This is the story of how Indonesia is losing its spots. In a recent paper published in Nature Conservation, researchers found that the archipelagic nation has a significant illegal trade in two regional leopard species: the Javan leopard (Panthera pardus melas) and the Sunda clouded leopard (Neofelis diardi). This trafficking could pose a serious threat […]
Tag: illegal wildlife trade
Illegal wildlife trade intrinsically linked to drugs and weapons trafficking, report finds
In April 2019, customs officials in Dhaka, Bangladesh, seized 80 turtles and 12 gold bars from a passenger arriving from Thailand. It was not the first time when a passenger was involved in the illegal shipment of a wildlife species alongside another illicit product. But a report has now found the links between the illegal […]
Increased Poaching of Critically Endangered Orangutans During Pandemic
“Critically endangered orangutans, tigers, elephants and subsistence farmers, are now all struggling to survive in remnant forests,” said Leif Cocks, founder of The Orangutan Project, in an emailed statement. “Over 80% of native forest in Sumatra and Borneo have been cleared for large plantations. When you add in a global pandemic which has plunged more […]
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. […]
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 […]
An Illicit Trade in Brazil Is Sending Tiny Songbirds to Their Deaths
Thousands of saffron finches are being snatched out of South American forests and sold in Brazil for use in brutal, illegal fighting rings. Lax wildlife laws have made it difficult for authorities to crack down on the lucrative trade, leaving traffickers and ring runners undeterred. Dozens of tiny yellow birds chirped as they flitted from […]
For border-crossing Thai tigers, the forest on the other side isn’t as green
Big cats require big home ranges. In February 2016, a young male Indochinese tiger (Panthera tigris corbetti) walked from Huai Kha Khaeng Wildlife Sanctuary in western Thailand to Kayin state in Myanmar. After crossing mountains, rivers, roads and national borders over the course of its 170-kilometer (105-mile) journey, he ventured out of the forest into […]
Pet trade relies on ‘disposable’ wild chameleons from Madagascar
DIANA REGION, Madagascar — With the sun still low in the sky, my taxi boat pulled up to a floating wooden pontoon in the bustling port of Ankify in northwestern Madagascar. As one of the few foreigners, or vazaha, in the port that morning, I was instantly surrounded by local taxi drivers eager to take […]