VOLUME 77

Poison and Wire: How Lions Disappear (8-minute Video)

Patrol Reports

26 May 2026 — 1 min read

The Phalaborwa Natural Heritage Foundation (PNHF) focuses its anti-poaching efforts in the bushland around the Kruger National Park. Eugene Troskie from PNHF has noticed a disturbing trend in recent years where lions are being targeted for their bones to supply the Asian traditional medicine trade.

To kill a lion, the poachers’ normal procedure is to lace an animal carcass with poison. Lions attracted to the carcass will eat the poisoned meat and then die shortly afterward, at which time the poachers can recover the body parts that they are looking for.

In this poaching incident, Eugene finds evidence of a waterbuck that was killed on-site, but then discovers that snares had been set around the dead animal.

One of the snares caught a male lion, and the evidence of the struggles he endured to free himself is evident in the marks on the surrounding trees and bushes.

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17 Permits to sell a Springbok and one to sell a Sheep?

Pig-piling on the Dead

Conservation Through Communities (4-minute Video)

Disruption of Ant-plant Mutualism is Sabotaging Lion Hunts in Laikipia, Kenya