Snaring

[Lisbeth]

Western Cape takes aim at snaring, a cruel and damaging way to hunt


A wire snare along a fence line where many animals move. (Photo: Cape Leopard Trust)

By Kristin Engel | 03 Aug 2023

Made from rope, wire, cable or nylon that cut into the skin of animals, snaring is one the cruellest forms of hunting and has been a growing issue across the Western Cape in recent years, with disastrous impacts on wildlife and biodiversity.
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As a result of increasing incidents of animals discovered alive in snares, the Western Cape Snare Response Plan this week launched a coordinated response strategy for the province to ensure an efficient reaction to snaring incidents through a network of partner organisations.

The Cape Leopard Trust initiated the strategy with CapeNature, Kogelberg Biosphere, Wildlife Forensic Academy and the Cape of Good Hope SPCA. The response includes improved training, data collection and awareness about snaring in the Western Cape.


An example of a wire snare. (Photo: Cape Leopard Trust)

The Cape Leopard Trust research and conservation director Katy Williams explained that a snare is a simple piece of wire, cable, rope or nylon tied into a noose. The noose is anchored and positioned in a way to catch animals by the foot, head or body.

“Snares are often set to catch game meat species like small antelope and porcupine, but they are indiscriminate and take a huge toll on the entire ecosystem, also impacting predators like caracals and leopards,” she said.

The Cape Leopard Trust is currently conducting further research into what is driving the use of snares, but the poor economic situation and joblessness are most likely contributing factors behind its rise in recent years.

Western Cape Snare Response Plan

The plan was launched on 1 August at Kirstenbosch Gardens as part of the broader Snare Free initiative supported by the International Fund for Animal Welfare and the Rolf-Stephan Nussbaum Foundation.

It gives everyone with a telephone the means to report snaring when they see it; to alert the correct authorities to the presence of illegal snaring; and to ensure that ensnared animals are able to be rescued should they be found alive.

The Cape Leopard Trust CEO Helen Turnbull said: “Snare Free is merely a first step in a coordinated effort to investigate and respond to the increasing snaring threat, and a lot of work still lies ahead as the plan evolves. Given the number of snares uncovered in targeted areas, we are certain this is just the tip of the iceberg.”

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Snaring harms Western Cape biodiversity and wildlife

In June 2022, the Cape of Good Hope SPCA said it had seen an increase in illegal snaring, threatening animal life in the urban areas of the southern peninsula.

Its wildlife department was responding to at least two call-outs a month to retrieve animals caught in active snares across the Constantia Valley, Fish Hoek and down to the Cape Point Nature Reserve.

“We have seen a pleasing decrease in snare activities in areas that were previously heavily snared, thanks to a concerted awareness campaign, increased snare patrols and ongoing media attention,” said Jon Friedman, wildlife department supervisor at the Cape of Good Hope SPCA.

“Poachers are however also moving their hunting/trapping grounds to new areas, where there is less focus by land-owners on illegal snaring, so their challenge now is to find these areas and de-snare them as quickly as possible.”


Training conservation officials in snare detection and removal. (Photo: Cape Leopard Trust)

CapeNature and the Cape Leopard Trust officials said that snaring is not an issue limited to the Western Cape. Snaring used to be predominantly associated with forest and bushveld habitats, but it has become clear that the fynbos ecosystem of the Western Cape also suffers from rampant snaring.

“The use of snares to hunt wild animals is a global conservation issue,” they said.

Hunting by means of a snare is heavily regulated internationally, with most countries having legislation applicable to the use of snares to hunt wild animals. Penalties vary depending on circumstances unique to each jurisdiction.

In South Africa, in terms of Section 29(d) of the Nature Conservation Ordinance, the use of a trap (which includes a snare) is a prohibited hunting method unless authorised by means of a permit.


A snare set up in front of an animal burrow. (Photo: Cape Leopard Trust)

Friedman said: “It is extremely difficult to catch a snare poacher in the act of either setting a snare or removing their ill-gotten catch. Of those cases where a suspect has been confronted by a member of the public or law enforcement, the suspects either claim that they were innocently removing the snare (that they just happened upon) or in the cases of suspects caught with animal carcasses, that they found the carcass and were taking it to dispose of or to consume themselves.”

Fines and imprisonment

As it’s extremely difficult to catch people red-handed who are snaring, and even more difficult to link them to snare hunting and to present adequate evidence, prosecution is a significant challenge.

