The silent harvest
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The silent harvest
A display of almost 20,000 snares in Eswatini tells a silent but sobering conservation story.
At Hlane Royal National Park and the Mlilwane Wildlife Sanctuary in Eswatini, there are two displays of more than 20,000 snares, recovered from the bush between 1960 and 1970, when these protected areas were first gazetted.
WhyAfrica visited Eswatini’s remarkable wildlife areas last year as part of the 2025 WhyAfrica Road Trip through Africa to find out more about how these protected areas are managed today, and if there are still problems with poachers.
There are lessons in Eswatini.
Today Eswatini’s very successful parks are living reminders that conservation is measured in more than just another lion or rhino spotted on safari.
Removing snares a daily routine
The work of game rangers and anti-poaching units are not as glamourous as many believe it to be.
It is extremely hard and dangerous work, and rangers often spend long periods away from the family without the luxuries of city life and a big salary.
For Eswatini’s rangers in the early decades of conservation, snare removal was a daily reality. The habitat that had once been community grazing land and hunting ground was riddled with traps and snares.
Over time, thousands upon thousands of snares were lifted and taken back to camp, cut, catalogued, and displayed as a sobering record of what was removed to give wildlife a fighting chance.
Snares maim and kill
Snares are simple loops of wire anchored to a stake or tree.
Poachers place them along animal paths and near waterholes. An animal’s leg, neck or body can slip through the noose and as it struggles, the wire tightens, cutting into flesh and bone.
Injured animals may suffer days of dehydration, starvation and infection before death. Some twist and break bones trying to escape; others are left to be eaten alive by predators.
Let’s not forget the first rangers of Eswatini.
During the 2025 WhyAfrica Road Trip through South Africa, Eswatini, Lesotho and southern Namibia we camped in 8 of South Africa’s National Parks and 3 of Eswatini’s prime wildlife areas.
Eswatini’s story of the silent harvest is spell bounding.
WhyAfrica specialises in the sustainable use and responsible development of all Africa’s natural resources including the soil, wind, sun, hydrocarbons and fossil fuels, water, biodiversity and wildlife.
Image: At Hlane Royal National Park and the Mlilwane Wildlife Sanctuary in Eswatini, there are two displays of more than 20,000 snares, recovered from the bush between 1960 and 1970, when these protected areas were first gazetted. Image credit: Leon Louw for WhyAfrica
The silent harvest
