Snare Scare

Poverty in South Africa has reached an all time high, with over 50% of the population living in poverty and well below the breadline. The large majority of these people live in rural areas, are unemployed and are not offered much, if any, assistance from the government. These people need to eat, so they will find ways and means to do so.

One of the most common ways is to snare. A snare is a wire or nylon, or similar, type line or cord which is tied with a slip knot in a noose type fashion. These snares are placed in high traffic areas, over game paths or in high activity fields etc, where an animal would have their head or limbs caught in the line. As the animal moves or struggles the noose tightens, with the other end securely fastened to a tree or some permanent feature the animal will be caught and most certainly die if not discovered in time. The snares are not always fastened well enough to the tree or branch resulting in the possibility of larger animals being caught in the snare noose, but managing to break free, leaving the wire around their head, neck or limbs. This often results in the animal suffering from gaping wounds that are unable to heal due to the constant friction from the still attached snare. These animals will suffer for long periods of time until they succumb from infection or even blood from the open wounds.

The KaiNav Conservation Foundation removes a snare from a zebra after the zebra was seen walking with the wire and gaping wound on its neck.

Snaring has become one of the most popular ways to generate an income or simply put food on the table. With the weakening economy it has also become the only way to do so for many South Africans. Snares are used to capture animals for meat and for resale of meat or Bushmeat products.


Rural communities in South Africa are full with traditional beliefs and therefore the need for traditional healers and their "muti" is high. "Muti" is any form of traditional medicine or tonic used for a specific purpose. There are muti's for the common cold, erectile dysfunction, liars, a cheating spouse, financial problems and the list goes on. These muti's are made with naturally occurring plants and animals or animal parts, thereby creating the demand and snaring becomes the means.

A snare is a non-selective means of capturing an animal, the poacher who places the snare has no means of deciding which animal or type of animal will get caught. Most often, if the animal caught is one of which they do not want or can not use the meat or other parts the carcass will simply be discarded. However, there are those who take advantage of any animal caught and supply what they can to the traditional healers.

 Snares can be found throughout South Africa, with the majority being in or around domestic farms or Private game ranches. Private landowners have a great problem with snaring. They are usually game breeders or have some sort of rare game on the ranch. The snares often capture or injure their expensive breeding stock so as a preventative measure many ranch owners hire private security to patrol and remove any snares found. They are not always successful but it does form a deterrent from their land. Other landowners or domestic farmers are turning to dogs to patrol at night to catch and prevent anyone putting up snares.

Very little official research has been done on snare hot spots, type of snares being used etc making it difficult to proactively work against snaring.

 The KaiNav Conservation foundation has been running the S.N.A.R.E program for some time. With a group of volunteers they visit areas and reserves with known snaring problems. They spend the day or weekend walking through thick brush to find and remove snares as well as record data about these snares. From this research they hope to find ways to proactively fight the snaring problem this country and its natural environment faces.

The foundation is hoping to spread the work they do further throughout the country and to do this they require funding. The ever elusive factor in conservation. Funding has and always will be a problem for conservationists as people simply do not understand the importance of the work being done. There will always be something more important, like sport and conservationists will need to continue finding creative ways to raise the funds needed.



 The KaiNav foundation, however, have found their own way to raise much needed funds. By using the very snares which cause so much devastation and harm to the environment and turning them into beautiful works of art that will fund the great work they do, as well as creating income for the poverty stricken people of this beautiful country.

The wires removed during the S.N.A.R.E expeditions are given to local rural artists who transform the snares into beautiful African animals and other works. These are then tagged with a Snare Art tag and sold to raise much needed funds. Snare Art has proven to be a huge success and some works have even gone to their new homes in Dubai and the USA!

For more information on the KaiNav conservation foundation, The S.N.A.R.E initiative and other projects please visit the website https://www.kainavconservation.org/ or follow them on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/kainavconservation/

You can also donate to the foundation via the following link https://www.kainavconservation.org/donate

The work they are doing is vitally important in collecting enough data to be able to find and implement proactive and effective snare management protocol for South African Farmers and breeders. Any and all support is greatly appreciated and needed!

 The S.N.A.R.E initiative, by the KaiNav Conservation foundation.