In August 2022, two people were arrested in the Paarl area after being found in possession of the carcass of a leopard that had been killed in a snare. They were convicted and fined R10,000 each.

In September 2022, a person was fined R1,500 for setting a cable snare, ostensibly for bushpig.

Officials from Cape Nature and the Cape Leopard Trust added that one of the main factors in securing a conviction in court is the protection status of the wild animal involved.

Transgressions of the law carry heavy consequences. In general, for endangered wild animals, a perpetrator could face a fine of up to R400,000, 10 years in jail or both.


A baboon with broken-off neck snare. (Photo: Cape Leopard Trust)

For protected wild animals, the penalty could be up to R80,000 or two years imprisonment. For wild animals, the penalty could be up to R40,000 or one year in jail. The court can also sentence an accused to an additional fine of up to three times the commercial value of the species involved.

The Cape of Good Hope SPCA has developed a portable DNA-sampling toolkit for use by its inspectors and other agents in the field when attending to snare sites, whereby any snare can be tested in situ for the presence of human DNA. This could conclusively link a suspect to a snare to ensure a successful prosecution.

How to help

If you discover a live wild animal caught in a snare in the Western Cape, call the Snare Free hotline for assistance on 076 127 8485. Keep your distance from the animal, keep noise to a minimum and advise other people to refrain from entering the area. Have the following information available for the hotline operator:

• Location (GPS coordinates/pin preferable)

• Animal species/description (if known)

• Your contact number

If you discover empty snares or a dead animal caught in a snare, take a photo and report it to the Cape Leopard Trust’s online Data Portal. You will need to provide the location and a photograph. Then carefully remove and dispose of the snare/s responsibly to ensure that they cannot be used again.

The groups involved in Snare Free believe that a coordinated response such as the Western Cape Snare Response Strategy will ultimately reduce or even end illegal snaring.

Friedman said: “The Snare Free Initiative is just the kind of response we have been asking for, for years, to be able to proactively address and respond to incidents of illegal wildlife hunting and poaching within the province, whilst at the same time empowering the public to be a part of the solution.” DM

[Richprins]

[Lisbeth]

SNARING IN KRUGER NATIONAL PARK SPIKES MORE THAN 200% AMID SOCIOECONOMIC CRISIS

Tiara Walters -- Daily Maverick
09.10.2023.


Snares confiscated by rangers in the Kruger National Park, date unknown. (Photo: Supplied)

Since 2020, snaring has tripled in the crown jewels of South Africa’s Big Five reserves. This suggests economic hardship, although it is not the sole factor to blame.

Snared wildlife is the last thing tourists pay to see from their safari vehicle, yet an emerging onslaught in this crude form of poaching is set to become another concern for a country seeking to revamp its ecotourism reputation.

Recognised for its megadiversity, South Africa has introduced a new draft policy to overhaul the use of its iconic lions, leopards, elephants and rhinos. Open for a 30-day comment window from 19 September, the draft admits it is a grand reputation-management exercise. Among others, it aims to promote sustainable use; and end the controversial practice of keeping captive lions cruelly shot at close range.

However, new details in an internal question paper from Parliament’s National Assembly exposes a growing dilemma outside Kruger National Park. Affecting wildlife deep within the 2 million-hectare reserve, the trends suggest just how vulnerable many critters in this park are.

Responding to questions by the Democratic Alliance’s Hannah Winkler on the park’s snaring trends, Environment Minister Barbara Creecy reported the removal of thousands of snares:

• In 2020, 2,407 snares were removed;

• In 2021, 4,454 snares were removed;

• In 2022, 7,270 snares were removed.

That is a snaring uptick of more than 200% between 2020 and 2022, or a threefold increase of about 14,000 snares.

Two issues stand out. Firstly, the minister’s department has not yet issued statistics from 2023. Secondly, the data can only record known snaring incidents, so the predicament may be bigger than has been possible to present here.

Pandemic, poverty and poaching

When exploring the driving factors behind the onslaught, the conundrum deepens, because the available peer-reviewed data looks thin.

However, the chronology suggests a disquieting if still speculative correlation between the pandemic and snaring.

“No specific research has been undertaken to understand the primary drivers of snaring incidents,” the minister noted, “but we notice the increase coincides with the Covid-19 pandemic and increased poverty among communities adjacent to the Kruger Park.”

