JAKARTA — Indonesian authorities have arrested seven suspected members of a trafficking ring believed to have used Facebook and other social media to sell at least 40 Komodo dragons and other protected species. Police are holding five of the suspects in Surabaya, in East Java province, and two in Jakarta, the capital, according to Wiratno, […]
Tag: Mongabay.com
Suspected totoaba poachers shot by authorities in Mexico’s Sea of Cortez
Three suspected totoaba poachers were reportedly shot yesterday by Mexican marines following a confrontation over illegal gillnets that had been confiscated. According to local news outlet Fronteras, the governor of the Mexican state of Baja California, Francisco Vega, has confirmed that three people were injured in a shootout between suspected poachers and Mexican marines early […]
New maps show where humans are pushing species closer to extinction
Animals around the globe are losing ground to farming and ranching, and their numbers are dwindling at the hands of human hunters. But the question of where to direct precious resources to protect that biodiversity remains vexing. This week, a team of researchers published a new study with the potential to aid that calculus, for […]
POLL: Should the culling of elephants in Botswana be allowed?
CHOBE NATIONAL PARK, Botswana — As we travel by jeep through the mainly mopane scrub of northern Botswana, along the Linyanti River, signs of the significant presence of an iconic heavyweight are evident. Knocked-over trees litter the earth, many with the bark stripped off their trunks. This is the work of the African savanna elephant, […]
Salt fiends: Search for sodium puts Rwanda’s gorillas in harm’s way
A sodium craving may be the reason endangered mountain gorillas (Gorilla beringei beringei) from Volcanoes National Park in Rwanda leave the park to raid nearby eucalyptus plantations, according to a recent paper published in Biotropica. Tourists from around the world pay $1,500 for the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to spend just an hour with these majestic great […]
Can jaguar tourism save Bolivia’s fast dwindling forests?
ÑUFLO DE CHÁVEZ, Bolivia — Few countries in the tropics have seen their trees chopped down as quickly as Bolivia did between 2001 and 2017.According to data from the University of Maryland and World Resources Institute’s Global Forest Watch, Bolivia lost 45,000 square kilometers (17,400 square miles) of tree cover, or 7 percent of its […]
Chinese ‘Queen of Ivory’ sentenced to 15 years in jail for tusk trafficking
A Tanzanian court has sentenced Yang Fenglan, a Chinese national dubbed the “Queen of Ivory,” to 15 years in prison for smuggling the tusks of more than 350 African elephants over several years. Yang, 69, was arrested in 2015 and charged with trafficking 860 ivory pieces, which, according to authorities, were worth at least $5.6 […]
Plastics found in dolphins, seals, and whales in UK waters
Researchers who examined 50 marine mammals that had washed up on Britain’s shores say they found microplastics in the guts of every single animal. In a paper published in the journal Scientific Reports last month, a research team from the UK’s University of Exeter and Plymouth Marine Laboratory detailed their findings after studying the digestive […]
