Illegal bushmeat trade: Close to 2,000 snares removed from KNP

JOHANNESBURG -  Every year thousands of snares are removed from the Kruger National Park (KNP) as poachers intensify their operations to fuel the illegal bushmeat trade. 

Over the course of four weekends last year, honorary rangers at the park removed close to 2,000 snares.  

The snares are often made using wire from fences surrounding parts of the park.  

The illegal bushmeat market trade is a lucrative business that sees thousands of animals poached in the KNP every year.  

Skukuza section ranger Kally Ubisi said homemade snares, made with fencing wire, are used as a quick and easy means to capture animals.  

"The people are no longer hunting for the pot. What they do now is they open meat markets outside. They find two or three impalas, they carry it over and sell it to the highest buyer."  

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He said snares are often found near boundary fences of the many surrounding villages around the Kruger.  
  
"In one weekend, there was about more than 300 plus snares that we removed. Sometimes you find in one particular area there were more than 50 snares that they’ve set up.  

He said in many instances, the poachers never retrieve the animals caught in snares, resulting in a slow and painful death.