A U.S. national has been arrested in South Africa on wildlife trafficking and firearms charges, South African authorities have announced. Derek Lewitton, a Texan, was arrested Dec. 22 following a raid on his Harmony Gate Estate ranch in Limpopo Province by the South African Police Services’ Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (DPCI) units. Limpopo Police […]
Tag: Rhino
Petition: Demand Australia Enact a Ban on the Domestic Trade of Elephant Ivory and Rhino Horn
Canada’s recent landmark ban on the domestic trade of elephant ivory and rhino horn is a breakthrough for wildlife conservation. This bold move throws the spotlight on Australia, where despite strict compliance with international agreements, there’s a glaring inconsistency within the country’s borders. Australia’s states and territories each have their own set of rules regarding […]
Southern White Rhinos to ReWilded after Purchase from Private Operation
Two thousand captive southern white rhinos were purchased by the non-profit conservation organization African Parks in September of 2023. These southern white rhinos, which had been living in captivity as part of a breeding operation, represent between 12 and 15 percent of the remaining population of white rhinos in Africa. Their purchase represents an amazing […]
Malaysian nicknamed the ‘Godfather’ jailed in US for rhino horn trafficking – Video Investigation
Teo Boon Ching, a Malaysian wildlife trafficker known by a range of aliases including the Godfather, has been jailed for 18 months in the United States for smuggling hundreds of kilos of horns from endangered rhinoceros. Ching, 58, was arrested in Thailand on a US extradition request in June 2022, after a covert operation exposed […]
African Parks to rewild 2,000 rhinos from controversial breeding program
On Sept. 4, African Parks, a multinational nonprofit conservation organization, announced that it had purchased Platinum Rhino, John Hume’s controversial intensive rhino breeding operation, and intended to rewild the more than 2,000 southern white rhinos (Ceratotherium simum simum) that came with it. The news was universally welcomed by those Mongabay has spoken to in South […]
World’s largest private rhino herd doesn’t have a buyer — or much of a future
On May 1 this year, an online auction for a controversial captive-breeding project that comes with one in eight of all southern white rhinos in the world ended in a whimper — with a grand total of zero bids. According to a press release on the website of the Platinum Rhino project, it received offline […]
Scientists make unexpected discovery inside 14,000-year-old frozen puppy
The 14,400-year-old Ice Age puppywas discovered frozen and had hairy tissues and a twig in its stomach which prompted researchers to question just what the prehistoric canine may have eaten. Finding a wooly rhino and cave lion inside Ice Age puppy In 2020 genetic analysts from Stockholm’s Natural History Museum confirmed that the hair belonged […]
After 17-Year Absence, White Rhinos Return to the DRC
The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) recently welcomed the reintroduction of 16 southern white rhinoceroses to Garamba National Park, according to officials, as Phys.org reported. The last wild northern white rhino was poached there in 2006. The white rhinos were transported to Garamba, which lies in the northeastern part of the country, from a […]