Though it may be difficult to believe this widely reported issue is under-researched, a 2022 University of Sussex study found most pandemic data on poaching in Southern Africa came from news media. These statistics were hard to gather, precisely because poaching was underground.

Either way, the minister’s explanation lends weight to wide-ranging reports and anecdotal evidence that have linked the pandemic’s socioeconomic ripple effects to a spike in poaching — and suggests an urgent need for more research.

That said, bushmeat is not the only reason the noose has tightened around Kruger’s species. The traditional medicine (muti) trade, retaliatory action against animals that clash with humans and internal corruption within the park may all compromise anti-poaching efforts.

Kruger National Park spokesperson Isaac Phaahla told Daily Maverick they had no empirical evidence that animal parts were used for muti; however, “some of the arrested people found with body parts are traditional healers”.

Snared on the boundary, found deep inside

The most afflicted regions were the Pafuri section, marking the park’s northern boundary, and western areas around Pretoriuskop, Stolsnek and Skukuza.

“Most snares are set along the boundaries of the park,” the minister further revealed. That is, they are “limited within a few kilometres from the perimeter boundary fence”.

Yet, even as the borders bore the brunt, snared animals were being found deeper within the park’s expanse, she explained.

Animals covered “vast distances” while trapped in snares, exposing them to profound pain and even death.

This method of hunting is problematic beyond the obvious harm to animals, because snares are indiscriminate — with the ability to inflict fatal suffering on non-target species.

Water sources — A life and death struggle

To make snares, poachers typically use wire or cord that is anchored to a fixed point, and shaped into a noose on animal paths.

Camouflaged to blend with the environment, these have triggers that tighten upon disturbance.

Placing snares seemed to follow a seasonal trend, the minister said, with more set up during drier months when animals gathered at specific watering points.

The very sources such as rivers or streams which are vital for species’ survival were turning into fatal traps, particularly those near boundaries and newly burnt areas.



The new internal question paper that shows the scale of the park’s snaring problem.

Minister: ‘All reports are actioned’

The park’s media desk said it was considering our detailed requests for immediate comment, but did not respond by the deadline at the weekend.

However, “various ongoing” programmes were aimed at removing snares in high-risk areas, the minister said. These included “regular patrols by field rangers, daily fence-monitoring patrols and specific snare-removal patrols carried out by South African National Parks (SANParks) honorary rangers”.

If snared or injured animals were found, they were reported to SANParks’ emergency hotline, “which operates 24/7”, she said.

“All reports are actioned” for the attention of the section ranger, the Veterinary Wildlife Services Unit, or state veterinary services, she added.

Kruger National Park spokesperson Phaahla said: “Kruger is surrounded by poverty-stricken communities where there is no service delivery, unemployment is very high and there is little or no law enforcement. That is the climate the park is operating in.”

Advocacy work was undertaken by their socioeconomic transformation team “to sensitise, educate and get commitment from communities to assist with the problem. Sophisticated criminal syndicates use intimidation, money and lack of law enforcement to carry out their nefarious acts.”

The park was building “key” partnerships with “relevant stakeholders including law enforcement agencies” in the hope of resolving the surge.

Wanted: $3-billion annually to protect lions alone

Endangered Wildlife Trust researcher Sam Nicholson told Daily Maverick that the country was a stronghold for some of Africa’s least sociopolitically fragile lions. The continent’s maned ambassador, however, largely roamed those countries in the bottom quarter of global wealth rankings.

This underscored the well-known fact that poverty pressures on wildlife, including lions, were not unique to South Africa.

Calling for $3-billion a year to save fenced and unfenced wild lions, the researcher and her co-authors recently published the first study to assess the social, political and ecological threats confronting this big cat across the continent.

The Nature-published study did not focus on snaring, instead highlighting multiple threats, but it did say that lions in Mozambique’s Limpopo National Park — right next to Kruger — were being driven to near-extinction due to increased poaching for lion parts. Bushmeat snaring likely caused local lion extinctions in Zambia’s Nsumbu National Park.

The authors have called on affluent nations to provide greater support to poorer countries with rich biodiversity.

“This research,” they argued, “underscores the moral responsibility of wealthier nations to contribute more significantly to lion conservation.”

To aid the complex task of protecting Kruger’s cherished diversity, from lions to leopard tortoises, solutions have been reported by Daily Maverick. These include ensuring enough trained rangers, more private-sector partners, and the goose that lays the golden egg: properly managed, sufficient funds.

