A framework for assessing animal behavioural responses to wire snare poaching

Wire snares are among the most common and widely-used techniques for illegal harvesting of terrestrial animals around the world. Recent research has documented the mortality effects of wire snare poaching on animal populations, but the indirect impacts on the behaviour of surviving individuals remain largely uninvestigated. We know little about the short- and long-term effects of snaring injury on the behaviour of animals that survive wire snares. Here, we present a framework for assessing animal behavioural responses to wire snare poaching. Via the framework, we highlight the physiological mechanisms underlying animal responses to being captured, and identify the behaviours affected when animals escape entrapment with injury. We use evidence from mammal species that are vulnerable to wire snaring to highlight the short- and long-term effects of snaring injury on individual animal behaviour, and how they can potentially scale to have population-level consequences. The framework can be used to evaluate the nature of animal behavioural responses to being captured in snares and the resultant effects on their fitness and survival. We identify priorities for research as well as management actions to mitigate the impacts of snare injury on animals that survive wire snares. •Some animals escape wire snares with injuries of various types and severity.•The injuries include fractures, dislocations, soft tissue lacerations, organ damage.•Such injuries affect feeding, movement, mating, grooming and social behaviour.•The injuries have consequences for animal fitness and survival.•Alternative employment for poachers is critical to end poaching.