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 […]
Tag: COVID-19
‘Minke whales for dinner’: Norway’s controversial whale hunt is still on
Norway plans to kill up to 1,278 minke whales this year, according to a recent announcement made by the country’s fisheries ministry. This is the same quota as the previous two years, although whalers only killed 503 common minke whales (Balaenoptera acutorostrata) in 2020, and 429 in 2019. “Norwegian whaling is about the right to […]
A dedicated team of Malaysian rangers and veterinarians is part of global movement to rescue and preserve rainforest species
As Malaysians were in total lockdown from the COVID-19 pandemic, a sweet-natured baby elephant named Sahabat was found wandering near an oil palm plantation. Nearly blind from severe eye infections, he had become separated from his herd. In Malaysia’s Sabah state, the Wildlife Rescue Unit (WRU) swooped to the rescue. Thousands anxiously followed Sahabat’s story […]
Norway Continues Whale Slaughter with 2021 Hunting Quota
Washington, DC—In defiance of a global moratorium on commercial whaling, Norway has again issued an annual kill quota of 1,278 minke whales for the 2021 whaling season. On Friday, Odd Emil Ingebrigtsen, Norway’s Minister of Fisheries and Seafood, announced the quota, which remains unchanged from last year. Ingebrigtsen said he hopes the “upward trend in […]
Jaguars in Suriname’s protected parks remain vulnerable to poaching
In mid-June 2012, a few months after she started monitoring the jaguars inside Brownsberg Nature Park in Suriname, biologist Vanessa Kadosoe saw Amalia for the first time. Through the pictures from a camera trap, she observed the little jaguar cub walking beside her parents, Máxima and Willem Alexander, the monarchs of the jungle until then. […]
In Malaysian Borneo’s rainforests, powerful state governments set their own rules
Famed for its caves and karst ecosystems, Gunung Mulu National Park in Malaysian Borneo’s Sarawak state is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, home to more than 81 mammal species, 270 varieties of bird and more than 130 reptiles and amphibians. In 2018, a wave of protest erupted when the public learned that the Sarawak government […]
Mink farms a continuing Covid risk to humans and wildlife, warn EU experts
All mink farms are at risk of becoming infected with Covid-19 and spreading the virus, and staff and animals should be regularly tested, EU disease and food safety experts said on Thursday. Mink are highly susceptible to coronavirus, which spreads rapidly in intensive farms that often breed thousands of animals in open housing caged systems […]
Stop the Illegal Wildlife Trade: Animal populations fall by 62% where wildlife trade occurs, study reveals
A major analysis of hundreds of species of animals has revealed the huge toll the world’s booming wildlife trade is taking on the natural world. Without urgent action, the world is facing “rampant trade-induced declines” of mammals, birds and reptiles, the authors of the research said. In places where the wildlife trade is active, species have […]