While we know snares are present in the landscape, and work hard to remove them, there are still days when we get the call that an animal has been in caught in one.
These calls can come from my team: guides who monitor the lions of Meru National Park and are part of Born Free’s citizen science programme for Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS). With any report of an animal snared, we have to hope for the best but always fear the worst.
This day was no different. One of the Meru National Park guides, Mohammed, was taking guests on a wildlife tour. To their delight, they spotted a male lion in his prime. While this is the sighting most guests wish for, Mohammed noticed something was wrong.
The male lion had a wire around his neck. Mohammed quickly sent a photo to our Lion Watchers WhatsApp group, where local guides, KWS rangers, Wildlife Research and Training Institute researchers and Born Free report sightings of lions. Sharing is one of the ways we can monitor the lions of Meru when we aren’t on the ground.
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Thanks to Mohammed’s rapid action, the KWS vet was able to make it to the scene quickly, where I joined him. He darted the male lion, allowing him to be safely examined. This snare was made from a thin metal wire, which would have been set by a poacher to trap wildlife.
While larger animals can break free from the spot where the snare set, either by breaking the wire or branch which it is attached too, it can be nearly impossible for them to remove the wire loop once it has tightened on their body.
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Snares can be set anywhere within Meru National Park, waiting to entrap animals. Once an animal puts their head through or foot into a snare and they move, it will tighten quickly around their body. While lions may not have been the target, snares are indiscriminate, meaning all wild animals are in danger.
Tightening around this male’s neck, the wire would have caused serious damage and risked infection, had it not been removed. Thankfully in this case, the wire had yet to cause any serious damage. I breathed a sigh of relief and said a silent prayer seeing that the lion had an opportunity to live and thrive.
After the snare was successfully removed, the lion was monitored by the vet as he came around from the sedation and rejoined his pride. As a dominant male, ensuring he was able to continue his important role in the local ecosystem was vital. This is the best-case outcome of any intervention, and it’s a huge relief when we see the animal walk away from us safely.
The presence of snares is an ongoing challenge faced by wildlife across the world, even in national parks like Meru, and is one of the reasons why routine monitoring, collaboration and rapid response protocols are so important in conservation efforts. I’m proud to be part of a team that is actively working to protect the lions of Meru from harm.
Michael Mugo is Born Free’s Pride of Meru Manager and has been helping protect lions in Meru National Park and surrounding area since 2023.
Photos by Anna Cryer
