Four Wild Wonderful World safari travelers chose to include several conservation activities in their South African safari, one of which was a snare sweep. After a 5am wake up, 45 minute drive and safety briefing, WWW Founder Michelle Pengilly and 4 guests joined the team from Phalaborwa Natural Heritage Foundation on a privately owned game farm, to search the area for snares set by bushmeat poachers.

Let me tell you, walking on a straight line, 10m apart, through rocky terrain littered with thick buffalo thorn and sickle bush shrubs is far from easy! It took our eyes a while to adjust, and the beginning phase was slow, but once we found the first snare we suddenly started encountering them everywhere. Some of us got a little lost, all of us got thoroughly scratched up, but the satisfaction of finding a total of 30 snares in a span of 2-3h made it all worthwhile. That is 30 animals saved from being killed.

Snare sweeping is not for the faint of heart but partaking in real, boots-on-the-ground operation like this brings with it a sense of purpose that is impossible to replicate. Thank you to our travelers from the USA Julie, Gary, Jess and Chris for being so committed and hands on in African wildlife conservation!

With huge thanks to the PNHF team for showing us the ropes, enabling this experience for us and carrying out this back breaking work day in and day out.

This experience included a donation to the PNHF cause. Our Rapid Response Fund donates regularly towards desnaring operations to rescue wildlife trapped in these wire snares. Snare sweeps like these are an important part of the preventative strategy to reduce snaring incidents in the first place.

Thanks to direct donations to our Rapid Response Fund, we are able to continue funding snare sweeps and wildlife rescue operations across Africa.