Chimpanzees are rarely the deliberate target of hunters across most of their range, but they are frequently caught, injured, or killed by snares set for entirely different animals — a threat that's easy to overlook precisely because it isn't aimed at chimpanzees at all.
A snare is a simple wire or rope loop set along an animal trail, designed to tighten around whatever passes through it — typically targeting smaller bushmeat species like duikers or other forest antelope for local subsistence or trade. Snares are cheap, easy to set in large numbers, and require no direct supervision, which is part of why they're so widespread across many African forest landscapes.
Because snares are set along general animal trails rather than targeted at a specific species, chimpanzees moving through the same forest — following the same paths, crossing the same corridors between fragments — are frequently caught as unintended bycatch. A chimpanzee's hand, foot, or limb can become trapped in a snare set for a completely different animal entirely.
Chimpanzees that survive a snaring incident often carry lasting injuries — a permanently disfigured or missing hand, foot, or fingers is a distressingly common sight in some wild chimpanzee populations, visible evidence of a close call with a snare not meant for them. Beyond the physical injury itself, these disabilities can affect a chimpanzee's ability to forage, climb, and compete socially for the rest of its life.
Snaring is often driven by genuine economic need — bushmeat provides protein and, in some cases, income for communities with few other reliable sources of either. This means snare removal patrols alone, while useful, don't address the underlying reason snares get set in the first place, and new snares often reappear even after existing ones are cleared.
Reducing snaring effectively usually requires addressing both sides of the problem: physically removing existing snares from known chimpanzee corridors and feeding areas, and reducing the economic pressure that drives snare-setting in the first place — through alternative income sources, food security support, and community education about the risk snares pose to protected species.
Because snaring incidents can happen suddenly and go unnoticed without close observation, ongoing daily monitoring of a specific wild chimpanzee community is one of the most effective tools for catching injuries early enough for intervention to matter, and for identifying which parts of a forest range are seeing the most snaring activity.
This is part of why the Bulindi Chimpanzee & Community Project's approach in Western Uganda pairs daily chimpanzee monitoring with direct support for local livelihoods — education sponsorship, small household income projects, and access to clean water — since reducing the economic pressures that drive activities like snaring is just as important as monitoring the chimpanzees themselves.
How common is snaring injury in wild chimpanzee populations? Rates vary significantly by location, but in some heavily snared landscapes, a notable share of individuals in a community show visible evidence of past snare injuries.
Can an injured chimpanzee's limb recover from a snare injury? Some individuals recover partial function over time, but many snare injuries result in permanent disability, including partial limb loss in severe cases.
Are snares illegal? Snaring protected species like chimpanzees is illegal across virtually their entire range, though snares are frequently set for other, unprotected bushmeat species, making enforcement against unintended chimpanzee bycatch specifically more complicated.
Because snaring is so often driven by genuine economic need, the most durable solutions pair active snare removal with real alternative income sources for local communities — addressing both the immediate physical danger to chimpanzees and the underlying reason snares get set in the first place. Some conservation programmes have also experimented with paying local community members directly to locate and report snares, turning a source of income tied to hunting into one tied instead to active conservation work, with encouraging early results in several African forest landscapes. Veterinary intervention for snare-injured chimpanzees, where feasible, has improved considerably with advances in wildlife veterinary medicine, though treating a wild, non-habituated individual safely remains logistically difficult and isn't always a realistic option depending on the specific circumstances involved.
Addressing this threat consistently, year after year, is exactly the kind of unglamorous but essential conservation work that depends on stable, ongoing donor support rather than a single one-off intervention.
Support the Bulindi Chimpanzee & Community Project to help reduce this hidden threat to wild chimpanzees. Field teams increasingly document and map snare locations systematically over time, building a clearer long-term picture of where snaring pressure concentrates and whether community-based interventions are genuinely reducing it.