Poaching is not a new problem in Africa, but when you see it first hand, on the scale I saw it last week, you cannot help but face the full scale of the crisis facing Africa’s wildlife. Using wire cut, ironically, from the fencing used by landowners to protect areas of their farms from wild game, or to protect game itself. After cutting the wire, poachers make simple loops, securing one end of the wire to a nearby tree or log and suspending the other over a likely game trail. Animals can be caught in several ways – around the neck as they walk into the snare, or even around the midsection if both front feet pass through the loop. Others may be caught around horns, or around one or both feet. As soon as they put pressure on the loop it tightens, and when the animal panics, they are all but trapped.

In the space of the 8 days we were in the bush we easily recovered over 100 snares. In that same time we saw 5 different poachers, and were nearly stampeded by a herd of young buffalo being chased by a pack of dogs, another tactics used by poachers to wear down their game, which they then spear when it’s too exhausted to run farther.

One day we came across a kudu bull – a large spiral horned antelope, the adult bulls of which might weight in the range of 800 pounds. This bull had been caught in a snare, which gripped him around the mid section, and against which he was struggling violently when we came upon him. As I distracted the bull from the front, a game ranger approached from the rear and cut the wire that held him, freeing him back into the bush.

Others we came across were not so luck. On the first day we found another young kudu that had been killed in a snare, his bones and a set of hors all that remained of where the poachers had found him, killed him, and butchered him.

Snares also cause grievous injuries – a hazard to both game and people. Large animals like elephants and Africa’s dangerous Cape buffalo can often break free of snares set for smaller game, but not before pulling the wire tight on their legs of necks in an effort to escape. The wounds that wire causes can become infected, posing serious risks to locals as the animals suffer with pain and often lash out at anyone who stumbles upon them, often with fatal results. One member of our group came across an elephant bull with a badly injured leg, a snare still visible wrapped around his low leg -  which escaped he and his guide before a game ranger could come to dart the animal. The same anger said that 6 of the 7 Cape buffalo shot by hunters on the property last year had evidence of snare wounds.