All video footage and images courtesy of The KaiNav Conservation Foundation

Please follow me on twitter and Instagram via the links below to see the world from my perspective, with a foot in the door.

https://twitter.com/BiancaBothab211

https://www.instagram.com/aconservationistsjourney/

Read my scholarship articles for The WOMA at the links below:

The WOMA Scholarship : Conservationista by Bianca Botha

To visit or donate to my crowdfunding page please follow the link below! Thank you for your support!

US, UK and South Africa: 

Back-a-Buddy Conservation study fund

Project Clean Up part one

The three R's, one of the most important principles in today's commercialised and convenience driven life, Reduce, reuse and recycle!

In recent years the "Go Green" movement has taken the world by storm, celebrities everywhere are promoting green living, sustainable energy and everything that comes with it. All this via the glitz and glamour of the silver screen, social media and very publicised platforms. Its not often you'd catch one of the top speakers for this movement knee deep in in the very problem they are talking about, much less if there are no cameras involved.

They spew "facts" and data and scientific findings, all which are great and need to be shared, but have they ever been on the ground, seen with their own eyes and helped with their own hands to do anything about it. Yes the argument can be made that they have changed their lifestyles and influenced others to follow suite, that they have donated or raised large amounts of much needed funding towards these "save the world" causes, but it that enough?

At least they are talking about it, right?

Let's get into the nitty gritty of it, what things are really like in the depths of 3rd world Africa where the "Go Green" funding and silver tongues from foreign lands don't reach, of have very much effect.

First we need to understand where and why the problem comes from, the causes are many. Africa is a continent ripe with scars and history of colonisation by countries all over the world. Netherlands, England, Spain, France and many others all sent their ships over the years to claim and colonise land in Africa. This resulted in the rich and sometimes confused cultures which have developed over time. Cultures which to this day still believe in the traditions of old, which are as alive today as they were in the 1600's, and also flourish with new beliefs and traditions as influenced by the relative country of colonisation of a specific area. The people have merged, creating the need for a completely new method of communication to convey messages about global warming, recycling etc. In these cultures you find groups who do not believe in today's education, and refuse to educate their children in "Western" schools, believing in having many uneducated children, so if one or more were to die there would always be some left to care for them in their old age, rather than having one well educated child who would be able to care for them for a much longer period of time. Yet all these same people will have the latest smartphones, Dstv, laptops at their disposal. The difficulty in Africa, is the African mindset, the biggest communication barrier faced by educators and conservationists on a daily basis, making it extremely difficult to get the message across about why conservation, anti-poaching and RECYCLING are so vitally important.

The next most prominent cause is the poor developed social understanding or acceptance of the need to reduce, reuse and recycle. This world has become consumed in a lifestyle of ease and accessibility, cheap foods, cheap products all available as easily as possible and kept cheap with cheap packaging. Non recyclable, toxic and non biodegradable packaging. In a world filled with "want want want" and "need need need" no time is given for the consumer to contemplate the repercussions of this 1 second decision they have been so colourfully led to with song and dance on the silver screen.

Beautiful women caressing an ice-cream with their tongues and giving full visual explanation of what to do with said ice-cream yet it's never shown what is done with the wrapper. The human condition is bent and shaped by big companies who just want to sell sell sell and manipulate the people with their instinctive needs of sexual gratification, and need for food to create a super product that seemingly satisfies all needs and shows absolute disregard to the reality of the world we actually live in in which ice-creams do not come attached to a nearly naked woman but are in fact wrapped in a tiny piece of seemingly insignificant plastic which is flung out the car window as the consumer searches for his creamy lady on a stick. No lady to be found. The wrapper, however, is found. Countless animals not only dying due to the ingestion of plastic and non recyclables but suffering. Not only the animals but the earth as well. Rivers choking on waste dumped down their banks, oceans smothered in plastic, suffocating each and every living organism under the surface.

So it's clear to see how through media and commercialisation, partnered with the "Hollywood" idealisation and 3rd world uneducated reality creates quite a significant problem in the attempt to fight pollution and waste dumping in Africa. 

As conservationists we do what we can to curb this problem. To educate, to clean, to reduce, reuse and recycle what we can in and with our local communities. We try to show them that there is money to be made from recycling, often the best way to get them to start, but the effort in collecting becomes too much for some and they soon give up. Its a never ending cycle, educate the people, get then excited and incentivised to start, try keep them going, once they've given up, group the next lot and do it all again.

