In spring 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic took off in the United States just as the breeding season for the black-footed ferret (Mustela nigripes) commenced. Disease is always at the forefront of the mind for the conservationists who work with this human-dependent species, but the pandemic kicked things into high gear. Suddenly, breeders at seven different […]
Tag: COVID-19
Wildlife trafficking, like everything else, has gone online during COVID-19
MANILA — When COVID-19 emerged in early 2020 in Southeast Asia, its governments took rapid containment actions: lockdowns, travel restrictions and trade suspensions, alerting the public about the virus. The pandemic has also put illegal or unsustainable wildlife trade under the spotlight due to enhanced restrictions on movement and increasing awareness about the public health […]
Why Wildlife Trafficking is Not Just Immoral But Extremely Unsafe
For more than a year, the COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted virtually every aspect of life on Earth. As we find ways to adapt to the new living, working, and social conditions necessitated by the pandemic, and look forward to an eventual end to it as vaccines become more widely available, we must ask what we […]
Lessons learned from Covid-19 must spell the end of the badger cull
The badger cull policy has cost the lives of more than 140,000 badgers since 2013, in the largest destruction of a protected species in living memory. Badgers have been shot across a geographical area stretching from Cornwall to Cumbria at an estimated public cost of over £70m, when the costs of policing, training, monitoring, equipment, […]
Raccoon Dogs Electrocuted in Fur Farms in China
The Mirror reports that raccoon dogs at a Chinese fur farm were electrocuted incorrectly, enduring brutal pain and consciousness throughout the ordeal. Experts warn about the conditions on 13 fur farms in China that have similar dangerous conditions. Campaigners from Humane Society International (HSI) filmed scenes at the largest fur-producing country in the world to bring […]
Otters Test Positive for Covid
Otters at a Georgia Aquarium have tested positive for COVID, an aquarium official shared. The animals are expected to make a full recovery. Numerous Asian small-clawed otters tested positive, PEOPLE reported on April 18. “They began exhibiting mild respiratory symptoms such as sneezing, runny noses, mild lethargy, and some began coughing,” the aquarium wrote in a […]
Sharks on a knife’s edge as Maldives mulls lifting 10-year fishing ban
It’s not easy to find sharks these days. Just ask Demian Chapman, a marine scientist who leads Global FinPrint, a project that assesses shark populations on reefs worldwide. But he says there is a spot where they’re often found: the Maldives, a tiny nation of islands speckled in the Indian Ocean. “The Maldives is a […]
Botswana offers rights to kill 287 elephants in bid to boost stalled hunting industry
GABORONE (BLOOMBERG) – Botswana is offering rights to shoot 287 elephants as the southern African country, which has the world’s biggest population of the animals, tries to breathe life into a hunting industry stalled by the Covid-19 outbreak. The hunting season will begin on April 6, with licences to kill leopards, zebras and buffaloes also […]