Wild birds in the state of Amazonas in Brazil are being trafficked for food and pet trade, according to a new study published today in Mongabay’s open-access journal, Tropical Conservation Science. Researchers found that between 1992 and 2011, the state’s environmental agency had seized nearly 2,700 wild birds being traded illegally. The study shows that […]
Tag: illegal wildlife trade
POLL: Can legalised trade save Africa’s last rhinos from poaching?
Time is fast running out for the rhinoceros. In their final stronghold of South Africa, rampant poaching for horn threatens to wipe out the last 20,000 southern white rhinos in less than two decades. Among conservation scientists, there is deep uncertainty over how best to respond to the poaching crisis. Many express reserved support for the […]
POLL: Is Trophy Hunting Helping Save African Elephants?
African elephants are in trouble. Their numbers have fallen from as many as ten million a hundred years ago to as few as 400,000 today. Recent losses are largely from poaching for the illegal ivory trade (some 30,000 elephants a year), but also because of the shrinking habitat for elephants, as people open up land […]
Police probe ship’s crew after nabbing smuggler with 24 rare birds in plastic bottles
Police at a major port in Indonesia’s second city of Surabaya, where 24 rare birds of paradise were found stuffed in plastic water bottles aboard a passenger vessel yesterday, are coordinating with the authorities at the creatures’ place of origin to tighten security. Police apprehended the man, named Mulyono, after spotting two bottles with birds […]
Good News for Animals in Nepal: A Full Year Without Poaching
On World Wildlife Day, March 3, Nepal celebrated 365 days with zero poaching. No rhinos, tigers, or elephants were killed. It’s the second year of such success in Nepal. In 2011 the country also had none, and in 2012 it lost just one rhino to poaching. This achievement is particularly notable in the face of […]
Huge chimpanzee population thriving in remote Congo forest
In one of the most dangerous regions of the planet, against all odds, a huge yet mysterious population of chimpanzees appears to be thriving – for now. Harboured by the remote and pristine forests in the north of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and on the border of the Central African Republic, the chimps […]
More than 1,000 rhinos killed in South Africa in 2013
More than 1,000 rhinos were killed in South Africa last year at a record-breaking rate that marked a jump of 50% on the year before. The environment ministry said 1,004 animals were killed in 2013, up from 668 in 2012 and just 13 in 2007, as the poaching crisis escalated. Most of the killing was […]
China crushes six tons of ivory
China has destroyed several tons of confiscated ivory tusks and carvings, just months after the US crushed six tons of seized ivory. Officials in Guangzhou, Guangdong province, pulverised 6.1 tons of confiscated tusks and carvings in an event on Monday attended by representatives from 10 countries including the UK, and elephant states including Kenya, Gabon, […]