SNARING - The insidious threat to African Wildlife

Snares are the simplest, most effective bush-meat hunting technique practiced. Home-made wire snares are the predominant form of hunting across Africa. These devices are amongst the highest killers of wildlife in the region. Hunters cross into wildlife reserves laying snares along game paths to catch the animals. The spoils of their hunts are sold locally to poor rural villagers or further afield to commercial demand for these delicacies. The dire result of snaring is usually a deep painful wound that becomes infected and results in a prolonged, excruciating death. The Singita anti-poaching programme monitor this crisis and have rescued thousands of animals from this atrocity. This programme uniquely combines cutting-edge technology, and boots on the ground to combat the poaching. These images illustrate the complexity of helping an animal in distress. In this case, it was a giraffe with a horrific injury documented by the ALYCATS in the Serengeti.

On a hilltop in the vast wilderness of the Serengeti, a Singita outpost monitoring the landscape for poachers is omnipresent and barely visible. There are twelve outposts in this region with over 120 highly trained scouts on duty 24 hours daily.

At the outpost, a scout scans the horizon at dusk for any unusual activity in his quest to protect the fragile landscape. He works a 24-hour shift with a co-worker for five consecutive days.

At the Singita Control Centre HQ in the Serengeti, a scout exhibits one of the myriad of snares removed in the region. This past year over 3000 were found. All are piled up on posts, like trophies, as a reminder of the heroic job at hand to diminish this horrific practice.

A snared giraffe was tracked by scouts alerting a rescue team to attend to her wounds. After the giraffe was darted, he was carefully handled by the team to ensure no further harm would come to him – the ropes strategically placed gave primary support to avoid injury.

The giraffe’s wound had become badly infected as it had been approximately 3 days before she was discovered. The veterinarian cleansed the wound and administered a cocktail of antiseptic and antibiotics to reduce the pain and the impact of infection.

Once fully sedated, scouts soothe the giraffe to decrease the stress. All this administered with gentle loving hands.

Soon after the treatment was administered, the anaesthetic has almost worn off and the awesome task is helping the giraffe to regain its footing and not create harm as it wobbles to full height.

Within moments, once the animal became fully alert, it lurched upward. It takes the team extreme nimbleness to ensure the giraffe, as he attempts to stand is carefully managed.

Remarkably, soon after the giraffe gained his footing, he gazes at the veterinarian who had treated his badly wounded leg, almost as a ‘thankyou’ after the rescue operation, then limped off into the bush.

In the Joint Operations Centre, the entire Serengeti concession is meticulously monitored by the most advanced technologies designed for this task. Detection equipment such as GSM-enabled camera traps and night vision equipment feed information through digital communication networks to web-based monitoring systems in 24-hour control rooms. From here, dedicated operators are able to identify the closest available anti-poaching teams and remotely guide them to the detected threat.