Two years ago, we started project clean up at Nimeng. This was a project where myself and the rangers divided the land up into a number of zones and over the next three months would move through these sections and remove any and all waste from the ranch.

Please follow me on twitter and Instagram via the links below to see the world from my perspective, with a foot in the door.

https://twitter.com/BiancaBothab211

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Read my scholarship articles for The WOMA at the links below:

The WOMA Scholarship : Conservationista by Bianca Botha

To visit or donate to my crowdfunding page please follow the link below! Thank you for your support!

US, UK and South Africa: 

Back-a-Buddy Conservation study fund

Hyena Diaries Part two

A month had passed since the release of Roxy, a young female brown hyena caught on a neighbouring farm. By all evidence of tracks and scat found she was doing well and had adapted to her new home. Which was a good sign telling us not only our fences were in good enough condition to keep her inside but that the living conditions were ideal and good enough for her to make a fast transition to her new surroundings. A good sign for any future release attempts. And it wasn't long before we had the chance for just that.

My friend called again and said another hyena had been captured on the same farm as previously, again the owner did not want to shoot or destroy the animal and we were asked if we could take on another one. Again I instantly agreed and began to plan where we would release the new hyena. We would not be able to release it in the same area as the previous one as there are now 2 known resident hyenas in the Trekpad camp, and with an area of only around 400Ha it would be too small to attempt to successfully introduce another member.

I opted for the second and around 2300Ha area of land we have on the other side of the R523, also a beautiful area with plenty of shrub and desert like areas in which the hyena would almost certainly find a great place to den in no time. 

I jumped on an available ATV and rushed through to the service gate across the road, waiting to hail the drop off vehicle and release time in. I saw them coming over the hill and opened the gate, ensuring no time is wasted to get the animal into the field and released. Once we were all in I drove ahead and lead the convoy into the old plantations which were surrounded by great brush and sandy hills for the hyena to explore. This area is also full of small and relatively easily hunted animals, as well as carrion and bone from the old vulture restaurant we used to run in that area.

Once we reached the drop off location I again signalled for the truck to turn with the back toward the shrubbery, as the hyena would instinctively run towards cover as soon as the gate is opened and we would then be able to all remain safely behind its path on or in the truck.

I managed to get a good look at the hyena before the release, clearly able to see the injuries it sustained from attempts to escape the cage. The skin on the upper part of the muzzle had been scraped of and it was bleeding in the mouth from attempts at biting through the iron bars of the cage. This animal was also clearly more distressed than the previous one as we were unable to cover the cage with tarp during transit which would have kept it a little more calm. The cage was also significantly larger than the back of the truck that was available for the move. This created the problem that the animals legs could fall through the bars at the end of the cage and it could break its legs. Brooms and other items were used to create temporary bars to keep the animal in the back section of the cage until we could release it.

Before the release we needed to place metal sheets inside the cage in order for the animal to have something to step one when exiting the cage for the same reason mentioned above. He was not happy with our attempts to keep him back while my friend put the sheets in, the cage door slightly lifted. He paced in small circles at the rear end of the cage, growling at us, getting more and more irate as the seconds passed.

Finally everything was in place and we could open the cage door. We all moved to the front of the truck and ensured we were well out of reach should the animal turn around and decide not to run to cover.

The door was raised. He bolted out the door and ran straight for cover as we had hoped.

Another successful release.

He wandered around the edge of the shrub area, taking in the new scents. We watched him for about 5 minutes and decided he was content in the new surroundings and would wonder freely until he finds a new place to den. We decided to call him Jan.

For more information on this hyena and research about him please follow this blog and keep up with the hyena diaries.

Please follow me on twitter and Instagram via the links below to see the world from my perspective, with a foot in the door.

https://twitter.com/BiancaBothab211

https://www.instagram.com/aconservationistsjourney/

Read my scholarship articles for The WOMA at the links below:

The WOMA Scholarship : Conservationista by Bianca Botha

To visit or donate to my crowdfunding page please follow the link below! Thank you for your support!