Kruger’s snaring surge is a symptom of deeper fractures. And the call is not just for intervention — it is to recognise that the problem strikes at the heart of one of the world’s most significant wildlife economies. It is hard to imagine that South Africa can solve it alone. DM

Original source: https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article ... ic-crisis/

[Richprins]

Kruger is surrounded by poverty-stricken communities where there is no service delivery, unemployment is very high and there is little or no law enforcement.

Rampant criminality in SA. Poverty is overrated as a cause, in my opinion.

[Lisbeth]

With youth unemployment at 50% +, I doubt that poverty is overrated even if it is not an excuse for criminality.

[Lisbeth]

Decline in Kruger rhino-poaching rates woefully drives shift to commercial bushmeat, reveals park ranger


The African buffalo is one among multiple species in Kruger National Park being targeted by poachers’ snares. (Photo: Unsplash)

By Tiara Walters | 31 Oct 2023

A void left by illegal horn income may now be driving neighbouring communities to snare and shoot species such as African buffalo in the park’s southwest sector. Despite the lowveld’s searing heat, thorny canopy and tough terrain, Kruger’s staff and honorary rangers say they are fighting back — on foot.
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WARNING: This article contains graphic descriptions that may upset sensitive readers.

Fortified in fatigues and chaps, Pretoriuskop section ranger Rangani Tsanwani patrols the southwest reaches of the park most days. In all seasons, Tsanwani and his team do daily 10km sweeps of this wild country by foot — whether the mercury hovers in the high forties, or winter brings its own set of trials.

It is in the colder, drier months that the parks sees an uptick in snaring, which has surged by 200%, as Daily Maverick first reported in October.

To make snares, poachers typically fix a camouflaged wire or cord noose over animal paths which tightens upon disturbance. Since the Covid-19 pandemic, Tsanwani and his colleagues have removed 14,000 such snares throughout the park.

In 2022, at least 7,270 snares were removed — compared with 2020’s 2,407 snares.

“There is an increase in snares, but it’s seasonal,” Tsanwani told Daily Maverick in Pretoriuskop, after accompanying six honorary rangers on a snare sweep. During a single 8km patrol between 7am and 10am in late October, Tsanwani, his staff and the volunteer honorary rangers flushed out and destroyed 66 snares.

“During dry seasons, and when the area is burnt, that’s when you will see lots of snares,” Tsanwani said. In winter, when water was concentrated, snares tightened their stranglehold along Kruger’s western boundary, he said — particularly along rivers or streams within relatively easy reach of the Pretoriuskop fence.

The nearby Skukuza and Stolsnek sections, as well as Pafuri near the park’s borders with Zimbabwe and Mozambique, have also been reported as hotspots by recent Parliamentary figures.


In late October, a vervet monkey tries to satisfy its thirst during a simmering afternoon at Pretoriuskop rest camp, Kruger National Park. (Photo: Tiara Walters)

‘Shooting the buffaloes, selling the meat’

In the first half of 2023, over 60% of rhinos poached in South Africa perished in KwaZulu-Natal — about 140 compared with Kruger’s roughly 40 casualties. This continues Kruger’s decreasing poaching trend, which has seen a population plunge from 10,000 animals less than two decades ago to, officially at least, under 3,000 today.

Now African buffaloes — slaughtered by both snare and firearm — appeared to be among the targets.

“Since rhino poaching has dropped, I think people are more into snaring,” Tsanwani said. “There is a link because they are not only using snaring to get buffaloes — they are also shooting the animals.”

A tangled web seemed to be driving the park’s snaring surge, Tsanwani added: “There is a medicinal trade. There are those who are poaching to sell the meat. And there are those who are poaching to feed their families.”


The 6km mark to Kruger National Park’s Numbi gate, which leads to the Pretoriuskop section, in late October. A sprawling network of informal settlements, in which the vast majority of people are unemployed, abuts the park. (Photo: Tiara Walters)

Over recent decades, impoverished settlements outside Pretoriuskop’s Numbi gate have encroached upon the park’s western edge, bringing with them economic hardship that is increasingly spilling through the penetrable fence.

“Remember most of the people here, they were relying on rhino poaching for survival,” said Tsanwani, explaining some poachers were resorting to more than snares to down their quarry. “Now they don’t have anything that is bringing food to the table — so they are moving to buffaloes, shooting the buffaloes and selling the meat.”

