Every day poachers kill at least one rhino in South Africa. Their horns（(牛、羊等的)角） are traded for tens of thousands of euros. Both the poachers and the men hunting them are increasingly well armed in the ongoing fight to protect the animals. A fight that needs new solutions says this wildlife protector（保护者）. Over the 30 years I've been doing it, we've shot poachers, we've arrested poachers, beaten poachers, we've done everything, but we've never sat down and spoken. Could the power of dialogue prove more effective than brute force?

  Hutzpret is home to the field headquarters of the Hemmersbach Rhino Force, a wildlife conservation group funded by a German IT entrepreneur. Its operations on the ground are led by Dylan Bakas. He's just received a tip-off about some poachers planning to enter a reserve. Okay, I'll have a look at that now. Thank you. Bye.

  It's a group of three people that are coming in. As the information's progressed and we've had meetings with them and got more to know about it, we found out what vehicles should be used. We found out which area they'll be coming in from or which gate they'll be entering from. The next step is to wait for further updates. In the meantime（其时）, the team prepare a sniffer dog for the upcoming（即将来临的） mission. Its job will be to search the poacher's vehicle and find the incriminating gun.

  Protecting wildlife is a labor of love for Dylan and one he inherited from his father. Thirty years ago, Vince set up his own anti（反对者 a反对的）-poaching operation, ProTrak. His son was practically born into the fight to protect the animals. ProTrak works in tandem with the Hemmersbach Rhino Force. Dylan receives a series of further phone calls from local informants（被调查者）, telling（ 告诉） him what the poachers are up to and where their vehicle is headed. The South African branch of the Rhino Force monitors Clisare and Thornybush, two of a number of private reserves bordering the Kruger National Park.

  With no fences separating the two from each other or from the Kruger, the animals are free to roam（ 漫游） where they like. It's now night time. The Rhino Force team has set up a range of checkpoints, some openly visible, others hidden. So we're just going to wait and see what time they come in. Because now that call here, they said the pickup（拾起） is within five minutes here in the spring. Sergeant Lebohang Moklaloha shows his colleagues photos of two vehicles, one of them likely to be used by the poachers.

  But due to the possibility of the poachers having swapped cars, the team search every vehicle that comes through here. The situation is a tense one. Suddenly, they receive new intelligence. We need to move to another position where we believe they're going to come. The Rangers want to catch the poachers before they're able to enter the reserve and confiscate their gun before it's used to shoot a rhino. Their ultimate goal is a long-term one, saving not just one animal, but the future of an entire species.

  Poaching poses an existential threat to the rhinos. Their horns are in big demand in eastern Asia. As a status symbol, or due to superstitious beliefs in their health benefits. On the black market, a single horn can fetch tens of thousands of euros. Kruger National Park in South Africa is home to the world's largest population of white rhinos. In the 2010s, poaching made（使） their numbers here plummet（垂直落下） by two-thirds, from over 10,000 to around three and a half thousand.

  So every single animal matters. The Rangers get ready at a new checkpoint under cover of darkness, and will only reveal themselves once a vehicle approaches. We were waiting for the fox, the vehicle that I showed you. He just spotted it in town, picking up the guys. So they are making their way this side. Any vehicle passing by here could be the one containing the poachers.

  We will stop them, then they will call. If there is anything they are going to ask them. Yeah, they will shoot. Then it will be curious. But the poachers fail to materialize（ 赋予形体）. Shortly afterwards, the sergeant gets the news that the vehicle under suspicion（ 怀疑） has been parked in a township.

  Maybe they want to come in later, or they cancelled. I am just not sure. But then if anything comes, they will let us know, then we will continue. But for now, we will call it off. On this night, he and his team make no arrests. The next day, the team meets up for a briefing.

  Dylan Bakas gives them a rundown of all the tip-offs and other information they currently have, and draws up plans for further action. Information is vital in the war against poachers, as Vince Bakas knows all too well from his 30 years of experience. He trains new recruits for protrac. They will be observing specific locations tonight as part of an exercise. Where you get in, perform a task and get out with nobody seeing you. And you guys have got to have that capability（才能） every single day.

  You get seen at your pickup, all your works are wasted. Now everybody knows you are there. The aspiring Rangers have plenty to learn. They have got to learn tracking, ambushing techniques, the big one when they can and can't shoot. And they have got to learn how to approach the dangerous kind. Remember, an elephant can kill him, a buffalo（[畜牧][脊椎] 水牛） can kill him, as can a mosquito.

  As boots on the ground, the Rangers are the most important weapon in the war against poachers. But at the same time, they constitute（组成） a risk, explains Bakas. Knowing the exact whereabouts of the rhinos, they could pass on that information to poachers, and they will stop at nothing to get their prey（捕食）. There have been cases where God comes to us and says, "I've told the syndicates where rhinos are, "because they threaten when I'm at work, they're going to kill my family. "What's he supposed to do?" So give him as little info when he goes home, when he goes home, can he tell them what reserve he's going to work on next time? No, because we don't tell them. And not being able to trust anyone, says the unit's director, means keeping an eye on everything.

  That also includes the use of sophisticated technology, thermal（热的） imaging cameras, camera traps, and motion and pressure sensors（传感器）. And here in the control room is where all that sensitive information comes together, a room with very restricted access. The cameras relay their footage（电影片段） straight to the computer here. It includes a program that can identify vehicles, people, and animals. And if need be, it triggers an alert（ 警报）. And the system monitors not only the movement of poachers, but also that of the unit's own personnel（人事部门）.

  The computer can even generate motion patterns. You always, unfortunately, have to look internally（内部地） whenever you can. So it's not a nice job tracking people's radios, tracking people's vehicles, but it's something you have to do. It's now time for the Rangers to get ready for their next mission. A scene otherwise associated with preparations for war. And these troops are indispensable（必不可少的）, says Dylan Bakas.

  They are the ones who can give you feedback of what's happening, not only in terms of poaching activity, but also in terms of your animal life, your vegetation（[植]植被）, everything that is happening on the ground. They're the guys that will see it first. They're walking out there day in, day out. And they're your eyes and ears. They hear everything. They see everything.

  While out on patrol（巡逻）, the Rangers' primary task is to find evidence of unauthorized entry into the reservation. That involves checking roads and looking out for breached fences.