Originally published 2020-12-05.
An adult female elephant known as Martha was found limping badly near Musango Island Safari Camp in Zimbabwe, with a wire snare cutting deep into her left front leg. The camp's owner called conservationist Catherine Norton, whose team sedated the elephant, cut the wire away, cleaned the infected wound and gave antibiotics. Martha woke within minutes and was able to walk back to her dependent calf.
The rescue, reported internationally by Caters News in late 2020 and early 2021, is a short story with a long backstory. It shows how a single loop of cheap wire can cripple the largest land animal on Earth, and why snares worry conservationists as much as guns do.
How the rescue unfolded
The camp owner noticed that Martha was struggling to put weight on one leg and contacted Norton, then 58, a Zimbabwe-based conservationist who works with a wildlife rescue team. When they reached the elephant, they found the wire had tightened around her lower leg and worked its way into the flesh, causing an infection.
Approaching an injured adult elephant is extremely dangerous. An animal in pain that weighs several tonnes can kill a person in seconds if it panics. The only safe way to treat Martha was to immobilise her with a veterinary drug, delivered by dart, and work quickly while she was down.
Norton explained why there was no alternative: “We had to immobilize Martha, because without our intervention she would have died.” The team used wire cutters to remove the snare, cleaned the wound and treated her with antibiotics before giving the reversal drug.
Recovery from the anaesthetic took only a few minutes. Martha got back on her feet and could rejoin her calf, which still relied on her.
Why the calf mattered
An elephant calf is far more dependent on its mother than many people realise. After a pregnancy of about 22 months, the longest of any mammal, African calves feed only on milk for their first three months. They gradually start eating plants, but carry on suckling until around two years old, and mothers can keep producing milk for several years.
A young calf that loses its mother is unlikely to survive in the wild without human help. Some orphans are rescued and raised at elephant nurseries in Zimbabwe and elsewhere, but that is a long, costly process. Saving Martha very likely saved two lives.
What a snare does, and who sets them
A snare is usually nothing more than a loop of wire, often fencing wire or cable, tied to a tree or post along a game trail. When an animal walks through, the loop tightens. The more the animal pulls, the deeper it cuts.
Many snares in southern Africa are set by people hunting for bushmeat, aiming at antelope and other smaller animals. Elephants, lions and other large species are often caught by accident. Because an elephant is strong enough to snap the wire free from its anchor, it may walk away with the loop still around its leg or trunk, and the wound can worsen for weeks. Infection, lameness and starvation follow.
Norton put it plainly: “It shows how much damage can be done to an innocent animal with just one piece of wire.” She also stressed that snaring is no less cruel or deadly than shooting, even though it gets far less attention.
This is why anti-poaching patrols in many parks spend much of their time simply walking trails and collecting snares. Each one removed is an injury prevented.
Ivory, prices and the bigger picture
Elephants are also targeted deliberately for their tusks. The international commercial trade in ivory has been banned since January 1990, when the African elephant was moved to Appendix I of CITES, the treaty that regulates trade in endangered species. Illegal trade continued, however, and demand in East Asia drove a sharp rise in poaching in the early 2010s. Wholesale ivory prices in China roughly tripled in the years after 2011.
A widely cited 2014 study by researchers working with the charity Save the Elephants estimated that about 100,000 African elephants were killed for ivory between 2010 and 2012, an average of more than 30,000 a year. Some retellings of this story turned that into “33,000 in total”, which understates it badly.
There has been progress. China, once the largest market, announced a ban on all commercial ivory processing and sales, which took effect by the end of 2017. Research published since suggests the share of elephants dying from poaching has fallen from its 2011 peak, although it remains a serious threat in some regions.
How many African elephants are left?
Population figures vary depending on the survey and its date, so it helps to know where numbers come from:
- The Great Elephant Census, published in 2016 after aerial surveys across 18 countries, counted about 352,000 savanna elephants and found a 30% decline in 15 of those countries between 2007 and 2014.
- The IUCN's 2016 status report put the total for African elephants at roughly 415,000, lower than the 450,000 figure that was often quoted at the time of this rescue.
- In 2021, the IUCN began assessing the two African species separately. The savanna (bush) elephant is now listed as Endangered and the forest elephant as Critically Endangered.
Habitat loss and conflict with farmers are now considered as big a threat as poaching in many areas. Zimbabwe holds one of the larger savanna elephant populations on the continent, which makes field teams like Norton's especially important.
What happens after a release
Freeing an elephant from a snare is only the first stage. Wounds can reopen or become reinfected, and teams often try to monitor treated animals in the following weeks where they can. A good outcome in the first hour is hopeful, not a guarantee.
For readers who want to help, the most effective support usually goes to established organisations that run anti-snare patrols, veterinary units and community programmes, and that publish clear reports on their work. Supporting local people who live alongside elephants, through jobs in conservation and tourism, also reduces the incentive to set snares in the first place.
Martha's story ended well because someone noticed, made a call, and a skilled team arrived in time. That chain of people is what every snared animal needs.
Sources: The Epoch Times / Caters News, 11 February 2021; Wikipedia: Great Elephant Census; Wikipedia: African bush elephant; Wikipedia: Ivory trade; Save the Elephants.
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