In Poaching Wars With Tom Hardy, a two-part ITV documentary starting on 22 August, BAFTA award-winning actor Tom Hardy (Inception, The Dark Knight Rises, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy) travels to South Africa, Botswana and Tanzania to find out why poaching has reached crisis levels and to see for himself what can be done to stop the killing. Having heard some appalling stories about the poaching industry, Tom is galvanised into action.
All over Sub-Saharan Africa, the poaching crisis is spreading like a plague. Cameroon, Chad, Mozambique and the Democratic Republic of the Congo have all seen large-scale elephant slaughter and throughout the rest of Africa, rhino and elephant are being killed in alarming numbers. The everyday effect of the poaching business on African wildlife is one of horror and cruelty that brutalises both the animals and the humans involved, Tom notes.
Like most of us I have a love for Africa's magnificent animals. As a result I find it hard to stomach the poaching crisis sweeping the continent and pushing these amazing animals to the edge of extinction. Without doubt the rhino and elephant are facing extinction well within our lifetime and the war on poaching is being lost. I'm making these documentaries because it's something practical I can do to ask some questions that need to be asked.
He starts his journey in South Africa, where 80 percent of the world's rhino are found. With rhino poaching on the increase, they're in big trouble 553 animals have already been poached since January, almost as many as were shot in the whole of 2012 (at least 600).
The killing is happening on such a massive scale that rhino are being shot at a rate of more than two a day, for the simple fact that rhino horn is valued at more per kilogram than gold.
For 20 years Miles Lappeman has been trying to address the balance by breeding rhino on his huge estate but in November 2012, a team of poachers breached his security fences and shot eight of his 22 animals.
Miles shows Tom the body of one of his dead rhino, shot dead by poachers although they never managed to get her magnificent horn, so it proved a waste of life by everybody's standards. She was killed by a single shot, clearly by an experienced professional, a person who knows exactly what they're doing, equivalent to Navy Seals and SAS operatives', according to Miles. They're not poachers, they're rhino assassins, he says.
Tom visits the Kruger Park, where most of South Africa's rhino are found and where the highest kill rate occurs. He meets Vincent Barkas who runs an anti-poaching unit of 300 men that provides protection for animals in private game reserves. Vincent says, When the poacher comes in, you'll have one guy who does the shooting that's got the hunting rifle. You might have another chap there to cut and carry the horns. And your third and fourth persons might be in possession of a military assault rifle, which they will use to confront the guards.
Vincent's team are trained to use military assault rifles and he admits that as a private company, being responsible for 33 military weapons sends a shiver up his spine. The guys make a huge sacrifice. They've got no social life. They don't earn a lot of money. They're putting their lives on the line these guys are being trained to be killers. In a democratic country like South Africa, we're taking 19, 20-year-old kids and teaching them to use semi-automatic rifles, and I'm a private individual. I don't represent the government. That tells me something's out of control.
Tom joins Vincent and his men deep in the bush for an anti-poaching training session, attempting to find three men in the middle of 900 hectares of veld. He also spends time with Tumi, one of Vincent's most trusted men, who introduces Tom to his family and admits in some communities the poachers are considered heroes.
Tumi explains that he is under pressure to join the poachers, even by a government official. He told me, I want a rhino horn, and if I can get it for him, he was gonna give me 500,000. I was tempted, but I started trying to show him my negatives, telling him, Hey, I'm scared.' But I can't do it because they gonna catch me. They will know it's me. Where will I put that money? I can't take it to the bank. He says, No, don't worry. I'll make you a contract. Prove it. You sign it. I get the money in your account. I'll do that, easy. One time. Chop, chop.'
When Tumi refused, the man threatened to kill everyone in his street, including his family, if he told anyone. As the father of a 14-month old girl, Tumi doesn't want to get involved.
Next, Tom's trek takes him to Johannesburg to see some alarming evidence of the international criminal gangs involved in poaching. The city is the major conduit for smuggled rhino horn on its way to South East Asia and Tom meets Julian Rademeyer, an award-winning journalist who has spent three years immersed in the world of the ivory trade. Tom learns about the horns being sold illegally on the black market in incredibly sophisticated, well-run operations, often believed to fund larger scale activity.
