TITLE:
Seasonal Trend and Distribution of Wire-Snaring Activities and Possible Hotspots in the Sengwa Wildlife Area (SWRA), Zimbabwe
AUTHORS:
Innocent Mahakata
KEYWORDS:
Wire Snare, SWRA, Patrol, Trend, Season
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Access Library Journal,
Vol.9 No.10,
October
28,
2022
ABSTRACT: One salient method of poaching is the use of wire snares to kill wild animals. The study sought to determine seasonal trend and distribution of wire snaring in Sengwa Wildlife Research Area (SWRA) and predict possible seasonal hotspots areas. Presence-only data from law enforcement patrols done by field rangers between January, 2018 and December, 2021 was used. Descriptive statistics was used to establish trend in wire-snare occurrence from 2018 to 2021. Kruskal Wallis test was performed to determine if there was significance difference on number of wire snares removed in different season. Kernel Density Estimation (KDE) analysed in R was used to highlight the relative probability of snaring hotspot based on wire snare GPS coordinates and number of snares removed at the site in ArcMap 10.3. Total effort from January, 2018 to December, 2021 was 4767 patrol sessions, with 2314 wire-snares recovered. Of the snares recorded, 14.5% (n = 335) were recovered in wet season, 29. 4% (n = 680) in cool dry season while 56.1% (n = 1299) in hot dry season. Of the removed wire-snares, 1573 were set targeting small animals, 602 for medium size animals while 139 were meant for large animals. There was no significant difference on number of wire snares removed in wet, cool dry and hot dry season (Z-Value = 4.654, p = 0.086). Based on present only data collected for this study, the results showed seasonal variation of hotspot areas. This study recommends that well-designed scientific inquiry performed in concert with anti-poaching team has the potential to substantially decrease the threat of snaring in SWRA.