US, UK and South Africa: 

Back-a-Buddy Conservation study fund

Hyena Diaries: part one continued

"I would sort out the details with my employer later, I just wanted to get this animal offloaded and out of the trap as soon as possible." I told my friend yes! I urged him to get to the farm as soon as possible and we sorted out the arrangements. I would wait for him at the main entrance gate to our Trekpad property and lead him in as fast as possible to the drop off zone I had identified.

In previous months I had walked extensively through the range doing road mapping and marking. In this time I was able to keep an eye on the leopard and hyena activity in the area. From this I had identified at least one resident male brown hyena and knew exactly where his regular feeding areas and den were located, giving me somewhat of an idea as to where his territory is. A brown hyena does well in sub Saharan, dessert like areas so the foot of the hill, with a good amount of brush looked like the ideal drop off zone.

I drove ahead on the ATV leading the capture team into the bush. With the road recently opened I was happy to see they had come with 4x4 vehicles, as they may need them over the rocky and through the deep sand terrain. On the way to the drop off point, through the meandering shrub and trees I noticed our resident hyenas' tracks in the road; he has been expanding his territory.

We reach the drop off point and I motion for the truck to be parked with the rear end towards the foot of the hill, the others vehicles to pull of and park in-front of it. We begin to remove the sheets of canvas used to cover the cage and keep the animal calm during transit and are able to get a glimpse of her. A young brown hyena female, which we have decided to name Roxy, sulking in the front corner of the cage.

We all move to the front of the vehicle and the capture team ready themselves on top of the cage. The sliding door is lifted, she bolts out of the cage and runs directly for the cover of the shrub at the foot of the hill. She runs, winding through trees and bush searching for cover where she believes we would not be able to capture her again. She had been in the cage for almost 20 hours where she had been captured on a neighbouring farm in one of the breeding camps. About 5min and 100m from us, she crosses the previous nights path of the resident male, picking up his scent from the pastings he had left. She was not distressed. The scent trail had distracted her from us and we watched as she followed his trail down the open road. This was a good sign.

As we left we took a route to the opposite direction, not wanting to disturb her in her efforts to locate the male or possibly find a den of her own. We discussed with hopeful spirits that she and the male may cross paths one night and mate. It would be a wonderful, however small, success in the attempt at saving the critically endangered Brown hyena.

For more information on the well being of and future of this hyena, please read future entries of Hyena Diaries on my blog, where I will be posting about the tracking and research we will be doing.

Please follow me on twitter and Instagram via the links below to see the world from my perspective, with a foot in the door.

https://twitter.com/BiancaBothab211

https://www.instagram.com/aconservationistsjourney/

Read my scholarship articles for The WOMA at the links below:

The WOMA Scholarship : Conservationista by Bianca Botha

To visit or donate to my crowdfunding page please follow the link below! Thank you for your support!

US, UK and South Africa: 

Back-a-Buddy Conservation study fund

The Struggle

Around the age of 10 I had visited an Outdoor expo, this was where I would meet the wonderful students from the Technical University of Pretoria and decide that this is where I would like to go to university and obtain my degree in Nature Conservation. Each year around 200 students walk into the university to start their Conservation careers, only about 20 to 60 graduate.

The reasons for the dramatic drop in numbers are many so I will only name the most prevalent. Firstly the lack of understanding of what Conservation is. Many first year students walk into their first classes thinking they are going to walk around a ranch or reserve ( if they know the difference ) with a rifle of some-sort shooting poachers, or working with animals in enclosures; petting cheetahs and riding elephants. That is not the focus of conservation, only a small part of it, for which you do not necessarily require a degree. Once the students realise this they drop out, following a different career path entirely or finding some other way to enter the industry for example The Field Guide Association of South Africa (FGASA) or similar courses. Secondly is the coarse material itself. Conservation flows over into many arenas, many conservationists fulfil their careers sitting in an office and never spending a day in he field, however, to reach this point you are still required to complete the coarse and all the scientific subjects it entails. This proves difficult for some students and again they drop out. Last but not least, in fact this may be the most prevalent reason of all, is finances. Going to a tertiary education institution of any sort is already difficult enough, and this is true for many countries throughout the world, but in Africa it is made so much more challenging due to the corruption, protests and discrimination the youth face today. Student loans are not only exorbitant to pay back but are increasingly difficult to obtain. For a conservation student this is an even bigger problem as the general salary a conservationist could expect to receive at entry level (and even into management positions) would be barely above the bread lines and most certainly not enough to repay the monthly instalments.

