University of Queensland researchers have found African elephants use their acute sense of smell as a form of communication. Professor Louw Hoffman from UQ’s Queensland Alliance of Agriculture and Food Innovation co-led a study of elephants in wildlife parks in Malawi, which found that smell was used to distinguish characteristics including age, health, reproductive status […]
Tag: African elephant
Trophy Hunting Contributes to The Plight Of Threatened African Elephants And Could Soon Drive Them Extinct
African elephants are majestic creatures that have roamed the continent for millions of years. Unfortunately, their existence is now threatened due to human activities such as poaching, habitat loss, and trophy hunting, the World Wildlife Fund reports. Despite efforts to conserve and protect these magnificent animals, the United States continues to import trophies from African […]
Population cycles explain white-lipped peccary’s ups and downs, study shows
Scientists say they have solved the mystery behind the periodic disappearance and reappearance of the white-lipped peccary (Tayassu pecari) across huge areas of central and South America. A new study suggests that white-lipped peccary populations become so big that they over-shoot their resources, which weakens the animals and makes them more vulnerable to disease and […]
Inside African wildlife park where animals are being slaughtered for ‘cures’
Piled high in a mountain of pain, these are the poachers’ traps laid to kill wildlife. In the last four years more than 35,000 snares, wires and spears have been confiscated from just one African wildlife park – more per square mile than anywhere else in the world. At this critical time for the planet’s […]
In Nepal, officials defend detusking to reduce human-elephant conflict
KATHMANDU — On the afternoon of Oct. 28, a wild male elephant attacked and killed a woman herding her sheep at a pasture in the town of Amlekhgunj, in the buffer zone of Parsa National Park in southern Nepal. The death of Rukaiya Khatun, 51, made headlines in news media across the country, and prompted […]
Leopards, sharks and glass frogs win new protections, while hippos face tragic losses
A couple of weeks ago, I told you about our work at the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora—known as CITES. This conference is so important because it shapes how wild animals in trade are treated across the globe and can curb commercial […]
Ivory trader in Uganda jailed for life in country’s harshest sentence for the crime
A Ugandan ivory trader has been sentenced to life in prison – the country’s longest ever sentence for the crime. Pascal Ochiba was arrested in January this year in a suburb of the capital Kampala with two pieces of ivory, weighing around 10kg. He was convicted for unlawful possession of protected species, the state-run Uganda […]
Customs Officials in Germany Seize Giant Elephant Foot
Customs officials in Baden-Württemberg, Germany, have seized a giant elephant’s foot that has been converted into a velvet-covered container. The foot was from the U.K. and intended for a recipient in Germany. The illegal item did not have the proper paperwork, and it was reportedly intended to be a gift for a Swiss person that […]