WCS Fact Sheet for Zambia: Managing the threat of snaring to promote wildlife production and tourism development

Fact sheet #5, 6 April 2005

Background

Use of wire snares to capture and kill wild animals is a practice not uncommon to rural communities living in areas around Africa?s wildlife protected areas, especially communities affected by poverty and food shortages. Unlike the use of firearms, snares are silent and often go undetected, thus lowering risks of arrest by wildlife law enforcement officers. It is a passive, non-selective, and inexpensive way of killing wildlife. In contrast to firearms, which normally require considerable experience and skill, both men and women and even older children can easily practice snaring. When done on a large scale, snaring can be highly destructive, particularly to smaller-bodied animals, including the big cats. Deployment of wildlife scouts to search homes for possession of snares and patrol wildlife areas to remove them is costly and ineffective. This paper examines snaring as a wildlife threat to Zambia?s tourism and current efforts by Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) and its collaborating partners¹ to manage this problem through interventions of improved food security and increased access to fair market alternatives.

Prevalence of snares in Luangwa Valley

The incidence of snares encountered by safari clients while hunting in game management areas is a useful barometer of snaring prevalence. In addition, snare injuries to leopards and lions recorded by professional hunting guides are a useful indicator of snaring intensity. Based on interview data collected in 1999 among safari clients who hunted in four different safari concessions in Luangwa Valley, 36% complained about encountering snares during their hunts. In one particular concession, 3 of the 5 lions shot as trophy animals suffered from snare injuries (Cominos, pers. com.). Lodge operators promoting game-viewing tourism regard snaring as a major threat to lions, which become attracted to an animal already snared and increase the risk of becoming ensnared themselves where multiple snares were set at the same location.

Interview data with 448 residents living in these hunting concessions suggested that in 2000 as many as 57% of the households residing in or nearby areas with relatively high wildlife populations used snares on an average of 4.7 times per year, and on any given time, they would set approximately 6 snares in areas surrounding their villages. WCS selected these interviewees on the basis of their willingness to discuss their own use of snares without fear of reprisals by law enforcement officers.

Source of wires used for snaring

From a total of 5283 snares collected in Luangwa Valley, WCS undertook an analysis of each wire to determine type of wire and their possible source. 61.2% originated from winch cables and consisted of a variable number of interwoven wire strands of high tensile strength. The second most common wire used for snaring, representing 26% of the total sample, originated from bicycle tyres, which containtwo strands for securing the tyre on its rim. Other categories ranged from 1% to 6% and included building wire, electrical wire, electric fencing, and barbed wire. While bicycle wires represented an almost constant supply, based largely on the turnover rate of tyres by local bicycle owners. Winch cables, on the other hand, may represent a more limited and difficult source, since the majority of interviewees suggested these wires originated from mining operations elsewhere in the country.

Impact on wildlife numbers and tourism revenues

It is extremely difficult to quantify absolute numbers of wildlife lost from snaring for obvious reasons. However, results from the 448 residents interviewed on their own use of snares indicated WCS in 1999, 20 to 60% of the households in Luangwa Valley suffered chronic problems of food shortages, as influenced by such factors as rainfall, farming methods and crop varieties. A significant portion of these households, estimated to be 10% to 20%, relied on snaring to exchange game meat for farm-based foods. These figures suggested about 800 households, out of a total population of about 15,000 families, used snares, which contributed to an annual mortality of about 4500 animals over an area of about 12,000 km2.