Snare Aware

Following on my previous post "Snare Scare" , I wanted to do a follow up on what more can and is being done with regards to the snaring problem beautiful South Africa and her wildlife are facing.

In my previous post I spoke about the S.N.A.R.E project run by the KaiNav Conservation Foundation and how they use the wires recovered from their expeditions to create Snare Art . Thereby creating income for rural communities as well as producing a profit which funds further expeditions and other conservation projects.

Conservation foundations are in abundance, each doing their part in attempts to preserve, conserve and protect our natural Fauna and Flora. However many foundations, associations etc there may be, they never seem to be enough. That is where the citizen conservationist comes in. Everyday average individuals doing their part in helping rangers, conservationists, parks, conservancies and all the rest to achieve their goals in the conservation of their area. Lize Bester is one of those people, and through the simple use of  a little bit of Facebook savvy and a caring community she has recruited many more.

Two years ago today, 6 October 2015, Lize created the group Enough is enough describing it as a group of individuals who have had enough of seeing the wonderful wildlife of our country being senselessly slaughtered and butchered in the most painful and horrendous of manners, snaring. It is a group focused on a call to action against snaring, for each citizen to do their part to assist the rangers in the fight against poachers and the cruel systems they use.

The group currently has 794 members from around the globe and is administrated by 3 dedicated individuals who ensure that current updates are posted as soon as they come in and that no post is missed as animals lives are in danger and time is of essence!

Members of the group will post their own photos as they see animals entangled or caught in a snare and report the location and time of the sighting, this information is then passed on to the rangers and they fall into action to locate the animal and attempt to remove the snare.

Snares are indiscriminate and any animal could get caught in them. Some animals ,such as the wild dog post alongside, are collared animals and part of a research project. These projects aim to gain insight in the movements, behaviours, population sizes and many other factors in the lives of the selected members. This assists conservationists in making decisions and planning for the future of these animals and their species. When project animals are killed by snares the projects are retarded and set back a great deal with the incredible loss of data.

It is imperative to the research teams involved to try by all means to keep the members alive, this group is doing just that by responding and updating snared animal sightings constantly.









The group also takes their work another step further by posting other relevant information that may curb negative stigma around the work rangers do, conservation efforts against poaching and the general state of our National parks. A short while ago a dead elephant was seen in the Kruger National park and it was noted that the tusks had been removed. The fast response of the team to report on the group that the elephant had in fact died of natural causes and that the tusks were removed by a section ranger may have spared the park and nation from horrible tourist reviews and rumours about poaching in the park.

The rangers greatly appreciate the work done by everyday citizens and visitors to the park. They are unable to be everywhere at once and there is always so much work to be done, with the extra million eyes in the park at any given time it makes the tedious task of locating captured animals in the vast area of the park so much easier and rangers response time so much faster.

In the past 5 years there have been over 1000 rhinos poached in South Africa annually, and over 30 elephants in the Kruger
National Park alone between January and June 2017.

The incredible amount of poaching in this country has even lead to theories about the ivory and rhino horn trade funding terrorism, a very scary thought.





However, there seems to be hope in the future as a result of UK officials making a great decision, as in a report by The Guardian, to stop their trade in ivory. The UK is the biggest exporter of legal ivory and believe that by shutting down their trade they may impact the illegal laundering of illegal ivory and assist in the fight against elephant poaching.

Enough is enough has had such a major impact that the group has even been featured in an article in the local newspaper Laevelder by environmental journalist Mariana Balt.

This helps further in the awareness roll of the group and any other group or person doing something similar. By making the public and visitors to national parks aware of the need for action, more and more people are likely to get involved, which will make it increasingly difficult for poachers to get what they want and be a huge discouragement to them to put up any more snares.

The group also shares happiness with its members and any person involved in the sighting, safe capture and snare removal of an affected animal. Recently a female lion was seen with a gaping wound and snare around her neck. The visitors to the park, Enough is Enough admins and park rangers sprang into action. With the constant sighting reports from the visitors and tourists the rangers were able to find the lioness, affectionately called Lucy, dart her and successfully remove the snare. After her procedure another member of the group sent in his image of her looking to have a new lease on life and to be fit and well on her way to recovery. She then become known as Lucky Lucy.

This is one of the wonderful posts shared by the group and members would comment and post recent sightings and how glad they were that she is going to be alright.

She is one of the lucky ones. Not all animals will be as lucky as she is.

For anyone wanting to join the group or take part in assisting in this battle please take note of the following information posted by Lize to have a better understanding of how it all works:

Information needed: 

-Precise date and time of sighting  -What type of animal was seen with snare? -Where on the animal is the snare situated: neck, left hind leg etc?-The road number you spotted the animal on, the distance from the closest or distance from the next turn-off (the road number of the turn-off)-Please take photos of the animal with snare. A photo must be available to be sent by message, take one with your cellphone as well.- A GPS reading of the latest location of the snared animal would be perfect!- It would be ideal if someone can keep the animal in sight and someone else can drive off to make the phone call or send a message with details.
The Park Officials are not always readily available and there are a few actions to be taken sometimes before the call goes to 'despatch'.

The process:

As per arrangement with the Park Officials, the message or phone call must be made to me. [number available on the group] (We also have a whatsapp group for those who want to become involved in the day to day of this group. It's a bit more personal). 

I give the case and details personally through to the coordinator of all the services in the Park. She makes sure that it's been registered at the Joint Operational Centre in the Park. The message goes through to the Rangers, the SANDF, the SAPS and the Veterinary Services in the area where the animal with the snare was reported. We make sure everyone in the vicinity knows and keep an eye open for the ensnared animal. What we need to get everything going are all the relevant details and the photo. If someone can keep an eye on the animal with the snare, and someone else can call for help, the better and easier to find the animal. If the animal is moving, please take note of the place last seen and the direction the animal moved off.

The Enough is Enough-group keeps the statistics of all the animals reported and provide it to the Park officials. We also keep an eye on later sightings to confirm that the same animal is not reported as a new case, the duplication of reports frustrates the rangers a lot. This is the arrangement made between this group and the Park officials. We made sure it worked in a smaller group before we went public, it worked perfectly. We already made a difference in a few animal's lives.

Education is key. The more we can spread the word and educate people about this situation the more people will be able to stand up and do something about it, even if it is just a post on Facebook. A single post can save a life.

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

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

https://www.instagram.com/bothab211/?hl=en

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

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