Urgent - Prevent cruel poaching of rare wildlife

Snares are a horrific and very cruel way to poach wildlife.

A noose is set with cable or wire by being attached to a tree and led up through the branches to hang over a path where wild animals walk. At times a snare could also be set low on the ground. The animal is noosed when walking under the tree and it panics and tries to run and pull loose. |The pain adds to the horror as the wire tightens and strangles it around its neck or as it pulls tighter over a limb or part of the animal's body. It is left there until the poacher returns and kills it with a hatchet. If it is not found, it dies from thirst or from being strangled. At times the animal’s family stays near and babies are especially traumatized. This is more horrible than can be imagined and it is a nightmare that is an ongoing concern and always on our minds to keep us aware.

To prevent poaching, we employ night guards that patrol and day guards that do snare checks during the day. We also check our outdoor security cameras that are placed in the bush at different locations. Our fence line is inspected for any intrusion and kept well maintained.

Your support is very important and greatly appreciated. Thankfully we have experienced no poaching recently, although reports of intrusions and poaching from surrounding properties are still being brought to our attention.

We can never relax our alertness and care for our precious animals. Every night and every day we keep watch.

Currently, we have on-hand fencing that is ready to be erected to replace our existing fence line that urgently needs to be redone. We would also like to link onto a satellite system to provide better day and night surveillance. A drone would also help tremendously and we would like to acquire one.

Please continue to help protect our wildlife and the biodiversity of our Reserve, which so many animals, birds, and life forms call home. 

Thank you for caring!

The great news is that our anti-poaching efforts have been sustained and we have not recently had any poaching incidences.

 Recently, however, one of our neighbouring Reserves was targeted and their electric fence was cut and goods were stolen. This brought to mind the ongoing challenge that we face to ensure the safety of our wild! We have now decided to install satellite surveillance over our Reserve. However, we would only be able to do this with your support.

The risk of poaching continues to be a constant concern and every night we are anxious about the safety of our wild. Especially on our mind are our darling zebra, Stripy, Tammy, and Milkyway our new zebra stallion. They keep watch over the young female wildebeest, Flower Patch, that they “adopted” when her mother was snared.

There are also other wildebeest, Franky the young bull and the territorial bull Ragnar who together with the zebra, come up to our homestead each evening. After visiting us they love to visit our guests at Leopard Walk Lodge.

However, all our wild animal species are precious and your support helps protect them! But we must do even more to completely ensure their safety!

• Please assist us to cover the cost of obtaining satellite surveillance so that we would be able to further ensure the safety of our precious wild animals.  

Thank you for caring and being champions of our Reserve and all its animals and biodiversity.