SNARE POACHING ON THE RISE

Magaliesberg – More than 35 anti-poaching snare sweeps and other conservation patrols across the Magaliesberg biosphere, including the Cradle of Humankind World Heritage site and the Crocodile river reserve, were done by the Saving our Species (SOS) project over the past three months. 
Patrols were coordinated by SOS project partners and the Magaliesberg biosphere reserve board with the support and cooperation of landowners. More than 250 active snares and animal-traps were removed from the veld.  

The board applied for COVID-19 relief funding from the German Commission of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and the German Federal Foreign Office, to implement the SOS project. It was launched to reduce the negative impacts on indigenous trees and wildlife resulting from the economic turmoil of the pandemic. 

The SOS patrols found several small to medium-sized antelope and livestock killed and forgotten in the snares. The rotting carcass of a bushbuck ewe caught in a snare, as well as her lamb, that likely died of starvation was found as well as a freshly snared and skinned kudu bull, destined for the bushmeat trade. A follow-up investigation in the same spot six weeks later saw a further 10 snares being removed.

Snaring is an indiscriminate form of wildlife poaching, and while it may seem that trapping a guineafowl or scrub-hare for the pot is harmless, several threatened and protected species are vulnerable to this form of poaching. For example, leopard, brown hyena, honey badger, hedgehog and mountain reedbuck are some of the threatened or protected mammals that occur in the biosphere that could fall prey to indiscriminate trapping and snaring. 

Ongoing patrols and time sensitive follow-ups are required to manage the scourge of poaching in the biosphere. The Magaliesberg biosphere board are putting mechanisms in place to continue with patrols, surveys and monitoring in support of biodiversity conservation and the protection of the environment, beyond the SOS project period. 

For further information email hello@magaliesbergbiosphere.org.za or visit www.magaliesbergbiosphere.org.za.