Practised and prepared

Snaring, in other words, was not merely driven by hunger, but had evolved into a commercial business for the bushmeat market, with customers already lined up to purchase meat on the other side of the fence.

“People who are arrested, when you ask them, they will tell you we already had buyers outside,” he said. “So they are killing the animal in order to sell the meat.”

The methods were organised and practiced, suggesting the potential presence of a bushmeat syndicate.

“What [rhino] poachers normally do, they hire the younger boys, and they are the ones who are sitting on the hill, and they tell them to sit there and view the animals,” he said. “They [the boys] will call them to say, ‘There are animals that are coming down.’ So the same boys, they are still using them for operations.”

Snare tactics: ‘We know it’s for a buffalo’

On the cloudy but blistering October morning that Daily Maverick joined that sweep, volunteer snare patroller Mandi Malan hunted down multiple traps set for a species smorgasbord — including buffalo.

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Watch: Honorary ranger Mandi Malan, a volunteer, hunts down and dismantles a buffalo snare in the Pretoriuskop region, Kruger National Park. (Video: Tiara Walters)

“This is a big snare — it’s meant for a buffalo,” demonstrated Malan, one among about 2,000 SANParks honorary rangers stationed in 31 regions around the country. “They use this bark, or sometimes grass, to tie and hold it here, because it’s a thick cable snare. And we know it’s for a buffalo because they used a big tree, and they do it on the riverbank because here the buffaloes eat a lot.”

Near one of several buffalo snares found by Malan, she pointed to yet another wire trap and, beneath it, dark, dry blood caked the leaf litter.

Although Pretoriuskop indicated that buffalo were among targets of illegal hunters, Dr Sam Ferreira, Kruger’s large mammal ecologist, said the park had no hard data to support a wider trend. That said, snaring was not only insidious and difficult to detect, but an unforgiving killer. Ungulates like buffalo, pachyderms like rhino, carnivores like lion, and so on, covered significant distances while trapped in wire, exposing them to profound pain and even death.

Some were easier to catch than others. One ranger not authorised to speak publicly told us of a persistent snare that had decapitated a hyena. That, of course, is an extreme case, since hyenas are remarkably resilient, often biting through snare cables or breaking them to escape. The wounds seen on hyenas, who are accidental non-targets like other carnivores, are mostly caused during their escape attempts.

For reasons less publicly reported, said Tsanwani, snaring was also indiscriminate because of veldfires started by illegal hunters.

“Because, often, when the area is burnt like this,” he explained, gesturing at the soil at our feet, “we’ll start to pick up lots of snares. The community burnt this area intentionally to attract animals. When new shoots come out, these grasses, they become more palatable. So, animals will be forced to come down here to feed. That’s the time where you will see lots of snares. Come summer time, there will be water everywhere, and there will be grass all over. Then the snaring will drop a little bit.”

Until the next winter season, that is.


Dried blood in the leaf litter beneath a snare in Kruger’s Pretoriuskop section. (Photo: Tiara Walters)

“If you have got snares like this, it’s disturbing to your work routine because you don’t just walk, you are looking,” he noted. “If you are patrolling to remove snares, you spend more time looking for snares. But if it’s a patrol of the fence, then you just walk from one point to the other.”

Yet, Tsanwani said he was driven to brace the acacia frontline because he loved it.

“I love nature. I studied conservation. So, yeah, that’s my life, that’s my day-to-day thing,” he said, his fatigue sleeves rolled up to his biceps. “I started this career as a wilderness guide for guests, then I moved to ranger services. That’s my life, that’s who I am.”

Nevertheless, Kruger’s mammals are increasing

Despite snares littering fence areas along Kruger’s western boundaries, park staff told Daily Maverick the surge was isolated to areas within relatively easy walking reach of the perimeter. The greater park’s 2-million-hectare interior was mostly unaffected except for animals snared near the western edge and venturing deeper within. Local private game reserves with beefed-up fences have not reported a surge.

According to Ferreira, the large mammal ecologist, most of the park’s charismatic megafauna were, despite localised snaring along the fence, doing well. About 30,000 elephants roamed the length and breadth of the reserve while spotted hyenas doubled to about 7,000 over the past 15 years, indicating good prey biomass.

