{Tanzanian police have arrested three suspects over the death of a UK pilot working for a conservation fund whose helicopter was shot down by poachers.}<\/p>\n
Natural Resources and Tourism Minister Jumanne Maghembe told AFP news agency that those detained were co-operating.<\/p>\n
“Soon more people making up the poaching gang will be netted and brought to justice,” he said.<\/p>\n
Roger Gower, 37, had been flying near an elephant killed by poachers when his helicopter came under fire.<\/p>\n
The incident happened in Maswa Game Reserve, which borders the Serengeti National Park in northern Tanzania.<\/p>\n
Mr Gower managed to land his helicopter, but died before he could be rescued, a Tanzanian MP and former minister for natural resources and tourism, Lazaro Nyalandu, said in a tweet.<\/p>\n
A spokesman for Tanzania’s national parks, Pascal Shelutete, said three elephant carcasses had been found in the area, indicating “that whoever shot the chopper down was on a serious illegal hunting spree”.<\/p>\n
He said such poachers can be “heavily armed with sophisticated military weaponry”.
\nMr Gower was originally from Birmingham and worked in London before moving to East Africa to work as a helicopter pilot.<\/p>\n
His brother Max told the BBC: “He would not have gone anywhere near those poachers if he’d known that they were armed.<\/p>\n
“As I understand it, he knew they were around but came across them by accident. He didn’t really have enough time to evaluate the situation before they opened fire on him.”<\/p>\n
Max Gower also said his brother would be remembered as “very much his own man”.
\n“He had a very strong moral compass. He just loved having fun, he couldn’t be with his friends without making sure that everybody had fun.”<\/p>\n
The Gower family have invited donations to a fund established in Roger’s memory that will contribute towards anti-poaching efforts in Tanzania.<\/p>\n
The Friedkin Conservation Fund, for which Mr Gower had been working, said the organisation had lost “a dear friend”.<\/p>\n
The charity’s founder, Dan Friedkin, said: “We believe that Roger can best be honoured by redoubling our commitment to protect elephants and our priceless wildlife heritage.<\/p>\n
“This tragic event again highlights the appalling risk and cost of protecting Tanzania’s wildlife.”<\/p>\n
The Friedkin Fund says elephant poaching is “especially prevalent” in Maswa, with rangers encountering ivory poachers “on a fairly regular basis”.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
{Tanzanian police have arrested three suspects over the death of a UK pilot working for a conservation fund whose helicopter was shot down by poachers.} Natural Resources and Tourism Minister Jumanne Maghembe told AFP news agency that those detained were co-operating. “Soon more people making up the poaching gang will be netted and brought to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":2000071873,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[99],"byline":[249],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-22901","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-greatlakesnews","byline-bbc"],"bylines":[{"id":249,"name":"BBC","slug":"bbc","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":104}],"contributors":[{"id":249,"name":"BBC","slug":"bbc","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":104}],"featured_image":{"id":2000071873,"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton22901.jpg","alt":"","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","width":0,"height":0,"sizes":{"thumbnail":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton22901.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton22901.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium_large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton22901.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton22901.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"full":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton22901.jpg","width":0,"height":0}}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22901","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22901"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22901\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2000071873"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22901"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22901"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22901"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=22901"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=22901"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}