Trapped and wasted: Africa’s iconic wildlife face an uncertain future

A herd of elephants roaming in Kenya. Photo by Tim Cronin / CIFOR-ICRAF

A new study published in BioScience has shone a light on the scale of this wastage, with the sobering finding that an estimated 9% of animals caught in traps are too rotten to eat by the time they are found, equivalent to 100 million kilograms of wild animal meat wasted every year across Africa. 

The authors argue that the snaring crisis requires a multi-pronged approach to address its geographically widespread, locally intense and often unsustainable impacts on wildlife populations. Solutions must be found that support local communities that depend on wildlife so that wildlife resources can be managed sustainably.  

Widespread and wasteful crisis 

An injured elephant with its trunk permanently amputated from a snare. Photo by Sean Denny

For centuries, hunting has sustained human beings, but human population growth, advancements in hunting technologies, and the emergence and proliferation of commercial trading networks for wildlife have pushed hunting rates to unsustainable levels in many areas, according to the researchers.

From both conservation and food systems perspectives, snaring has become wasteful. The study’s authors note that waste occurs when animals die unnoticed in snares, rot before they can be retrieved, or escape with severe injuries only to succumb later. 

“Snaring is an important source of food and income for many people,” explains lead author Sean Denny, a conservation scientist at the University of California, Santa Barbara. “But its current scale threatens the sustainability of hunting systems and the benefits wildlife brings to local communities.”

The study found that within protected African areas, thousands — sometimes tens of thousands — of snares are set annually, with individual hunters operating between 60 and 100 snares at a time. In the case of commercial hunters, that number may increase to 500 snares operating at one time. All in all, the study estimates suggest that an average of 27.8 million snares are set annually in Central Africa alone. 

Using different available datasets, peer-reviewed literature and reports from non-governmental organizations, the researchers were able to conservatively estimate roughly 750 million kilograms of mammalian wildlife is harvested every year in Central Africa through snaring.  

Indiscriminate toll on wildlife

Snares are often indiscriminate, catching a wide range of species from small rodents to duikers and red river Larger animals, such as big cats and great apes, are unlikely to be held by snares but can sustain injuries. Reptiles like snakes and crocodiles, as well as birds such as eagles and vultures, are also susceptible.  

The study, synthesising findings from 24 other studies that measured aspects of snaring across 47 sites in nine countries, documented escape rates of 36% at a site in Equatorial Guinea, 38% at a site in the Central African Republic, and a staggering 51% at a site in Cameroon. This means that for every animal successfully harvested, another may have escaped with injuries that might affect its survival or reproductive fitness. 

Drivers behind an intractable problem  

Hunting in Africa is driven by many factors, but primarily the need for food and income as, in many parts of the continent, fish and livestock can be unaffordable or unavailable due to limited market access and endemic diseases that make it difficult to raise livestock. However, the authors also note that hunting is increasingly driven by the availability of an enormous market for wild meat in urban areas in Sub-Saharan Africa, where wildlife is consumed for social and cultural reasons, including taste preferences and its luxury status. 

“Snares are practical for hunters because they are quieter than guns, making hunters less likely to be detected by law enforcement if hunting illegally,” said Sorrel Jones, study co-author and a field-research advisor at UK-based Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB)’s Centre of Conservation Science. “Their remote operation allows hunters to conduct other activities simultaneously, such as farming or fishing,” she notes. 

Law enforcement also struggles to regulate snaring because materials like wire are widely available and legal – making the practice extremely difficult to control through top-down policies alone. 

“One of the most important contributions of our study is showing that snaring cannot be effectively regulated through law enforcement alone,” says Denny. “… efforts to address snaring will need to include policies that incentivize sustainable practices among hunters themselves.”  

Rather than relying solely on law enforcement, the researchers recommend governance systems that empower local communities:  “Small changes in hunting methods, such as the types of snares used, their placement and timely checking, could have benefits for both biodiversity and local communities,” says Lauren Coad, one of the contributors to the study and a Senior Scientist at the Center for International Forestry Research and World Agroforestry (CIFOR-ICRAF). “It is also key that local communities have the authority to manage their own hunting areas and exclude external commercial hunters to avoid a ‘tragedy of the commons’ situation”.

The authors also advocate for the use of behavioural change campaigns in urban centres to reduce urban demand for wild meat and the need to tackle food security issues in rural areas, providing alternative sustainable protein sources that can help ease pressure on wildlife. In addition, they emphasize the need to continue or improve law enforcement and ongoing snare-removal efforts in national parks and reserves where hunting is illegal. Without urgent intervention to curb the negative impacts, Africa’s snaring conundrum will continue to fuel biodiversity loss, animal suffering and food waste at an alarming scale. As Dr Eric D. Nana, senior researcher and head of the Wildlife Conservation and Research Unit at the Institute of Agricultural Research for Development in Cameroon, puts it, addressing unsustainable snaring practices not only protects wildlife but also reduces waste and supports communities that rely on it for survival.  

“This study adds to a growing body of evidence that can inform governments and communities in their efforts to set a more sustainable course for Africa’s iconic wildlife—a future that continues to support the people who rely on wild animals every day,” said Nana, who also leads the Central Africa Bushmeat Research Into Policy (CA-BRIP) group.