Diego is an anti-poaching dog working for the Ol Pejeta Conservancy in Kenya, a critical sanctuary for endangered rhinos in Africa and the home of the last male northern white rhino. In this striking short film by Tom Aveling, we get a dog’s-eye view of the obstacles Diego tackles in his training: scaling cliffs, leaping […]
Tag: poaching
Elephant Killings in Chad’s Signature Park Cause Alarm
A routine aerial surveillance flight over the western part of Chad’s Zakouma National Park has uncovered the deaths of two female elephants and their calves in what officials say is the first poaching incident there in more than three years. The loss of any elephants in Zakouma, a 1,158-square-mile preserve in southern Chad not far […]
Tanzania turns a blind eye to poaching as elephant populations plunge
For tour guides in Tanzania, the results of a continental elephant census showing that the country had lost two-thirds of its herd in five years and become Africa’s ivory trading hub came as no surprise. They’d tried to prevent tourists from seeing the melting skins and drying bones littering the Selous ecosystem in southern Tanzania […]
Hunters are flying big game trophies into the UK
A hippo’s head, two leopard skulls and a pair of elephant ears were among more than a dozen hunting trophies imported to the UK within the past 12 months, The Telegraph can disclose. With the issue of trophy hunting under unprecedented scrutiny following the killing of Cecil the Lion in Zimbabwe, official records reveal the […]
U.S. Steps Up Fight Against Poaching and Wildlife Trafficking
With the slaughter of elephants and rhinos in Africa at record levels, lawmakers in the U.S. are stepping up efforts to save some of the world’s most iconic species. An Obama administration task force is expected to make recommendations on how the federal government do more to fight wildlife trafficking, a trade that largely revolves […]
POLL: Should the export of baby elephants to China be stopped?
Zimbabwe has shipped 24 elephant calves to China, in a move that has angered animal rights groups who described the export as “extremely cruel”. “Some 24 elephants are en route to China as we speak after they were taken from their families in Hwange national park,” Johnny Rodrigues, chairman of the animal rights group Conservation […]
Why Are Most of Tanzania’s Elephants Disappearing?
Tanzania’s elephant population has plummeted by more than 60 percent during the past five years, the country’s government announced this month. Elephants in this East African country—a major, if not the world’s biggest source of illegal ivory—were estimated to number only 43,330 at the end of 2014, down from 109,051 in 2009. Tanzania’s Minister of […]
Amid rhinoceros poaching frenzy, dark days for South African society
Two adult rhinos and a calf lie under a tree 50 meters off the road. It’s a nice sighting for me in the midday heat of Kruger National Park in South Africa — my second of rhinos in two days. On the eastern horizon behind their sleeping forms lies a dark blue line; the Lembobo […]