Over the same period, giraffes had edged up by 5% a year, while lions were stable at 2,000 — despite poisonings. Hippos had also shown their own brand of resilience, reaching highs of 7,000 before a drought in 2015-2016. Black rhinos “managed to maintain their low populations” at 210, but white rhinos faced higher mortality rates.

“And with the reduction in poaching rates we hope that we’re also going to see our white rhinos increase,” he said, suggesting the optimistic possibility of a “bumper calf year”.


Dr Sam Ferreira, large mammal ecologist, in Skukuza rest camp in late October. Hyenas were mostly doing well, said Ferreira, indicating a healthy prey biomass. (Photo: Tiara Walters)

Ike Phaahla, the park’s spokesperson, said the park had implemented intensive, multilayered efforts targeting rhino poachers specifically, including a K9 unit with over 30 dogs, surveillance and sentences up to 40 years. Rhinos across the park had been dehorned.

“Kruger is surrounded by poverty-stricken communities where there is no service delivery, unemployment is very high and there is little or no law enforcement,” said Phaahla, who cited “key” partnerships with law-enforcement agencies and communities in the hope of addressing the snaring surge.

Indeed, Kruger’s heightened security approach may have made Hluhluwe-iMfolozi Park, where a decision has not yet been made on dehorning, a softer target.

‘Cuts like a knife’

According to state veterinarian Dr Louis van Schalkwyk, who was regularly called out to lure out, sedate and treat injured animals, there was no injury in an animal “more horrible” than a snare.

“A cable cuts like a knife,” he said.

Speaking at southern Kruger’s Skukuza’s rest camp, Van Schalkwyk pointed out that the park’s 6,000km of roads represented only 4% of its Israel-sized expanse. Some animals, like leopards, were “extremely” difficult to catch because they did not respond well to lure calls.

“You often have to catch them in a cage trap,” noted Van Schalkwyk, who said he aimed for follow-up treatments of species where possible. “You have to be really patient.”

Most of all, said the veterinarian, before rushing off to treat a snared wild dog, he was haunted by those he could not save — despite Kruger staff and honorary rangers removing thousands of snares in the past three years.

“You always have to wonder,” he remarked, “how many did not make it to that point when we could at least have found them and saved them?” DM

Report snaring incidents in Kruger National Park, including the exact time, location and description of the sighting, to the Majoc Emergency Call Centre at 076 801 9679.

[Richprins]

Thanks for the article, Lis, it is a good one!

As i said before, the poverty thing is overrated, it is rather a get rich scheme in my opinion.


according to Ferreira, the large mammal ecologist, most of the park’s charismatic megafauna were, despite localised snaring along the fence, doing well. About 30,000 elephants roamed the length and breadth of the reserve while spotted hyenas doubled to about 7,000

These are ridiculous thumbsuck figures, without a proper census.

Hyena were always estimated at par with lion, why suddenly an uptick? Lion were established also after a proper detailed census in the 90s.


Ferreira is dangerous!

Ironically, culling elephant will solve the entire area's protein needs.

[Lisbeth]

The estimated number of the various animals has nothing to do with counting them, it is more like: "they must be more or less xx because of this and that". A guessing game

[Lisbeth]

Hit on Kruger Park buffaloes – at least 135 bovids dead out of 415 animals snared across species in 2023



By Tiara Walters | 12 Nov 2023

They’re often called Africa’s most dangerous animal to hunt, but snares in Kruger National Park seem to be making a mockery of the buffalo’s feared stature. Another animal known for its size and strength, every elephant poached in the park this year died in an agonising snare. Now the Democratic Alliance says it wants answers from Parliament on how snaring has affected all national parks.
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South African National Parks (SANParks) faces mounting pressure to address a snaring surge and disclose how many of these killer traps have been removed within its reserves since the onset of the pandemic. This distressing situation, initially reported by Daily Maverick and brought to light through Parliamentary questions, has prompted calls for transparency and action to safeguard the nation’s rich biodiversity.

Responding to questions at the weekend, SANParks told Daily Maverick that 135 buffaloes had been “lost due to snaring” between January and October this year, making up nearly 35% of 415 cases for all reported species.

As we revealed recently, an income void left by a decline in rhino poaching may now be driving impoverished communities next to the park to snare and shoot buffaloes in the southwest sector.