Julian explains, If you look at the example of Somalia, you've seen al-Shabab using ivory to fund their operations. We've seen instances in Chad, for example, where armed militia men mow down elephants. The wildlife trade is an incredibly lucrative business, and it's a great way to fund all of those activities These are incredibly sophisticated, well run operations. You have untouchable kingpins in places like Vietnam and Laos. You're talking about incredibly dangerous people who are prepared to kill and die for this prize.
Tom also meets John Hume who has a radical solution to the po
Most recent headlines
06/10/2025
France T l visions, France's leading broadcaster, has received the 2025 EBU ...
04/09/2025
Monumental Sports & Entertainment (MSE), in collaboration with Dalet, has been a...
30/08/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission has adopted its FY 2025 Regulatory Fees Order that establishes the regulatory fee rates for the broadcast stati...
29/08/2025
Australian Red Cross and SBS launch training to help workplaces in the fight aga...
29/08/2025
The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF), an agency of the Department of Sp...
29/08/2025
L3Harris Technologies has concentrated decades of expertise across the entire enterprise to develop affordable and reliable best-of-breed solutions to rapidly c...
29/08/2025
BURBANK, Calif. The CW Network and the Pac-12 Conference have announced a new media rights deal that will extend their broadcast partnership beginning with the ...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK Gracenote has released a new analysis of its global video dataset showing that the number of FAST channels grew nearly 14% from Q1 2025 and 76% since 2...
29/08/2025
SAN JOSE, Calif. Harmonic has announced a series of improvements to its live sports streaming solution that the company said will improve fan engagement, protec...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK and LOS ANGELES Fox Corp. and YouTube TV last night announced a renewal of the full portfolio of Fox networks, including Fox News Channel, Fox Business...
29/08/2025
Budapest, Hungary, August 2025 - The integration of Microsoft Teams Rooms (MTR) with Lightware's Taurus universal matrix switchers delivers a new level of f...
29/08/2025
Frequency, the engine behind many of the world's best-known streaming television channels, today announced it will launch Studio Live, a next-generation uni...
29/08/2025
In an era when AI and cyber resilience are essential, Scality will mark the 10th anniversary of Scality Day on October 16, 2025 in Paris. This flagship global e...
29/08/2025
Disguise's In-House Creative and Technical Teams Pre-Visualised, Programmed and Delivered Content for the Experience, All Powered by EX 3+
Technology solu...
29/08/2025
Disguise will be demonstrating the latest workflows for TV, film and live events on a number of partner booths at the show
Disguise, the industry-leading tech...
29/08/2025
STOCKHOLM, Sweden Accedo will showcase Accedo Compose, its AI agent-powered modular orchestration layer that assists streaming providers in transitioning client...
29/08/2025
LOS ANGELES Cineverse has announced that it is working with Xperi to bring four of its streaming channels to automobiles for the first time as part of the DTS A...
29/08/2025
DALLAS & ATLANTA Gray Media has announced an agreement with the sports streaming service Victory+ to simulcast 17 Dallas Stars NHL games in 15 television market...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK AND CULVER CITY Comcast NBCUniversal and Amazon have announced new and extended distribution agreements that will expand the content available on their...
29/08/2025
FOOTHILL RANCH, Calif. RED Digital Cinema will feature its Cine-Broadcast Module supporting live broadcast workflows during IBC2025, Sept. 12-15, at the RAI Ams...
29/08/2025
29 Aug 2025
Kyivstar Rings Opening Bell at Nasdaq Marking Landmark Listing and ...
29/08/2025
More than half of all NFL games live on Sky for the first timeFriday 29 August 2025
Sky Sports has announced a new three-year deal with the NFL, extending its ...
29/08/2025
Back to All News
RIV4LRIES: The Trailer of the New Series With Samuele Carrino ...
29/08/2025
Get ready for an inspiring and emotional insight into the world of competitive Irish dancing with My Story: Tomi Champion of the World airing on RT 2 this monda...
29/08/2025
RT has today announced that David McCullagh is to be the new presenter of RT Radio 1's flagship Today programme, which airs every weekday at 10am, replaci...
