Rare Sumatran Tigers Die in Snare Traps
Following the discovery of three dead Sumatran tigers in Indonesia, the conservation organisation WWF Germany is warning of millions of snare traps across Southeast Asia.
A tiger mother and her cubs had stepped into one of the deadly snare traps.
Only 600 Sumatran Tigers Left in the Wild
Residents of Buboh, a village in South Aceh, discovered the tiger carcasses on 24 August 2021 and reported them to the authorities.
The Sumatran tiger (Panthera tigris sumatrae) is the smallest of the still-living tiger subspecies. In addition to poaching, the loss of natural habitat due to palm oil plantations has also drastically reduced their numbers. The animals are listed as critically endangered on the IUCN Red List. It is estimated that only a few hundred individuals remain in the wild.
12 Million Snare Traps in Southeast Asia
According to a 2020 WWF study, around 12 million illegal snare traps are set in Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia alone.
The forests are being swept clean. The millions of snare traps in Southeast Asian forests collectively resemble a vast trawl net from which there is no escape for many animals.
Dr. Stefan Ziegler, Asia Expert at WWF Germany
The snare trap crisis in Southeast Asia not only costs millions of animals their lives and destabilises entire ecosystems — it also poses an enormous health risk to humans.
