Rangers in Uganda’s Murchison Falls national park have amassed 12 tonnes of traps over the course of a year, which they’ve piled up high and nicknamed “snare mountain”.
They’re hoping to highlight the devastation to local wildlife by poachers who use these snares to trap lions, elephants and hippos among others.
“Over the past 10 years, we’ve removed about 47 tonnes of snares and bear traps,” says Michael Keigwin, the founder of the Uganda Conservation Foundation charity, as reported by the Guardian newspaper.
There is talk of a poaching crisis fuelled by Uganda’s worsening economy after strict Covid-19 lockdowns, and the charity estimates that more than 60% of the national park’s hippos have been killed in the past few years for their meat and the ivory in their teeth.