NYUNGWE NATIONAL PARK, Rwanda — It’s a cool morning in the montane rainforest of western Rwanda’s Nyungwe National Park. Sunbeams stream down from the canopy, glowing in the mist. Birdsong pierces the still air. Jacques Habimana, a baby-faced 23-year-old trail guide, stops abruptly, pressing a finger to his lips. He points toward the treetops. A […]
Tag: elephants
Wildlife Poachers to Be Targeted Using State of the Art AI Listening Technology
Wildlife poachers can now be located and arrested across the central African forests thanks to state-of-the-art AI listening technology. A network of microphones has been deployed across the rainforests to detect gunshots from illegal poaching of elephants and other animals, and American scientists are using AI to ensure the network can distinguish gunshots over the […]
A Troubling Rise in the Grisly Trade of a Spectacular African Bird
In late August the Nigeria Program of the Wildlife Conservation Society received photos of primate and bird parts recently seized by the Nigerian Customs Service in Oron, a small port city in southeastern Nigeria, some 20 miles from the border with Cameroon. The images showed 11 blackened ape heads — a gorilla and 10 chimpanzees […]
Why are conservationists alarmed about Botswana’s biggest elephant hunt?
Conservationists have raised the alarm about the Botswana government’s decision to increase its annual trophy-hunting quota for elephants, reigniting a debate over how the country should manage the world’s largest elephant population. Botswana, a largely dry nation which is home to 2.3 million people, has more than 130,000 elephants, nearly one-third of all elephants in […]
Watch dramatic BBC footage shows desperate, ravenous leopard mother risking death for her cubs, high in the treetops
In Botswana’s wild Okavango Delta, leopards love to feast on large ungulates, such as antelope and zebra. The Delta is usually home to a rich array of flora and fauna, attracting huge populations of elephants, hippopotamuses, crocodiles, buffalo and antelope from across the region. The abundance of prey makes it a prime location for Africa’s […]
Watch dramatic BBC footage shows desperate, ravenous leopard mother risking death for her cubs, high up in the treetops
In Botswana’s wild Okavango Delta, leopards love to feast on large ungulates, such as antelope and zebra. The Delta is usually home to a rich array of flora and fauna, attracting huge populations of elephants, hippopotamuses, crocodiles, buffalo and antelope from across the region. The abundance of prey makes it a prime location for Africa’s […]
Kingdom review – David Attenborough never fails to make nature awe-inspiring
As I watch a leopard hunt in Kingdom, the BBC’s latest David Attenborough-narrated documentary, I find myself thinking about a YouGov survey from a few years ago that found that half of Britons wouldn’t take a free trip to the moon, with 11% turning it down because “there isn’t enough to see and do”. As […]
Researchers find evidence of elephant poaching in remote Bangladesh forest
Communities living around a remote, mountainous forest in southeastern Bangladesh, close to Myanmar, have reported cross-border incidents of elephant poaching for years but there was no confirmed evidence. A new study has now documented the first known physical signs of elephant poaching in the forest. The Sangu-Matamuhuri Reserve Forest in southeastern Bangladesh, bordering Myanmar’s Rakhine […]