There was a time when hunters paid good money to hunt animals like antelope and buffalo at Simon Rood?s wild-game reserve. But on a recent day, Rood watched as one of his staff stared into a tangle of dried-out trees and waited to load his rifle during a training exercise. The quarry was something different.

?What do we eradicate?? barked Rood.

?Poachers!? shouted his employee.

Poaching has taken a devastating toll on iconic African wildlife, like the rhinoceros. In the early 20th century, there were about half a million rhinos in the wild internationally today, there are less than 30,000 across Asia and Africa. The vast majority live in South Africa.

Protecting those animals has become a serious business. Rood decided several years ago to get out of the hunting industry and start a security company aimed at conserving wildlife. Now he uses his land to train anti-poaching guards that his firm, Nkwe Wildlife and Security Services, sends to work at private reserves.
?You can?t stop the poaching — that?s a pie in the sky. It?s about bringing the poaching to acceptable levels,? said Rood.

The slaughter has become an emergency for national parks as well as for South Africa?s private game reserves, where tourists come to stay at luxurious lodges and catch a glimpse of the ?Big Five? — lions, leopards, elephants, buffalo and rhinos.

Albi Modise, a spokesman for the country?s Department of Environmental Affairs, said ?the security industry plays an important role when it comes to protection of rhino on private game reserves.?

Since 2009, South Africa?s private rhino owners have spent $115 million on security to protect the rhinos, Jones said.

The South African government has declared rhino poaching to be a ?national priority crime,? and has rolled out a raft of initiatives to combat the problem, including boosting security in national parks and moving rhinos to safer areas. In the first eight months of 2016, more than 400 alleged poachers were arrested, according to the government, compared with 343 arrests in 2013 and 267 in 2012.

Although police investigate poaching crimes that occur on public and private land, landowners largely furnish their own security. ?Before, we could get away with having a couple of guys, not formally trained,? says Pelham Jones, chairman of the rhino owners? association. ?We are all now required to provide armed anti-poaching units.?

He said that in the past seven years, there have been at least 20 armed attacks by poaching groups on park management or staff. One member of an anti-poaching unit was killed, he said.