Although importing ivory to the U.S. has banned since the 1989 moratorium, there is a legal exception; sport-hunted trophies. The legal loophole permits Americans to shoot elephants and import the ivory into the USA. And it isn’t just the ivory. Safari hunters bring back elehant hide and the leather makes belts, ladies purses & gun […]
Tag: poaching
For Brazil’s most trafficked parrot, the poaching is relentless
It’s a natural phenomenon that you could set your calendar by: every August, the turquoise-fronted parrots (Amazona aestiva) of Brazil’s Cerrado biome start laying their eggs. The chicks hatch soon after, and by November have left the nest. The cycle is so constant that every year, for decades, poachers have been stealing eggs and chicks […]
Giraffes are vulnerable to extinction. So why won’t America decide on protecting them until 2025?
Since the mid-eighties, giraffes have been on a steady decline. Population numbers have dwindled by 40 per cent, leaving around 68,000 mature adults in the wild. To put it in context, there is reportedly one giraffe for every four African elephants, which themselves are considered a vulnerable species. Despite giraffes’ precarious status, dubbed a “silent […]
Swiss game hunters still kill protected animals
Swiss big game hunters kill some 50 protected animals abroad each year, according to Swiss television SRF. Hundreds of protected animals have been imported into Switzerland as trophies, but there are calls for tighter rules. Between 2010 and 2018, authorities allowed the import of 423 protected animals that had been hunted mainly in Africa but also Canada, Mongolia […]
Covid hunger – Kenyans forced to hunt giraffe for food
In parts of Kenya, the economic damage wrought by the coronavirus pandemic has been so catastrophic that people have started to kill endangered wildlife for food. Last week, The Telegraph trekked with rangers through the Tsavo conservation area, a region larger than Wales in southeastern Kenya, and found a Masai giraffe which had been stripped […]
World’s largest reindeer herd targeted by poachers for antler velvet
Moscow – The scene was pure carnage. Dozens of reindeer carcasses were sprawled on the sandy shore of the Khatanga River or floating in the current toward the Arctic Ocean, as if the animals had drowned in mid-stream. The story of what actually befell these reindeer on the Taymyr Peninsula, in Russia’s Krasnoyarsk region, however, […]
A genetic map hopes to trace rescued chimps back to their homes
Experts estimate that nearly 2,000 chimpanzees may be lost to the wildlife trade each year. Chimpanzees are currently listed as endangered by the IUCN (the western chimpanzee, one of four subspecies, is listed as critically endangered), and their numbers are still declining. While chimpanzee conservation has many components, researchers say genetic studies are an increasingly […]
More caged birds than wild: Javan songbird crisis revealed
Thirty men squat on concrete outside a colourful urban café on the Indonesian island of Java. Their gaze is focused on a rainbow palate of cages dangling from a corrugated metal roof. They listen even more intently – for inside the structures, birds are competing to get their songs heard. The onlookers are just as […]
