The tiger was already dead when they spotted it, the hunters said—a furry, ochre mound against the snowy backdrop of Primorye, a sprawling region eight time zones from Moscow, in Russia’s Far East. The seven men took a picture with the massive Amur tiger, their arms casually slung around each other’s shoulders, the straps from […]
Tag: traditional chinese medicine
Indonesia ranks high on legal wildlife trade, but experts warn it masks illegal trade
JAKARTA — A recent analysis of the legal wildlife trade in the last 46 years puts Indonesia, a biodiversity hotspot in Southeast Asia, among the top 10 exporters of live animals. The research, published Nov. 11 by Oslo-based outdoor and nature website Outforia, looked into data from CITES, the global convention on the international wildlife […]
How did America end up with the world’s largest tiger population?
The first red flag was the shiny Chevy Camaro with no license plate. “Anything to declare?” asked the US Customs and Border Protection officer. “Nothing,” replied the 18-year-old driver, Luis Eudoro Valencia, a native of the tiny desert town of Perris, California. It was 1.30am on 23 August 2017, at the Otay Mesa port of […]
Fashions to die for: The fur trade’s role in spreading zoonotic disease
In the complex universe of COVID-19 and other zoonotic diseases (those that can jump from animals to humans and back), key questions remain largely unaddressed, including what role fur farming for the fashion industry plays in the spread of highly transmissible zoonotic diseases, and how the industry should be managed to minimize risk. Zoonoses are […]
Mother tiger and her cubs found dead in Sumatran forest
BANDA ACEH, Indonesia — A mother Sumatran tiger and her two cubs were found dead this week in a snare trap in Indonesia’s westernmost Aceh province. Local people in Buboh, a village in South Aceh, discovered the tiger carcasses on Aug. 24 and reported them to authorities. “The mother was entangled in the neck and […]
Wildlife Traffickers Arrested After Ivory and Pangolin Scales Were Found
Nigeria customs service arrested three suspected wildlife traffickers after seizing animal parts. Officers seized 196 sacks containing 7,137 kg of pangolin scales and 4.6 kg of pangolin claws. The suspected traffickers were also found with a startling 846.34 kg of ivory, according to Wildlife Justice Commission. The animal parts were discovered when they were already […]
China Seizes Two Tonnes Of Smuggled Pangolin Scales
Customs agents in southwest China have seized 2.2 tonnes of pangolin scales and busted an endangered wildlife smuggling gang, state media reported. Two suspects were detained in the city of Yulin in Guangxi by customs officers, who also seized two kilograms of pangolin paws, the People’s Daily said Tuesday. The pangolin scales had been smuggled […]
Finding fangs: new film exposes illicit trade killing off Bolivia’s iconic jaguar
Elizabeth Unger was a 25-year-old biology graduate working as a PhD research assistant for big cat and climate projects in Latin America when she heard about the Bolivian authorities intercepting dozens of packages containing jaguar fangs sent by Chinese citizens to addresses in China. “I was really blown away as [the story] was completely under […]