Millions birds, tropical fish, turtles, and mammals and large volumes of wildlife products are trafficked domestically and internationally in and from the Brazilian Amazon each year according to a new report from TRAFFIC, a UK-based nonprofit that studies the wildlife trade. Brazil is home to 60% of the Amazon Basin, holds 13% of the world’s […]
Tag: trafficking
A jaguar nicknamed “Short-Tail” the first known to cross between Belize and Guatemala
An adult male jaguar nicknamed “Short-Tail” (due to his partially missing tail) was caught on camera in both Belize and Guatemala, making him the first individual confirmed to cross the international boundary between the two countries. Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) scientists published their observation in CATnews, the newsletter of the Cat Specialist Group, a component […]
Pac-Man: The jaguar hunted for parts in Mexico
Pac-Man walks quickly, wags the tip of his tail, and shows off his fangs while panting. Suddenly he stops and slightly raises his left rear leg. He turns to see Cam walking steadily behind him. The jaguars then appear to lose each other in the Lacandon Jungle. A hidden camera is the only witness to […]
Team Lioness: the Kenyan women rangers risking their lives for wildlife
Her black boots brushing through swathes of yellow-brown bush, 24-year-old Purity Amleset is feeling tense. But fear is just part of the job, she says, as she patrols her section of the 147,000-hectare (363,000-acre) community land around Kenya’s Amboseli National Park, a Unesco-designated biosphere reserve. Amleset, pictured, is one of eight rangers in the all-female […]
Wildlife traffickers target lion, jaguar and leopard body parts as tiger substitutes
Lion, jaguar and leopard body parts are being increasingly sought as substitutes to tiger products by wildlife traffickers, a major UN report has found, but demand for ivory and rhino horn has shown signs of a sustained fall. Wildlife trafficking continues to pose a major threat to nature, global biodiversity and human health, the UN’s […]
Pandemic or not, the mission to save the rare Philippine eagle grinds on
MANILA — “How can we rehabilitate a Philippine eagle during a lockdown?” That was the first thought Jayson Ibañez says crossed his mind after he answered a phone call bearing news of a rescued raptor on April 17. As the Philippine Eagle Foundation’s resident eagle expert and head of its research team, Ibañez has always […]
Trafficking of thousands of songbirds highlights rampant trade in Indonesia
MEDAN, Indonesia — Smugglers managed to ship more than 7,000 birds, including wild-caught songbirds, by air from Sumatra to Java in Indonesia, highlighting the country’s weak enforcement against the deeply entrenched bird trade. Indonesian authorities said the birds were transported in several batches on flights on June 11 and 12 from Medan in North Sumatra […]
Did China really ban the pangolin trade? Not quite, investigators say
In early June, it was widely reported that the Chinese government had banned pangolin scales in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), and that all pangolin species now had the highest level of protection within China. This news grabbed headlines around the world, and conservationists hailed the move as a positive step toward halting the illegal trade […]