I remember one chimp in particular, who had lost a hand in a snare. When a chimp is injured, the others exploit the opportunity to push them down the hierarchy. 'I've seen chimps in Uganda sitting there without hands leading miserable lives. When a chimp is caught in a snare, the damage may not only be a physical injury, but they will also lose their status in the group. Nielsen points out that chimpanzees are intelligent animals that live in social groups. But they sustain major wounds and some of them lose a hand or a foot,' says Nielsen. Unlike antelopes, they are usually so big and strong that they can tear themselves away and survive. But it's very common for large primates to be caught.

'They're usually set by poor local inhabitants to catch small antelopes or something else to eat. 'In some places the ground is overrun with traps - there's barely a rat hole without a trap,' he says. He agrees that snares are a huge, pervasive problem for local fauna. Martin Reinhardt Nielsen from the Department of Food and Resource Economics at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark, studies trapping and poaching in a number of countries in Africa. And ultimately, the finger, foot, or hand falls off,' says Hartel. вЂњWe often find that the snare has cut its way deep into the flesh and cut off the blood circulation. They simply tighten the snare every time they try to pull themselves free,вЂќ she says. Chimps and other animals panic, however, and don't try to release themselves. 'It hurts, but we humans have the advantage that we can take a snare off. She too has been caught in snares in the Kibale forests, which like land mines can be difficult to see. Our colleagues have set up cameras in the forests, where we can see that around half the wild chimps have been injured by snares. вЂњBut I think the problem is bigger than that, certainly in the Kibale National Park. 'It's estimated that about a third of Uganda's chimpanzees have been injured by snares,вЂќ says Hartel. According to Hartel, there are some 15,000 snares in the Kibale forests at any one time and although the snares are intended for small animals, many chimps are caught in the primitive traps. The job of removing the snares is, however, far from straightforward. In her research she is examining how snare injuries impact on the lives of the chimps, while at the same time leading the 'Kibale Snare Removal Programme' - endeavouring to rid the Kibale National Park of snares. Jessica Hartel from Aarhus University in Denmark, takes notes on chimpanzee behaviour during a field trip to the Kibale National Park in 2011.

Chimpanzee hand and feet