Over the last two months in Indonesia, rescuers have freed three animals from snares: an elephant calf, a sun bear, and an 11-month-old Sumatran tiger cub.
Now, officials are urging residents to remove the snare traps before more innocent animals are hurt.
What happened?
A lot of farmers legally set up snares to catch wild boar, which are considered a pest to crops. However, the West Sumatra government said protected species like Sumatran tigers are getting caught up in the mix, which is now a criminal issue.
"The situation has become dangerous," Rizaldi, a conservation scientist at Andalas University in Padang, told Mongabay.
One case that helped spur the current response happened in Pasaman district on May 21, when officials rescued a young female Sumatran tiger. They found the cub ensnared around her neck, trunk, and right foreleg, Mongabay reported.
"She struggled for a while and began groaning back and forth," Edi Susilo, a member of Indonesia's conservation agency, BKSDA, said.
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Later in May, the BKSDA's West Sumatra office sent out a letter warning that anyone whose snare captures a protected species could face criminal liability under a 2024 amendment to the country's conservation law.
Rescuers have since responded to two more incidents: one involving a female sun bear in West Sumatra, and another involving an elephant calf in neighboring Jambi that was reportedly trapped for as long as two weeks, Mongabay reported.
Why does it matter?
Fewer than 600 Sumatran tigers remain in the wild, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature,
West Sumatra's conservation agency says four tigers have been snared in the past four years, and two of them died, the IUCN reported. The report also cites a 2023 study that identified 28 confirmed tiger snaring cases in Aceh and North Sumatra from 2008 to 2023; nine of those tigers died, while eight were so badly injured that they had to remain in permanent captivity.
The risk is not just to wildlife. Farmers often use snares because wild boar can trample and uproot crops, destroying harvests and threatening livelihoods, Mongabay reported. But when tigers and other protected animals are caught instead, the fallout can deepen conflict.
What's being done?
The BKSDA says it is telling residents to take down existing snares and is preparing more wildlife, Mongabay reported.
Experts say stronger enforcement will likely need to be paired with practical alternatives for farmers, including safer ways to keep wild boar away from crops without endangering tigers, bears, or elephants. This could help communities protect their harvests while reducing the injuries that push endangered species closer to extinction.
"It's no surprise that these various studies have shown snares are one of the causes of extinction or drastic declines in wildlife populations," ecologist Sunarto told Mongabay.
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