28/08/2025
By Kristin Feeley, Director, Documentary Film & Artist Programs
If you want to tell untold stories, if you want to give voice to the voiceless, you've got ...
28/08/2025
Directed by Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert, Sundance Institute-supported Amer...
28/08/2025
Corridos have been a cornerstone of M sica Mexicana for generations, telling stories rooted in everyday life. Now, a new chapter is taking shape: motivational c...
28/08/2025
Los corridos han sido un pilar de la M sica Mexicana durante generaciones, contando historias enraizadas en la vida cotidiana. Ahora, un nuevo cap tulo est tom...
28/08/2025
Earlier this month, we promised our Verano Forever party would bring the heat, a...
28/08/2025
L3Harris will provide the Polish F-16V fleet with the Viper Shield electronic warfare system as part of an upgrade program....
28/08/2025
Bilbao, August 26, 2025 - AgileTV, an international television and video technol...
28/08/2025
Ken Wilkinson is an Emmy Awards nominated New York audio engineer who specialises in production sound mixing for film, commercial, episodic and documentary work...
28/08/2025
NEW YORK FuboTV today announced that it will launch Fubo Sports, a skinny bundle that focuses on sports with a subscription price of $56 monthly....
28/08/2025
NEVADA City, Calif. At IBC2025, Sept. 12-15 at the RAI Amsterdam, Telestream will debut its new Global Ingest strategy, introducing a next-generation ingest arc...
28/08/2025
Dr. Rhoda Bernard Releases Groundbreaking Debut Book on Accessible Arts Educatio...
28/08/2025
TAG Video Systems, the leader in software-based IP end-to-end workflow monitoring, deep probing, and real-time visualization, has named Oliver Gappa as Sales Di...
28/08/2025
AI-based voice enhancement will be among a series of innovations making their IBC 2025 debut on the DHD stand B46 in Hall 8 at the RAI Amsterdam Convention Cent...
28/08/2025
Telef nica Servicios Audiovisuales (TSA), the leading system integrator and service provider in the media sector in Spain, with the support of Appear, the globa...
28/08/2025
To fully immerse sailing fans in the world's biggest offshore yacht race, production company, Optical Media turned to LiveU's On-site Production solutio...
28/08/2025
Working with Calrec on its most recent overhaul, radio and television broadcaster, WNED has migrated to a fully IP infrastructure with multiple Type R consoles,...
28/08/2025
Cleeng, the Subscriber Retention Management (SRM ) inventor, has unveiled Cleeng Pro, the first-ever direct-to-consumer (D2C) subscription management platform t...
28/08/2025
Zixi, the industry leader in live broadcast-quality video over IP, today announced that French media distribution platform OKAST has selected Zixi to enable rel...
28/08/2025
Solution offers a streamlined, speaker-free architecture to optimize integration with premium external loudspeakers and advanced loudness metering
Nixer Pro Au...
28/08/2025
Cinegy, the premier provider of software-defined television technology, has announced a strategic partnership with Vision One Touch Film Production Services L.L...
28/08/2025
Telestream, a global leader in media workflow technologies, will debut its new Global Ingest strategy at IBC2025, introducing a next-generation ingest architect...
28/08/2025
Tier 1 operator selects Broadpeak to power high-performance, unified CDN solution across Norway, Sweden and Finland
Broadpeak, a leader in streaming and moneti...
28/08/2025
Leading video software provider, Synamedia, today announced that 24 Frames Digital, one of India's leading live event streaming service providers, has chose...
28/08/2025
Meet VisualOn at IBC2025: See What's Next in AI-Powered Video Streaming Join VisualOn at IBC2025 and discover how our AI-driven Optimizer and advanced media...
In Poaching Wars With Tom Hardy, a two-part ITV documentary starting on 22 August, BAFTA award-winning actor Tom Hardy (Inception, The Dark Knight Rises, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy) travels to South Africa, Botswana and Tanzania to find out why poaching has reached crisis levels and to see for himself what can be done to stop the killing. Having heard some appalling stories about the poaching industry, Tom is galvanised into action.
