Victoria Falls Anti-Poaching January 2026 Update First and foremost, a very Happy New Year and all the best for 2026. This update comes as a complete contrast to my previous few reports. We had a fantastic arrest and conviction year in 2025 with a 209% increase on 2024. The result of this is that we have a pretty low pressure second half of the year. Traditionally the dry season is when poaching peaks, but our teams recorded just 2 poaching incidents between August and December last year.  Until the 30th December.  On the 30th, VFAPU Rangers reacted to vultures which led us to a poaching scene. A warthog, caught and killed during the night whilst taking refuge in a drainage line. Since then, the team has discovered a further 5 losses due to poaching. We have put this down to a combination of a few things. Firstly, the Christmas and New Year periods are traditionally high pressure times. People are looking for some extra money for the festive season, and then again in the new year as annual expenses kick in. Sadly, these financially expensive The second reason is the release of previously convicted poachers having served their time behind bars. The average bush meat poacher gets anything from 9-24 months in prison. At least 2 of those we arrested at the beginning of 2025 have been released from prison. Notorious poachers inevitably go back to poaching, it can be lucrative and it’s what they know.  The final reason is the time of year. The bush is bursting with new life, babies have been born, and the pool of animals to target has grown with the annual calving season. This particularly affects warthog and impala. The pressure is well and truly on as we enter the New Year. Already the team have had a great win and we remain completely dedicated to the preservation and protection of this incredible landscape.  We absolutely could not have achieved what we did in 2025 and continue to do in 2026, without the amazing contributions of our friends and donors. We are deeply appreciative of your support, and humbled to be serving our wildlife on a daily basis. Thank you for sharing the vision, and for fueling the cause. STATISTICS FOR THE MONTH The vast majority of snares recovered make up two snare lines. The first, discovered just before Christmas were freshly set in the National Park, not far from the boundary with the City. The VFAPU-IMPI Horse Mounted Unit discovered them on a routine patrol.  Immediately an operation was initiated and saw a rotation of teams take up ambush positions for a solid 96 hour period. The ambush was called off after day 4. Generally, poachers who set snare lines will check them well before 96 hours. The fact that he had not turned up meant we were either compromised, or he had abandoned them for one reason or another. The final sweep yielding 14 snares set to catch smaller antelope such as impala. The second was an operation conducted deep within the National Park. With our close working relationship with the Victoria Falls Wildlife Trust, we were alerted to the discovery of a lion collar, off the lion, with evidence of tampering. We deployed to the last known location of the collar to conduct a thorough sweep. Whilst we did not locate any evidence relating to the lion, we did come across a fresh poacher base, the remains of a poached kudu and impala as well as 9 active snares. The balance of the snares collected were bits and pieces from the landscape. One was a warthog trap, designed to catch these poor animals out of their nightly burrows.  The design is simple, a heavy duty cable snare, tied securely to a large log. The log generally has a large V shape designed to hook onto bushes when the animal flees. Restraining it long enough for the poachers to dispatch it with a spear. VFAPU Rangers assisted with the rescue of two animals during the period. Neither of them the traditional animal caught in a snare scenario.  The first came after some prolonged, heavy rains. After a particularly large storm early in December, and crocodile had found its way into the swimming pool at the Victoria Falls Safari Lodge. Initially thought to be quite small, this prehistoric reptile measured over 6 foot, and certainly not something you want to encounter on your morning swim. VFAPU teamed up with Victoria Falls Crocodiles and the Wildlife Authorities to remove this unique, but unwanted guest! The second rescue was just as strange. A report came in of a buffalo calf on the side of the road opposite Palm River Hotel. Knowing the buffalo have been in the area, we reacted expecting to find the mother poached and the calf now looking for comfort. On arrival, we quickly realised that the calf was very young, a week old at most. It was not afraid of people, and was approaching vehicles with ease. The team immediately began conducting a 360 degree sweep around the area where the buffalo was found, expecting to find a poaching scene. Instead, we found the buffalo herd less than 500m from the calf. After some consultation, it was agreed to try and integrate the calf back to the herd. Perhaps it was lost, and the mother just needed to find it again. A daring mission was initiated where VFAPU rangers attempted to walk the calf in as close to the herd as possible. Buffalo are renowned for defending their own against a threat, and with the calf’s bellowing, we feared that we would be the recipient of this defensive behaviour.  We crept the calf in to about 50m of the resting herd and made our quick our retreat. The calf began to bellow when left alone. We returned 30 minutes later to find fresh adult spoor where we had left he calf, and no sign of the distressed baby. We continued to