A pride of lions with cubs was seen in Balule Private Game Reserve. One of the adult females was first spotted with a snare cutting into the abdomen; moving slow and painful. At least one of the cubs also had a very badly cutting snare around his shoulder and chest. The Wildscapes veterinary team headed out to the area to dart the lions with snares to remove them. Unfortunately no lions showed up to the call up on the first morning. They sent up a drone to locate the pride and try again in the afternoon. The pride was spotted next to the road and a bait placed but only a male lion who didn't have a snare showed up and couldn't be pushed off the bait. As this particular male lion was also know to be very aggressive towards other lions, the team had to call it a night.

The next day, again the pride did not approach the bait and decided to hide in the hills. On day three of trying, the team decided to just try and drive up to them as close as possible. This did the trick and the vet managed to dart the lioness with the most severe wound around her abdomen. The snare was cut, the wound was treated and lioness was given pain medication. Because she was in good body condition, we are quite confident that she would make a full recovery. We suspected another 1 or 2 lions with snares in the pride but as we darted to female, the cubs unfortunately ran ahead and were out of reach. After treating the female we placed her next to the bait for the wake up, hoping she would call the others down the mountain. Unfortunately she enjoyed her alone time a little bit too much and ate the bait without calling the others.

A few days later, the vet team was in the area and decided to call the helicopter in to assist with locating and darting the remaining snared lions. They found them quickly thanks to Gerry’s amazing flying, even though the wind was gusting heavily! They identified on other compromised cub. It hid away in a thick bush looking up to the heli and growling at them, but luckily by some miracle Bart the vet managed to dart him. A very skilled shot is needed to dart a small cub hiding in the brush, from a moving helicopter! The cub fell fast asleep after 9 minutes, after which the ground team moved in. The snare wound on the cub was severe and despite the team doing their best to treat it as best they could, his prognosis wasn't great. Meanwhile, the helicopter checked out all the other lions again and luckily no more snared lions were seen from the air. The mother that was treated a few days before was already moving much better - a good sign!

This rescue operation shows how difficult working in the wilderness, with wild animals can be - and the difference the availability of a helicopter can make to operation efficiency! Balule Game Reserve funded the helicopter time, while our snare rescue group paid for the veterinary costs.