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 […]
A Chinese hotel built around a central polar bear enclosure for the non-stop viewing pleasure of its guests has opened to immediate condemnation from conservationists. At Harbin Polar Land in north-east China, the hotel bedrooms’ windows face onto the bears’ pen, with visitors told the animals are their “neighbours 24 hours a day”. A video […]
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 […]
House members reintroduced The Preventing Future Pandemics Act of 2021 on the first day of the new Congress. The bill would end the import, sale, and export of certain wild animals for animal consumption and medicine in the United States. The bill, supported by the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) was introduced by […]
Although pangolins are one of the most trafficked animals in the world, most people hadn’t heard of them prior to the pandemic, when scientists found that pangolins at a wet market in Wuhan, China were likely responsible for coronavirus. These scaly mammals are so shy and gentle that they curl up in a ball when […]
Oregon officials are concerned about a “frenzy of poaching” after a black bear was found decapitated. A decapitated bear was discovered outside of Veneta in October, and multiple other animals have been poached in the same area of Lane County, the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife said Friday in a news release. “This […]
BANDA ACEH, Indonesia — For the rhinos of Sumatra’s Leuser Ecosystem, snare traps set by poachers are a key factor that threatens to drive them closer to extinction. The Leuser Ecosystem is one of the last refuges of the critically endangered Sumatran rhinoceros (Dicerorhinus sumatrensis). Fewer than 80 of the animals are believed to remain […]
Ally arrived at the veterinary hospital the way most rescued pangolins do: underweight, dehydrated and suffering from pneumonia. But a routine ultrasound revealed that Ally wasn’t a typical patient — she was also pregnant. In April, officials working for the South African Police Service’s Endangered Species Unit managed to rescue Ally, a wild Temminck’s pangolin […]