Snares claim the lives of three Sumatran tigers

Three critically endangered Sumatran tigers were found dead near an oil palm plantation in Aceh province on the Sumatran Island of Indonesia after being trapped by snares.

Snaring explained

A snare is a long piece of wire or rope attached to a tree with a loop at the end which catches an animal by the neck or leg as it is passing. Once caught, they panic and continue to pull at the snare making it tighter and tighter. If the snare is around their neck and strong enough, the animal will suffocate. Alternatively, if it is around their leg, they are trapped and can starve to death.

If a tiger is lucky enough to break free the prognosis is still not optimistic. They either break the snare from its base with the loop still attached to them causing constant constriction, swelling and pain. Alternatively, tigers may pull and chew at the leg until they lose the limb and break free. Both scenarios will likely lead to a prolonged and painful death as the animal struggles with the resulting infection and a reduced food intake as they are unable to hunt.

Depending on the target species the snares look a little different. Small, thin snares are set lower to the ground to trap deer and wild boar. These prey species are illegally hunted in protected areas to subsidise the protein intake of local people and as a source of income through the domestic market for bushmeat. Larger, thicker snares are set higher up to trap bigger animals like tigers to fuel the commercial, international illegal trade of tiger parts. It is important to distinguish between these motivations for snaring to enable us to address the crises effectively.

Subsistence poachers and domestic commercial poachers

Bushmeat poached in Thailand in 2021 ©Freeland

Many of the world’s poorest people living in rural areas depend on the forest and bushmeat like deer and wild boar for their nutrition and livelihoods. It is incredibly important to understand the socioeconomic and nutritional context of commercial and subsistence bushmeat hunting to enable us to correctly understand ways of reducing people’s dependence on wildlife, while meeting their livelihood needs and resolving their lack of resources.

From a subsistence perspective, access to wild animals is often the only source of protein available for some of the world’s poorest communities who are driven to poaching by food insecurity. With global economies ravaged by COVID-19 there has been rising unemployment among communities living in tiger range countries and it is anticipated that this could lead to an increase in illegal resource extraction. While economic development may drive down the need for subsistence hunting as an essential protein source it can drive up the demand for bushmeat as a luxury product in cities in the form of non-essential consumption.

The demand for bushmeat might not necessarily be directly targeting wild tigers, but it has devastating impacts on their survival. In practice, snares indiscriminately kill and maim animals of all species with tigers regularly caught in snares set for wild boar and deer. Furthermore, growing domestic demand for bushmeat has depleted the population of tiger prey species which leads to cascading effects in the wider ecosystem, disrupting food chains, pollination and seed dispersal. And, as we all know too well, the consumption of bushmeat also increases the risk of emerging infectious diseases.

Commercial poaching to supply the international illegal trade of tiger parts

In comparison, the illegal global wildlife trade does not fulfil any essential consumption needs. Instead, this trade is a multi-billion-dollar market and one of the most lucrative transnational crimes involving networks of highly organised criminal syndicates.

While many experts are concerned that the lasting impacts of the pandemic have left tigers even more vulnerable to mounting threats, they did receive some respite from the international trade during the pandemic. As people the world over struggled to travel as a result of COVID restrictions, it was no different for those responsible for satisfying international demand for tiger parts. However, as international travel restrictions are being lifted this also reopens illegal trade routes. Experts are closely watching for any changes in snare detection or other evidence of poaching which could quickly undermine any reductions in tiger poaching during the pandemic.