Unfortunately building up the snare collection over the last couple of months. Tragically not all empty.

Two groupings, about 2 km apart, between Nyanga and the National Park.

I have at times found the odd one or two when walking down to Nyanga over the last 5 years, but either I’m now better at finding them or there are more being set.

Usually made from one of two grades of very strong (ex-telephone) wire; the thicker type being very tough to unwind from the tree. Hence my recent investment in portable bolt cutters.

Typically each snare is a 70cm diameter circle, some distance off the ground – these are not rabbit snares. Mostly self supporting by the strength of the wire, but recently a couple have had a bark tie on the opposite side to hold in place and presumably prevent the loop being brushed out of the path. Also found in pairs – even these large ones.

Bizarrely there was a very wide one – approx 2m – my entire arm span – hanging up quite high across the path.

Mid July 2026 I was scoping out a new area and first found a kudu then a zebra. It’s the smell that gives them away, a wiff in the breeze but hardly a direction, then when you figure it out and get close the full-on rotting-meat stench and a thousand flies, too heavy to fly.

Hellish signs of the struggle: bark worn off by wire digging in, the ground messed up, body parts at angles, rotting red liquids in the body cavity, staring black hole for an eye, flies perched on taught telephone wire, legs, hooves, white teeth, horns twisting, jaw on the ground. 

There is nothing you can do; the tragedy already happened. And why were they left there to rot?

I used to look at the old wire they were made of, and think these snares were a legacy, been there for years – then, after sitting under a tree to rest – this was the day of the 2m snare – I was unfolding myself and twisting round to get up when I found four unused coils of (very light-blue-green) wire, piled neatly in the grass, one end already made into a small loop, the other end straight and unused. These were the thinner small type – maybe working out to 30 cm across, and typically found a little lower to the ground – still too big and tough for rabbits though.