Animal snare poaching on the rise in KNP
SANParks spokesperson Ike Phaahla has called on the courts to impose heavy sentences on those charged with snare poaching.
Incidents of snare and rhino poaching remain high in the Kruger National Park.
Speaking on Wednesday, Phaahla said he believes that poachers have now gone into illegal bush trade.
"We would like to see much stiffer sentences for snare poaching, similar to rhino poaching, because we believe that some of the rhino poachers have now gone into the illegal bush trade because they've realised that there's more risk in the rhino poaching, given the situation now, but they can just pull up snares, or sometimes recruit boys to pull up those snares and they can still make money out of it.
"We try very hard to also vindicate to law enforcement people, also to the public in general, through media expressions like this, that this is worrying, it's going in the wrong direction."
SANParks honorary rangers collected over 800 snares in Kruger National Park between June and September last year.
The snares were collected during a168 168-kilometre walk across the park.
Every year, thousands of snares are removed from the Kruger National Park as poachers intensify their operations to enhance the illegal bushmeat trade.
The illegal bushmeat market trade is a business that sees thousands of animals poached in the KNP every year.
Skukuza section ranger Kally Ubisi said homemade snares, made with fencing wire, are used to capture animals easily.
"The people are no longer hunting for the pot. What they do now is they open meat markets outside. They find two or three impalas, they carry it over and sell it to the highest buyer.
"In one weekend, there were about more than 300-plus snares that we removed. Sometimes, you find in one particular area, there were more than 50 snares that they’ve set up.”
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