25 Jun 2026Asia
Crackdown on snares in Sumatra as elephant, sun bear and tiger rescued
- In May and June this year, animal rescuers with Indonesia’s state conservation agency, the BKSDA, rescued a Sumatran tiger, a Sumatran elephant and a sun bear in separate incidents after the animals were caught in snares.
- Farmers set snares to catch wild boar, which are regarded as a pest to crops, but tiger poachers are also believed to use them to trap critically endangered Sumatran tigers for the illegal wildlife trade.
- After recent rescues, the conservation agency published a letter stating that authorities consider the snare to be potentially unlawful and telling farmers to remove any existing snares.
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PADANG, Indonesia — Authorities in a stronghold for Sumatran tigers have warned the public against using snares to trap wild boar following the dramatic rescue of an 11-month old female tiger cub last month.
While it is not illegal to set a snare for the purpose of trapping wild boar or animals that are not protected by law, the West Sumatra government said any protected species caught in a snare will now lead to criminal liability.
The new clarification was set out in a letter issued in late May by the West Sumatra province office of Indonesia’s conservation agency, the BKSDA. It cites a 2024 amendment to Indonesia’s 1990 conservation law governing the protection of wildlife.
“The situation has become dangerous because people are setting these snares,” explained Rizaldi, a conservation scientist at Andalas University in Padang, the capital of West Sumatra province.
Renewed attention on snares
The recent crackdown on snares was sparked after a Sumatran tiger (Panthera tigris sumatrae) was discovered in a wild boar snare in Padang Mantiggi Utara village located in West Sumatra’s Pasaman district.
Officials from the West Sumatra BKSDA, the conservation agency, arrived at the scene at around 13:30 on May 21, where they found a young female tiger in distress and pain. A snare was wrapped around the animal’s neck, trunk and right foreleg, in about five loops.
“She struggled for a while and began groaning back and forth,” said Edi Susilo, the BKSDA lead in Pasaman district.
The animal was sedated and evacuated to a center operated by the conservation agency.
“For those [snares] already installed, take them down straight away because they pose risks to protected tigers and sun bears and others,” the BKSDA’s Ade Putra said.
Since the letter was issued in late May, rescuers have freed a female sun bear (Helarctos malayanus) in West Sumatra and an elephant calf (Elephas maximus sumatranus) in neighboring Jambi province, which were both found injured in snares in mid-June.
BKDSA’s Susilo said a team from the agency, the Centre for Orangutan Protection and veterinarians from the Pasaman district agriculture department sedated and evacuated the injured sun bear for treatment on June 19 after receiving a report from the community in Panti, an area of Pasaman district.
In the neighboring Sumatran province of Jambi, rescuers freed a young elephant cub caught in a snare — reportedly for as long as two weeks — on land used to produce palm oil operated by PT Lestari Asri Jaya (LAJ), a subsidiary of France’s Michelin.
To the rescue
The West Sumatra province office of Indonesia’s state conservation agency has recorded four tigers caught in snares in the last four years, two of which died as a result of their injuries.
Researchers from Indonesia and the Memphis Zoological Society reported in a 2023 study on tiger snaring in Aceh and North Sumatra, two provinces that together contain a large share of Sumatra’s remaining tiger habitat.
From 2008-2023, the researchers documented 28 confirmed incidents of tigers caught in snares. Nine of these tigers died, while eight others suffered injuries requiring permanent captivity.
Sumatran tigers with disabling injuries are often not released back into the wild as physical impairment can leave them unable to hunt their usual prey. If released, they may resort to fast food sources such as livestock near local settlements, elevating the risk of conflict with humans.
The 28 confirmed cases of tigers caught in snares is a minimum figure only in the two provinces studied, as it does not include tigers successfully trapped by poachers, or cases where the tiger was caught inadvertently and not reported.
Snare tactics
Efforts by conservation authorities to restrict the use of snares are complicated by challenging topography and hard-to-reach communities in the Barisan mountain range, home to much of Sumatra’s remaining tiger habitat.
In at least one tiger habitat accessible only by boat, residents living inside a protected forest have previously clashed with conservation officials.
Snares remain the easiest tool for farmers to trap wild boar, which can trample and uproot crops, potentially ruining an entire harvest.
“Snares can be made from any material, they’re easy to make, and are inexpensive compared to homemade weapons or traps,” said Dwi Nugroho Adhiasto, an advisor with the Science for Endangered and Trafficked Species Foundation (SCENTS). “They can also can be installed en masse using a range of methods.”
But that simplicity makes snares a serious threat to tigers and other wildlife across Sumatra and the wider Southeast Asia region because they are indiscriminate, said ecologist Sunarto.
“It’s no surprise that these various studies have shown snares are one of the causes of extinction or drastic declines in wildlife populations, particularly in Southeast Asia,” Sunarto said.
Tiger conservationist Erlinda C. Kartika said human-tiger interactions in West Sumatra has also been driven by habitat loss, dwindling prey and landslides that may have disrupted tiger movement.
The IUCN, the global wildlife authority, estimates fewer than 600 Sumatran tigers remain in the wild, underscoring how snares pose a critical threat to the survival of the world’s rarest tiger subspecies.
“Together with law enforcement officers we will conduct patrols and enforcement operations, confiscate illegal snares, and enforce the law against perpetrators,” said the BKSDA’s Ade.
Banner image: A Sumatran tiger, estimated to be 11 months old, was caught in a snare in Rao Utara district, Pasaman Regency, May 21, 2026. Image courtesy of BKSDA West Sumatra.
This story was first published here and here in Indonesian on May 24 and June 8, 2026.https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/indonesia-driver-sentenced-over-organized-crime-group-trafficking-live-orangutan/embed/#?secret=lsG9kdQEqP#?secret=pjpt6nzX1p https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/investigators-eye-organized-crime-links-in-3-ton-pangolin-scale-haul-at-jakarta-port/embed/#?secret=vgTefCnxME#?secret=scJVr5Bfv6
Citation:
Figel, J.J., Safriansyah, R., Baabud, S.F. & Herman, Z. (2023). Snaring in a stronghold: Poaching and bycatch of critically endangered tigers in northern Sumatra, Indonesia. Biological Conservation, 286, 110274. doi:10.1016/j.biocon.2023.110274
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