“Remember most of the people here, they were relying on rhino poaching for survival,” explained Pretoriuskop section ranger Rangani Tsanwani, who had been working in the park for about 20 years. To down quarry as large as buffalo, some poachers were resorting to more than enormous snares.

“Now they don’t have anything that is bringing food to the table — so they are moving to buffaloes, shooting the buffaloes and selling the meat,” he said.

Among known snare casualties, antelope usually targeted for bushmeat also stood out, SANParks told us — including impala (115 known deaths); zebra (48); kudu (25); and nyala (23).

In a meeting of Parliament’s environmental portfolio committee last week, SANParks CEO Hapiloe Sello also reported the loss of six Kruger elephants — 100% of these animals were killed by snares.

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Watch: A Kruger field ranger, whose face and voice we could not reveal, identifies the site of a possible elephant shooting in Pretoriuskop, a snaring hotspot. The age of the site was unclear.

There are about 30,000 elephants and 20,000 buffaloes in the 2 million-hectare park according to official census figures, and these known snare victims may seem small compared with the overall populations.

Yet, without agreed and tested solutions, no one can say if or when the current surge will peter out, and this is where the cautionary spectre of 2007’s 13 poached rhinos remains ever present. That seemingly minor number sky-rocketed by 10,000% in 2014 — ultimately haemorrhaging 10,000 animals, and resulting in a population that is probably a lot less than 3,000 today.

And then there is the obvious fact that reported snare figures can only account for found carcasses. So, capturing a true picture of how many buffaloes and other species are claimed by the snarer’s noose is a hard problem.

The park removed 14,000 snares between 2020 and 2022, mainly in southern and northern hotspots like Pafuri, Pretoriuskop, Skukuza and Stolsnek. While this is a significant effort, it does not explain the 200% increase in found snares over this period, which marks a threefold increase that far outpaces documented deaths.

According to SANParks, their stats reveal that the much smaller Mapungubwe in Limpopo province is the next most affected park. Here, impala topped the list at six individuals and 18 snare victims of various species were claimed in the months to October.

In response to the surge, Democratic Alliance committee member Hannah Winkler said she would initiate more Parliamentary questions. These inquiries would seek insights into the extent of the challenge across all SANParks reserves; how animal numbers were being affected; and how effective anti-poaching initiatives were.

Winkler said she would also probe underlying causes behind the surge, including potential connections to heightened bushmeat demand.

A disturbing trend in Kruger National Park

During Daily Maverick’s field visit to Pretoriuskop in late October, a field ranger not authorised to speak pointed us to a chaotic scattering of elephant bones in the snaring hotspot.

We had accompanied Kruger staff and honorary rangers to witness the removal of 66 snares in a single morning between 7am and 10am. Pointing out the absence of a large tree to support a jumbo-sized snare, where nothing but the beast’s gigantic bones now lay, the ranger said it had been shot.

“They come inside just to shoot it, then they get the meat,” we were told.


A scattering of elephant bones at a possible shooting and slaughtering site in Pretoriuskop, Kruger National Park. The immediate area was open and did not feature obvious large trees to hold an elephant snare. (Photo: Tiara Walters)

Although death by natural causes could not be ruled out, the ranger suggested the bones were strewn by both animals and humans after the elephant had been slaughtered, and its meat carried out. Scavengers would have finished off the job, leaving not a shred of discernible meat at the kill site.

This, then, looked like a tragic example of death by gun in a snare hotspot — suggesting that the booby-trapped area at large also provided fertile territory for other types of poaching to flourish.

“They just chopped the meat only, then they leave the bones … The animals, they came after that,” he said.


During a hunt for snares in Kruger’s Pretoriuskop section in late October, Kruger staff identified a probable shooting and slaughtering site containing this elephant skull. (Photo: Tiara Walters)

According to Tsanwani, the Pretoriuskop section ranger, snarers also ignited fires to attract animals to new growth vegetation.

Youths were hired to monitor and report animal movements within the park, with buyers lined up on the outside — indicating that snaring had morphed into a commercial enterprise.

Aside from stoking criminality, there was the sheer if perhaps unintended cruelty unleashed by snaring. While it may not be a subsistence snarer’s intention to inflict prolonged pain, a cable set for a buffalo could shear off an elephant trunk instead. Indeed, park spokesperson Ike Phaahla told Daily Maverick that the six snared elephants may have lost their lives entirely by accident, “as snares are indiscriminate”.

