“This is one of the rarest sounds you will ever hear on a podcast. Or anywhere.” A tantalising line. Followed by the up-close breathing of a black rhino – and immediately you picture its face. Powerful, cautious and with (we are told) a blue glister in its eyes, that dims in the moments before death.
For six weeks, this BBC Radio 5 Live podcast about rhino horn poaching in South Africa’s Kruger National Park has been building into a harrowing thriller. The cruelty and treachery involved beggars belief: saws, hatchets, exploding bullets. It’s a story of resolute, tough conservationists, rangers both heroic and corrupt, flummoxed guides and the ever-twisting arm of organised crime. The interviews, background chatter and flashes of drama in the park are so vividly recorded that each episode almost takes a physical toll. I was sweating.
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