confirmed that 106 rhinos were killed from January this year in KwaZulu-Natal. A total of 10 rhinos were killed in the Magudu area near Pongola, of which four were in the month of May. Four suspects, who were out on bail, appeared in court again last week regarding a rhino poaching case in 2019. But the case has been provisionally withdrawn, awaiting DNA and ballistic reports.

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