A cable snare, which cuts like a knife, can persistently slice into its victim over time as the animal tries to break free, or treks across vast distances, eventually dying of infection. Staff have reported finding fence-area casualties deep within the park, although most snares lie in wait within a few kilometres of the western perimeter.

Possible solutions: supplying communities with park meat

SANParks would be consulting with traditional leaders and communities, Sello, the CEO, also noted. Meat might be supplied to impoverished communities living next to the western fence.

With this, she said the parks organisation would “perhaps enlarge our activities with regards to sustainable use of animals with the communities in terms of them being beneficiaries of some of our culling activities”.

Sello was describing activities reported in Parliamentary figures released on Friday afternoon. For 2022, for instance, the data cited offtakes of 16 “damage-causing” elephants, “including causing damage in the Skukuza airport’s runway and precinct”.

Elephant meat was donated to communities “on the basis of need” while meat from 59 buffaloes were sold to park staff and residents “at an average price of R66.76 per kilogram”. Total meat sales revenue was R770,000, and the money was reportedly fed back into the costs of animal off-takes and meat processing.

Sello stressed, however, that interventions were in an “early days” stage. No decisions had been made.

“These are engagements I had with my colleagues just last week to say we have to rein this situation in,” she said. “But to do so we need to understand the reasons and what is driving it.”

And there’s the rub, because snaring is covert and difficult to track. In October, Creecy reported that SANParks had yet to conduct “specific research to understand the primary drivers”, yet “we notice the increase coincides with the Covid-19 pandemic and increased poverty among communities adjacent to the Kruger Park”.

“Snaring is an issue of major concern in Kruger,” Sello said. “We have noted the uptick. There are speculations that there is an increase in bushmeat demand and perhaps community members are using this opportunity to create income for themselves.”

Sello also cited the “possibility of bushmeat trade — what we call poaching for the pot”.

While the park had not confirmed that animal parts were widely used for traditional medicine (muti), some individuals found with body parts had been identified as traditional healers, according to Phaahla, the park’s spokesperson.

Animal populations are growing, despite the surge

It sounds like an apocalypse, but Kruger’s large mammal ecologist Dr Sam Ferreira says it is not.

Over the past 15 years, spotted hyenas had doubled to about 7,000, revealing a good prey biomass. Lions were stable at 2,000 — despite poisonings.

Hippos had shown their own brand of resilience, reaching highs of 7,000 before a drought in 2015-2016.

Black rhinos “managed to maintain their low populations” at 210, but white rhinos faced higher mortality rates.

“Kruger is surrounded by poverty-stricken communities where there is no service delivery, unemployment is very high and there is little or no law enforcement,” said Phaahla, who cited “key” partnerships with law-enforcement agencies and communities in the hope of addressing the surge.


A group of SANParks honorary rangers display the 66 snares they hunted down and dismantled, together with Kruger field rangers, on 25 October. (Photo: Tiara Walters)

The task is unenviable — regularly responding to snare call-outs in an Israel-sized park whose 6,000km of roads represent just 4% of this wilderness.

To be sure, while there is nothing new about snaring, this surge is new, and it exposes the biggest threat multiplier — a culture of lawlessness, fomented by hunger, poverty and desperation, growing around South Africa’s national parks.

The question is how urgently Kruger, policymakers and partners can pivot from the trauma of rhino poaching for the next leg of the relay.

“SANParks has been investigating safe means of distributing meat to communities to counter the illegal bushmeat trade, there are several suggestions which have been submitted and those are being considered. It is a process that needs due diligence and patience to make it a success,” Phaahla said. “Sustainable resource policies are in existence and once a safe method has been finalised, the supply to adjacent communities will commence through the forums that are in existence.” DM

Report snaring incidents in Kruger National Park, including the exact time, location and description of the sighting, to the Majoc Emergency Call Centre at 076 801 9679.

Tiara Walters is a full-time reporter for Daily Maverick’s Our Burning Planet unit. Walters’s recent stay in Kruger National Park was made possible, in part, by South African National Parks.

For behind-the-scenes reports, follow Tiara Walters on Instagram at tiara.adele.walters

[Lisbeth]

There are some repetitions from the article above this one, but not that many

They are not talking much about bushmeat trade The poachers certainly do not give it away for free.

Again the Honorary Rangers have stepped in. Seems that that they are doing all the difficult (sensitive) jobs