What are the odds that one animal could walk into three separate traps?
Unbelievably, this giraffe did, snared three times, fighting for survival until the veterinary team found her and turned her luck around.

In the vast grasslands of Murchison Falls National Park, the team encountered one of the most heartbreaking sights imaginable: a female giraffe trapped not once, but three times. A rusty wire cut into her neck, another had dug deep into her right forelimb, and a third strangled her right hind limb. Each wound at different stages of tissue damage and decay proved that she had encountered the snares at different times, a stark reminder of the widespread danger of wire snares in the park.

The giraffe’s body condition had deteriorated. She had grown thin and weak and struggling to breathe, with the snare around her neck tightening. Following immobilisation, the team led by our UCF Vet Dr Nancy Masia cut the snare on the neck first to free her airway and administered a respiratory stimulant to help restore her breathing rhythm.

Gradually, the faint rise and fall of her chest grew stronger. They then removed the snares on the limbs, cleaned each wound and treated and as you can imagine, this meant triple the average time we use to keep an animal as delicate as a giraffe under capture.

When it was time to release her, she was too weak to stand. Together with the field team, they lifted her head, supported her neck, and pushed gently to encourage her to rise. Step by step she found her strength again. They watched from a distance as her stride grew firmer and before disappearing into the horizon, she turned to look back, as if to say thank you, or perhaps to wonder how humans can be capable of both such cruelty and such compassion.

Thanks to the generosity of our partners Global Humane Conservation Fund of Africa, and further support from Tusk, International Elephant Foundation, Global Conservation, and the Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden, we can respond swiftly to rescue animals in need of urgent veterinary care and also strengthen efforts to keep Murchison Falls’ wildlife safe.