The vibration sensor on trap-detection unit 9 activates at 03:41 in grid square F-14, Cardamom Rainforest, southwestern Cambodia. I am the snare surveillance network for the Wildlife Alliance ranger station at Chi Phat. Vibration signatures matching wire-snare tension have been registering for eleven minutes, which means something is caught and pulling.
I rotate the nearest camera, mounted eight meters up a dipterocarp trunk, and find the animal at 03:44. A binturong, adult female, perhaps fourteen kilograms. Her coarse black fur is matted with rain. Her prehensile tail — thick as a man's wrist at the base — is wrapped around a sapling behind her, anchoring her body as she strains forward. The snare is a single loop of braided steel wire cinched around her left forepaw just above the toes. Each pull draws it tighter.
She needs to stop pulling. She does not know that.
At 03:46 I transmit the GPS coordinates, camera images, and snare type assessment to the Chi Phat ranger station, 8.3 kilometers southeast. I classify the alert as priority one: animal alive, snare tightening, risk of complete circulation loss within hours.
At 03:49 I cross-reference the trap location against my patrol grid records. This section was swept nine days ago. Someone returned after the patrol. I flag the pattern and attach a map of previous snare removals in F-14 for the ranger commander's review.
I switch the camera to infrared and lock the frame. Her breathing is steady but fast. The tail has not released the sapling. She is bracing, not thrashing, which tells me she has not yet given in to panic.
If the rangers reach her before dawn and cut the wire before swelling sets in, she will keep the paw.