TZANEEN – One of the biggest problems has been that most poachers carry out their nefarious deeds at night when wildlife is unprotected.
Craig Coppen (45) from Tzaneen has been a professional hunter and was also involved in anti-poaching with the SANDF in the tracker dog unit in the Kruger National Park. He has now joined forces with his brother André to form a licensed security company, with a license for armed reaction called Canine Security.
Theunis Botha also from Tzaneen, in association with Canine Security, has been breeding hunting dogs for decades. The African Blue, specifically bred for African conditions, comes from the Blue Tick Coonhound in the USA. It was bred to “tree” raccoons and other prey. Believed to have originated from Louisiana the Blue Tick Coonhound was bred from the English Foxhound, Cur, and Bleu de Gascogne French Hound. Theunis has been selective to get the best genetic mix into the African Blue Hounds.
Craig says African Blues are excellent tracker hounds. They have short hair, excellent noses, harder and bigger feet than any other breed. Craig also trains Belgian Malinois and Bloodhounds. Belgian Malinois get sore feet after 5 kms and struggle in the heat. However they make good attack dogs. Bloodhounds don’t have endurance in the heat but are fine in winter.
Craig was at the Kruger National Park Training College recently. Park rangers were interested in seeing the effectiveness of African Blues off lead and at night. Craig explains why African Blues will strike fear and terror into the hearts of wildlife poachers. They move in packs of four or six. Due to their fine-tuned noses that can smell fear they easily pick up the scent of the poacher and start barking. It is not a normal bark but a high pitched bark that creates panic and makes poachers run for their lives.
African Blues don’t have powerful jaws but their forte is to force poachers up trees. Once firmly up in the trees, the anti-poaching unit moves in to cross-question the perpetrator. The anti-poaching team can’t keep up with African Blues on foot. They use either vehicles or helicopters and follow the GPS to keep up with the pack.
Craig says breeding and training takes time and money. To import a hound with these working traits costs €15 000. It takes him two years to train African Blues. He trains them six days a week for four to six hours a day and he himself imported the costly Garmin GPS collars from the USA.
Canine Security also protects more than a dozen farm orchards with guards in Politsi and Letsitele. Together with Northern Security they caught the main fish poacher who had been operating in these areas for months. Besides trained permanent staff and dogs, Canine Security will introduce a monitoring unit to fit on pumps, transformers and solar panels. The moment these items are touched an sms is sent to a central spot. Then Canine Security does the reaction.
