The Peace Parks team play a vital role in conservation management and protection throughout the transfrontier conservation areas. They have a range of diverse responsibilities, many directly related to their professions but often ones that are just part of being a team player. In this particular case, an injured elephant is spotted in a private game reserve and the nearby Peace Parks crew stationed in Limpopo National Park is called on by the Mozambique Wildlife Alliance for aerial support.

The elephant had been caught in a snare, but because of its strength, it was able to break the snare’s anchor leaving the wire very tightly wrapped around its leg. Unfortunately, this is not uncommon, so the team knows exactly what to do. They quickly immobilise the animal from the air and, as soon as it’s down, they land close by and move in to remove the wire and treat the wound.

As part of ensuring the safety of wildlife, rangers regularly monitor the  terrain, checking in particular for snares. Snares are anchored cable or wire nooses that are widely used by subsistence and commercial poachers for bushmeat consumption and trade. As cruel as they are, they are one of the simplest traps, very cheap to produce, easy to set in large numbers and very effective. A snare traps an animal around the neck or body making it impossible for the animal to shake off. Larger animals, such as elephant or giraffe, will break the anchor leaving the wire cutting into their flesh. The sad fact is that many animals caught in snares die slow and painful deaths, so finding and removing the snares at source is vital to help the wildlife roam free.

In order to locate where the animal might have picked up the snare, the elephant’s movements will have to be backtracked. Many snares are placed along a water source to trap the animals when they come to drink or along game paths left behind by wildlife. By regularly sweeping these areas for cable snares, rangers can remove these dreadfully dangerous traps as well as track poachers’ movements. Even looking at how snares are set in the surroundings helps the anti-poaching team to plan operations to apprehend poachers. And every snare that is removed means another animal saved from suffering or even death. In this case, it is a happy ending for the elephant, who is freed from the snare and can continue to live happily in the reserve.