4 Rhino Poachers Slain by Rangers in Zimbabwe
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HARARE, Zimbabwe — Rangers shot and killed four poachers hunting rhinoceroses, whose horns are famed for their alleged aphrodisiac powers, state parks chief Glenn Tatham said.
A fifth member of the group escaped.
The rangers spotted the five men, armed with automatic rifles, in Zimbabwe’s remote northern Zambezi valley and killed them in a gunfight Saturday, Tatham said.
The fifth poacher crossed a river into Zambia on a rubber mattress he stole from a fishing camp, Tatham said.
In recent years, poachers in Zimbabwe have killed more than 400 black rhinos, whose horns have a value of about $25,000 on the black market. There are an estimated 1,500 rhinos left in the country, the largest surviving population of the species in the world.
Forty-three poachers have been killed since rangers launched an operation three years ago to save the animals.
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