Kara – Our Anti-Poaching Hero

By: Singita Kruger Lodges

Kara, a pure-bred Belgian Malinois and one of the most lauded anti-poaching dogs in Kruger National Park history, has now retired from active service and is spending her days, post-working life, in happy and well-deserved repose at Singita Kruger National Park.

Malinois are prized working dogs – more nimble and lighter than their German Shepard relations, intelligent, fiercely loyal and a showing of obvious athleticism. Even in Kara’s retirement years, she has grace, power and something undeniably impressive about her proud bearing.

Kara has spent more than ten years in wildlife protection services. The K9 anti-poaching units in Kruger National Park have been praised as a game-changer when it comes to combating rhino poaching since they were introduced to the park, with an arrest success rate of more than 80%. Kara has been involved in the detection, tracking and capture of over 120 groups of poachers- about 400 to 500 individual poachers. She has saved the lives of countless at-risk species. Kara is a firearm and ballistic sniffing specialist, but can also track humans and their illegal contraband such as ivory and horn. Anti-poaching dogs such as Kara are making it much harder for poachers to take rhino horns even though the number of incursions has been rising dramatically over the last few years.