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| A lucky lioness! | ||
 Monday
26 April 1999
We recently found a lioness with a snare around her neck. She had moved southwards from a reserve to the North of us. She was very lucky in that whilst the snare was tight, it had not cut her yet and we were able to remove the snare. This morning early Piet the Ranger called me on the two-way radio informing me of a lioness with a snare! I immediately called on the Kruger National Park (KNP), my neighbour to the East. The KNP has enormous resources and amongst the world's best veterinarians. Dr Roy Bengis immediately responded and within a few hours of our discovery we were all assembled and ready remove the snare. As one may well appreciate, removing a snare from 180 kg (about 400 lbs.) healthy lioness is no picnic in the park, especially if she is surrounded by five other large lions! We approached the pride cautiously and identified the lioness with a snare wrapped tightly around her neck. A thin cable that has been tied with a slip noose and then strategically placed along a game path is the evil device called a snare. She had obviously been in less secure territory to the North and had walked through the snare which then tightened around her neck. She was strong enough to pull the snare from where it was anchored to a tree or fence post, but not able to reach it and remove it from her neck. Judging by the relatively little damage inflicted upon her neck, she had only recently (in the last week or so) been snared. Her prognosis was excellent, all we had to do is remove the snare! Oh, and cope with a fierce killer guarded by five snarling pride members! The three large, black mane males and the three lionesses were relaxed and allowed our open vehicle to approach to within a distance of 10 m (about 30 ft.).
The chafe mark from the snare. The other lions retired to a clump of
bushes about 60 - 70 m away and we rapidly set to the task at hand. A
cut from a pair of pliers and she was free! As simple as that! She had
no wound and had been merely chafed by the snare, a lucky lioness! Snares are a curse of conservation efforts. The poacher probably did not mean to snare the lioness, he would have been happy with a warthog, but snares are indiscriminate and the slow, lingering death it causes is unacceptable. Here at Djuma Game Reserve we are lucky in that we seldom see snares and snared animals, a fact we ascribe to our remoteness from the outside world. by Jurie Moolman
The lioness with the snare is sedated, but flanked by two companions |
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With the lioness in sight of his
dart gun, the KNP veterinarian shot her with a dart syringe filled with
a sedative. Within five minutes we had a very sedated lioness, but she
was now surrounded by her five companions who were becoming increasingly
restless and suspicious. We had to chase them away and resorted to a strategy
of "shoo kitty, shoo"! Not necessarily a recommended method
of dealing with five agitated lions, but we did not want to disturb the
peace with a warning shot from a rifle. In any case it worked!
