Zimbabwe Wild Dogs

Category: Uncategorized | Date: Jan 30 2008 | By: admin

In the last few blogs, I have spoken quite a lot about the threat to the wild dogs posed by snaring. So I thought Id give some more information on snaring in general, and not just how it relates to wild dogs. On seeing the threat posed to wild dogs through snaring, a lot of our work has focused on addressing that threat specifically: trying to understand how the bush meat trade works, what impacts it has on wildlife populations, and what solutions exist to address the problem.

Snaring is generally done by poachers who hunt meat for personal consumption or for sale. Across Africa, there is an enormous bush-meat industry, where animals are killed and then sold in villages and towns, and along highways. Sometimes the meat even finds its way to European cities such as Paris and London which have large African populations. Bush-meat poaching, along with habitat destruction, probably represents the most severe threat to wildlife in Africa today. The problem is particularly severe in West and Central Africa, but parts of East and southern Africa are also severely affected. Whereas the threat to wildlife from bush meat poaching has long been recognized for West and Central Africa, the severity of the problem for East and southern Africa is only beginning to be recognized. Bush meat poachers use a variety of methods, from shotguns, nets, and gin traps, but most commonly snares. Snares are usually made from steel wire, which in many areas, is extremely abundant: poachers just steal it from game or cattle fencing. Where fencing is scarce, poachers often steal copper wire from telephone lines, or improvise using other materials. When hunting using snares, the poachers will set lines of typically 10-30 snares along game trails, and especially those leading to water which have high volumes of wildlife traffic. Animals walk through the snare and are then generally captured around the neck, waist or leg. The animal then typically tries to escape by pulling, which cases the snare to tighten, cutting into the flesh of the animal. The animal is then either killed by suffocation, or through lack of water.

Snares are cheap, and in areas with lots of fencing, can be made in abundance. One of the findings of our study has been the need to seek alternative fencing materials to use for the construction of game fences. Those comprised of steel wire and/or barbed wire provide an essentially limitless supply of wire for snares.

Snares are extremely indiscriminate, and virtually all wildlife species are affected, from small antelopes such as duikers, to elephants which are frequently caught around their trunks, resulting in horrific wounds. Another problem is wastage. Poachers often fail to remove their snares when they are finished, or check their snare lines infrequently, with the effect that wild animals are often caught and then rot in snare lines and are never used.

An additional worry is that when animals are caught in snares, the carcasses attract predators which are then at risk of being caught in the snares themselves. We found this lion caught in a snare, for example..

Snaring is extremely effective and if allowed to continue unchecked, can decimate wildlife populations very quickly. The problem is that snares area cheap and easy to produce, and they are also really difficult to find. Often, the first sign of a snare line is vultures circling above a carcass below..

So how do we reduce the impact of bush-meat poaching? Well, I believe that a four pronged approach is needed. Firstly, it is vitally important that local people benefit financially from the presence of wildlife, such as through tourism opportunities. If they benefit from wildlife, they are likely to want to protect it. Secondly, it is important that alternative protein sources are found to reduce reliance on bush-meat. Thirdly, education and outreach efforts are required to increase understanding of the negative impacts of snaring, and how loss of wildlife can foreclose important options for development in future. Finally, there will always be some need to police wildlife populations. A minority of individuals are always likely to take a chance and poach to boost their personal incomes. So while a particular community may benefit from wildlife and protect it, one or two individuals may well keep poaching so that they get income from tourism and poaching. The best way to police wildlife is through the deployment of anti poaching game scouts (which may be from the neighbouring communities), who then sweep the area for snares.

Share This