As rhino poaching declines, other Kruger species are targeted in snaring spree

The bull buffalo had been a brute, a rippling block of muscle crowned by enormous horns. But when the lions closed in, he was easy prey, exhausted and suffering from a searing pain that only death could end. The buffalo, whose skull is now bleaching in the sun on the grounds of the Kruger National Park’s K9 unit, fell victim to a new wave of poaching sweeping the reserve: the use of snares to feed a burgeoning market in bushmeat and animal parts for muti. Coming on the heels of the rhino poaching crisis, the snaring surge is a new battlefront in the wildlife wars and one that suggests poverty and joblessness remain entrenched around the park. “We believe strongly that there is a bushmeat trade developing outside the park. It’s linked to the general lawlessness challenge outside the park,” Glenn Phillips, the Kruger’s managing executive, said. “According to the last census about 2-million people were living on our western boundary with an unemployment rate of between 40% and 60%. So ...