Injuries from snares and traps 169- Claw-hand and wrist. Six individuals of those studied showed extreme flexion of
the wrist and digits, with accompanying hair loss and scar tissue (see Fig. 9.3).
In each case the individual had lost the use of the hand. The explanation found was
tendon damage, which had left the hand in a viable state (i.e. it had not dropped off
or become gangrenous) but without functionality. This tendon damage was the
result of the individual trying to extricate itself from a snare by pulling against the
top of the wrist, severing tendons or damaging them beyond repair in the process.
As in similar human injuries, this resulted in claw-hand. No voluntary movement
was possible in all these cases. In Case I, there is evidence that the individual
(Kewaya, now an adult female with an infant, Katia — the name means ‘wire’) has,
in addition to damage to tendons, dislocated the bones of the carpal region with
severe damage to muscles and nerves; her hand flops about in an uncontrolled way
as she moves. In Case II of Fig. 9.3 (Kalema, now an adult female and mother of
Bahati and Kumi — the name means ‘lame’) the wrist and fingers are clawed,
immobile and wasted, the thumb is adducted and immobile, and the hand is partial-
ly adducted at the wrist. The result is lack of any functionality. Other cases include
that of Tinka, our oldest adult male. Both his hands are injured in much the same
way, but he has some voluntary movement in the right hand, none in the left. The
wrist and joints of the digits are flexed and incapable of voluntary movement, and
the thumb is immobile. Tinka has a real problem moving quadrupedally because he
cannot knuckle walk in the normal way. As a result he puts his hands down on their
dorsal side, with the result that the skin is bare and often subject to infections
and sometimes develops red raw patches. Indeed, poor Tinka has a chronic skin
infection all over his body and is often found scratching himself. He manages to
climb trees with some difficulty because he is not only injured but old; I am always
surprised when I return to Sonso and find him still going strong. He is the lowest
ranking of all our males, partly owing to age but mostly owing, I suspect, to his
injuries (see below). - Missing limb segments. At the time of the study, two individuals had missing hands
(Muga and Kikunku, both adult males), and one (Kigere, an adult female, mother of
Kadogo and Keti) has a missing foot. These may well be the results of stepping on
a trap because in each case the lesion is clear-cut, almost surgical. The resulting
wound appears, in each case, to have healed up perfectly. In the case of Kikunku,
the stump has healed but the joint is enveloped in scar tissue accompanied by a
complete absence of hair on the distal two-thirds of the forearm.
A full description of these injuries is given in Waller and Reynolds (2001), together,
for comparison, with a description and illustration of Banura’s congenital deformity
(club foot) which has an altogether different appearance and aetiology from that of the
snare injuries.
Regarding how chimpanzees deal with snares once they are caught, it seems from
a number of cases that the individual has actually chewed its way through the wire. If the