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Plains Zebra Was the Most Frequent Species in Seven Years of Confiscated Wild Meat in Kenya

Confiscated wild meat stored in sacks in Kenya
Conservation · Trade & poaching

DNA identification of meat samples found plains zebra (Equus quagga) to be the most frequently represented species in seven years of confiscated wild-meat evidence in Kenya. Among 567 confiscated samples from 2015–2021, 87 were plains zebra, followed by 74 Masai giraffe and 72 Kirk’s dik-dik samples.

The study combined two different windows into the illegal trade: direct purchases from meat markets and wildlife meat already confiscated by enforcement officers. These datasets do not measure exactly the same thing, but together they show which species were detected and where enforcement and market sampling repeatedly encountered illegal wild meat.

Market surveys found wildlife in 13 of 241 meat samples

For the 2020–2021 market survey, researchers used transect-based sampling in counties selected from areas with previous confiscation records. In practice, teams moved through retail and informal-market areas and randomly selected butcheries or vendors along the sampling routes. From each outlet they bought meat being sold as beef or goat and later tested it genetically.

DNA barcoding was used for species identification. This method sequences a short, standardised region of DNA from the meat and compares it with reference sequences from known species. It is especially useful where meat has been cut up and can no longer be identified reliably from visible anatomy.

Of 241 purchased samples, 13 were wildlife rather than livestock: three plains zebra, one African buffalo, one impala, three giraffes and five Kirk’s dik-diks. No wild meat was detected in the sampled outlets from the Mountain Conservation Area.

Confiscations revealed a much larger and more diverse dataset

During the same 2020–2021 period, enforcement officers had confiscated 112 wild-meat samples in the conservation areas used for comparison. Over the broader 2015–2021 period, the confiscation database contained 567 samples representing 46 wildlife species.

Plains zebra were the most frequent species in this seven-year confiscation dataset, with 87 samples or 15.3%. Masai giraffe followed with 74 samples and Kirk’s dik-dik with 72.

The Southern Conservation Area accounted for 233 confiscated samples, or 41.1% of the seven-year total, followed by Central Rift with 119 and Tsavo with 87. At finer scale, Kajiado produced the largest number of confiscated samples, while Naivasha was the main concentration in Central Rift.

A confiscation hotspot is not necessarily a poaching hotspot

The researchers caution that the place where meat is seized is not necessarily where the animal was killed. Meat can be transported between regions, and confiscation numbers are also affected by surveillance, intelligence and enforcement effort.

For the same reason, 87 zebra samples do not mean that exactly 87 zebras were killed: several samples could potentially come from the same animal, and the study did not estimate the number of individual animals represented by all confiscations.

The market and confiscation data therefore describe detected illegal trade rather than the complete hidden trade. Market sampling found fewer cases than enforcement records, while confiscation data may be concentrated where enforcement is strongest. The authors argue that combining both sources gives a more useful map of where further surveillance, intelligence gathering and enforcement should be concentrated.

Sources and image credit

  1. Otiende, M. Y., Onyari, W., Kipchumba, A. K., Ochieng, J. W., Fennessy, J., Miyunga, A. A., Kariuki, L., & Muneza, A. B. (2026). Enhancing hotspot mapping of illegal wild meat trade in Kenya through market surveys and confiscated meat analyses. Wildlife Biology, 2026(4), e01633. https://doi.org/10.1002/wlb3.01633

Image: Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS), reproduced in Otiende et al. (2026), Figure 5b — confiscated wild meat stored in sacks to conceal it from enforcement officers. Representative image for this story; not presented as an animal or scene from the reported study or event. · CC BY · Source

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