Finances has always been a big issue in conservation. One only needs to look at the amount of foundations and conservation funds that exist to understand that there is very little money going from the country's coffers to the aid of conservation and research. Many projects spend years lobbying to foreign investors in hope of finding a compassionate soul with deep pockets who doesn't mind throwing their loose change to the critically important research and work conservationists are doing. 

Conservationists never worry about money when it is for themselves, many conservationists do the work they do voluntarily, they live in small rural communities with the people they are helping and feed themselves and community members off the small vegetable gardens the grow, help communities raise money by collecting and recycling any and all recyclable materials, they get communities involved in assisting landowners in the fight against poaching and the landowners reward them with small amounts of money or food. When a conservationist does worry about money, it is about their projects. In order for us to be able to see the dramatic drop in Leopard numbers in the Soutpansberg, a conservationist or related professional needed to do the research. This research requires years of hard work, tracking collars, darting expeditions, trapping cameras and so much more, which all require money. Money is the only way this research can come to life and we can do what is needed to determine what is happening to the species around us and what we can do about it. Without the finances for this research to continue, these animals would all go extinct.

The struggle is real. Yet conservationists will always find a way to get done what is needed. It would simply be so much easier with the support of local governments, to have them recognise the need for and importance of this research and work. 

Education is the key, the world needs to be told about environmental issues and each country must make a point of it to have finances available for conservation work and research.

Please follow me on twitter and Instagram via the links below to see the world from my perspective, with a foot in the door.

https://twitter.com/BiancaBothab211

https://www.instagram.com/aconservationistsjourney/

Read my scholarship articles for The WOMA at the links below:

The WOMA Scholarship : Conservationista by Bianca Botha

To visit or donate to my crowdfunding page please follow the link below! Thank you for your support!

US, UK and South Africa: 

Back-a-Buddy Conservation study fund

Hyena Diaries part one

Some time ago I had come in contact with a group of people working on a number of conservation research projects here in Limpopo. I was in awe of the work they were doing and ached to be a part of it. Alas that would not be as I have no degree, a sore subject shared too often and a hindrance in any attempt to work with projects like this.

I met one of their permanent staff members and have since built a great relationship with him and am elated to have someone to talk with about conservation and science and everything that comes with it. We would often share stories of sightings we have made and work we are doing.

I am currently working for Nimeng Safaris, a privately owned game ranch in Vivo Limpopo. The land was previously used as agricultural farm land with some undisturbed area for game. Conservation efforts on the ranch have been non existent for over ten years and invader vegetation species are found throughout the grounds. Previously my position did not allow for me to take on these issues and to plan for the future of the animals and ecosystems on the ranch, but that is all starting to change.

In recent months I have been given more conservation orientated tasks; veld assessments; game counts; mortality control and recording etc which has allowed me to spend a lot more time in the bush.

Walking around on the ranch I often get the opportunity to get up close and personal with the animals and have noticed them becoming more comfortable with my presence. It's exhilarating to walk in the haunting silence and finding fresh leopard tracks and not far off even more recent hyena tracks!

Slowly I started gathering data on the hyena on the ranch. I was able to record their numbers, movements and gender, I found a den and plenty of scat which told me what they were eating! In these times I felt content, everything was beautiful and I could feel a younger me coming back to life!

On a weekend after a week of road mapping and geotagging I received a call from my friend. He told me a neighboring farm had captured a brown hyena in a box trap. The hyena had been hunting their breeding nyalas. I was elated that the ranch owner had put out a box trap and not poison or opted to shoot the animal as so many farm owners in the area do. This showed me again that conservation and environmental education is strong in the area and is starting to sink in with local land owners and farmers. I thought the news couldn't get better until my friend asked if they could release the animal on our land. I agreed immediately. I would sort out the details with my employer later, I just wanted to get this animal offloaded and out of the trap as soon as possible.




Please follow me on twitter and Instagram via the links below to see the world from my perspective, with a foot in the door.

https://twitter.com/BiancaBothab211

https://www.instagram.com/aconservationistsjourney/

Read my scholarship articles for The WOMA at the links below:

The WOMA Scholarship : Conservationista by Bianca Botha

To visit or donate to my crowdfunding page please follow the link below! Thank you for your support!

