WATCH: Rhino gets a 'manicure'!

RHINO poaching is a big problem in Mzansi, so authorities have taken measures to protect these animals.

One of these is the process of dehorning.

"We trim rhino horns just like when you get a manicure and pedicure. If we don't, they overgrow," said wildlife veterinarian Dr Lufuno Netshitavhadulu during a media briefing on Wednesday, 24 July, just before participating in a rhino dehorning maintenance operation.

Netshitavhadulu explained how the process starts.

"We first spot the rhinos in a chopper that need to be dehorned. Most of them have been dehorned. As the horns grow like nails, we have to keep trimming them.

"Using the term dehorning misleads people and they think we are removing the horn, but we are not. We are just trimming it like nails. These operations need to be maintained, if not, they will grow again and that is when they become victims or good looking to poachers," said Netshitavhadulu.

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He said they try to keep the horn as short as possible.

"We are trying to decrease a reward to the poachers and increase the risk. We are trying to discourage poachers from killing the rhinos," he said.

The US Ambassador to South Africa, Reuben Brigety was also present during the dehorning and said he was there to observe.

He said:

"We all know there are criminal and poaching syndicates that pouch and kill rhinos in order to sell their horns on the black market. This process helps to save and conserve the animal and deprives the poachers of the opportunity to take and sell it."

He said he was told that 5 000 rhinos have been killed in the Kruger National Park.

"Over the last couple of years, they have significantly decreased that number as a result of their methods for going after the criminal syndicates," he said.