Spike in snare hunting on the North Coast

More than 700 snares were found between Umdloti and Sheffield Beach last year - an increase of 78%.

Illegal snare hunting continues to plague the KZN North Coast – and the problem is getting worse.

In 2024, 708 snares were found between Umdloti and Sheffield Beach, an increase of 78% from 2023.

More than 150 snares were recently removed from the Umdloti coastal forest by a team of volunteers, who also found a dead baby duiker, two dead monkeys and a trapped dog.

Umdloti Coastal Forest: Yellow pins represent active snares found. Blue pins are deactivated snares. The red pins are an animal carcass. The white pin is where a suspected hunter was confronted. Image: Snare Aware

Volunteers working with volunteer-run NPO Snare Aware are angry about the slow and painful deaths the animals endure.

One volunteer, who asked not to be named for safety reasons, told North Coast Courier he is enraged by the wastefulness of the snare hunters.

A Snare Aware volunteer holds up another model of the snares they find all over KZN.

“I don’t subscribe to the notion that those responsible hunt for food because they are poor and hungry,” he says.

“This is the second haul in a week in the same area, and we have found rotting bushbuck and duikers that have not been butchered for meat.

These snares are the same as the ones found at Mount Moreland last year.

“It is the same everywhere we remove snares. The hunters don’t care; they cannot be that hungry if they don’t check their snares regularly. They just leave the bodies to rot.”

Snare Aware cleared 86 traps from the same part of the Umdloti conservancy last week where they found 117 snares five days earlier. That day, the wildlife conservationists found carcasses of blue duikers, monkeys, a bushbuck and a dog.

Read original story on www.citizen.co.za

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Ally Cooper

Passionate storyteller with over 30 years’ experience as a journalist, editor, proofreader, content creator, social media manager and public relations and media liaison specialist.
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