US, UK and South Africa: 

Back-a-Buddy Conservation study fund

A foot in the door

A Foot in the door

Every little girl has a dream for when she grows up, some want to be a princess some a teacher and some a firefighter or police woman. 

I was one of these little girls. Dressed in pink and lace, my parents would watch me, their little princess doing very un-princess like things. Running around bare foot on the grass, catching frogs, not to kiss them hoping they would turn into a prince, but to look at them; intensely study their morphology; their behaviour and to talk to them to gain a better understanding of why they were trying to get away from me. I knew what I wanted to be. It wasn't a princess; it was a wild woman. 

As a toddler I already knew my purpose and passion was to be out in the wild, in the African Bush. To be scorched by the southern sun and glow in its glory. I knew I wanted to understand these tiny creatures around me and constantly be surrounded by them and their magic. I knew what I wanted to be was their guardian, their protector. I wanted to become a conservationist.

I grew up barefoot with a book in the hand, reading encyclopedias and dictionaries to ensure I have a full understanding of everything my teachers were teaching me. Working hard at school to guarantee my acceptance to the best Nature Conservation University in the country. I succeeded and was instantly accepted and could barely contain my excitement! I had already purchased all my required textbooks throughout the years and studied them in detail. I wanted to be the best conservationist I could be.

Second year University. In the top of my class, tragedy strikes. My family splits and a psychological warfare issues. My sister, yet to finish High school faces the possibility of being unable to do so; my brother in the final year of his degree falls into a deep depression. Finances are drained by the ongoing battle and I had to make a decision. 

I chose to give my family the opportunity to rebuild, each in their own space. I chose to give up my studies in order for finances to be freed up and my siblings to focus on their education. It was the hardest decision I had ever made, It was the best decision I could have made. My brother is now a successful Physiotherapist and my sister an Amazing Graphic designer. My father has moved on and is able to live his life and still put food on the table. My mother has done the same. They are happy. They are OK.

I opted to start working in an attempt to save and pay for my studies myself. 

Eight years later, I'm still working. 

After some time the reality dawned on me, that in this beautiful country I live in, there are things which are not so beautiful. The corruption; the debilitating cost of living, the Junk Status South African economy. All these things working against the little guy, the girl with a dream.

I had fallen into a depression, a difficult feat when you are surrounded by the beautiful Soutpansberg and Blouberg Mountains, birds singing all around you, the fresh breeze caressing your cheek. However, it was true. Depression had sunk its claws into me and started to rip at my soul, playing with my mind predicting imminent and constant failure and that I would never be happy, never have that piece of paper with my name in script beneath the title Conservationist. Everything seemed lost.

This has been my dream and passion since I was a little girl. Left dangling in-front of me ever out of reach.

Many dark nights went by, hours crying and praying for my time to come, for the opportunity to just get my foot in the door. One night laying in my single bed, my furkids keeping me warm and the milky-way lighting the sky, I thought back to that little girl in her pink Sunday dress, running barefoot in the grass catching frogs. That little girl deserved to live, to live the life she dreamt of when staring at the sunlight flickering through the leaves of the trees and she spoke to butterflies fluttering by.

The very next day I started to make my move, to hoe my fields while I pray for rain if you will. I was setting things in place. I contacted universities, spoke to farm owners hoping someone may be able and willing to offer a scholarship in exchange for years of loyal and professional service. I started a crowd funding page hoping loving and caring strangers may see and share in my passion and get me started on the road to a happy future. I contacted the bank and attempted to get a loan, each time unsuccessful. I would not give up, I would not let go and let that little girl vanish into the abyss of an unforgiving world.

It has been 3 years since I got my foot in the door and it is finally beginning to open!

Please follow me on twitter and Instagram via the links below to see the world from my perspective, with a foot in the door.

https://twitter.com/BiancaBothab211

https://www.instagram.com/aconservationistsjourney/

Read my scholarship articles for The WOMA at the links below:

The WOMA Scholarship : Conservationista by Bianca Botha

To visit or donate to my crowdfunding page please follow the link below! Thank you for your support!

US, UK and South Africa:

Back-a-Buddy Conservation study fund