207 Snares Removed – And Why We Cannot Stop Looking

Over the past two years, the B.R.A. snare team has found and removed 207 wire snares from the Bazley area, stretching from the Ndesingane River in the north to the Ifafa River in the south.

Each snare found by the team is geolocated, photographed and removed, allowing us to build an increasingly clear picture of where snaring activity is taking place and where our patrols need to be concentrated.

The figures are deeply concerning:

• 58 snares have been removed from the Ndesingane River mouth area.
• 20 snares have been found within the village, particularly in and around the stream near the skip.
• 129 snares have been removed from the area between the Illovo farmhouse and the riverine forest along the Ifafa River.

That last figure includes eight snares found in just the past week, hidden in drainage cuts in the sugar cane south of the farmhouse.

These numbers demonstrate both the scale of the problem and why the work of the snare team remains so important.

A heartbreaking discovery

Last week, our snare team came across the body of a very young bushbuck caught in one of these traps.

She could only have been three or four months old.

The team gently removed her little body and laid her to rest in a beautiful glade beside the river.

I was attending an event in Johannesburg when they sent me a photograph of her. I have to admit, I sat there and cried.

There was something particularly heartbreaking about seeing such a young animal and knowing what had become of her.

What made it even harder was knowing how much effort our snare team puts into searching these areas.

Week after week, they go out into the bush, walking through difficult terrain and carefully checking places where snares are known to be set. Yet, despite their dedication, it is simply impossible to find every one.

During the very week in which this little bushbuck was discovered, the team removed another eight snares from the surrounding area.

That is perhaps the most sobering part of all.

This is not simply opportunistic hunting

The snaring taking place in and around Bazley is a serious concern.

The animals caught and killed are not necessarily being taken simply for the personal consumption of the person setting the snare. Snaring forms part of a broader and potentially lucrative illegal trade in bushmeat and wildlife.

Those involved are often highly skilled in bushcraft and familiar with the terrain. They continually vary where and how snares are placed in an effort to avoid detection.

This makes the work of the snare team particularly challenging.

Areas that have been cleared cannot simply be regarded as safe indefinitely. They need to be revisited and monitored because new snares may be placed after a patrol has passed through.

It is a constant process of searching, recording, removing and returning.