Thai officials, acting on a tip, stopped two pickup trucks this week and made the heartbreaking discovery of 136 live pangolins, and nearly 1,000 pounds worth of their scales. Although these pangolins were lucky to be found while still alive, many others aren’t as fortunate. Sadly, these unique little creatures are being hunted to the […]
Tag: trafficking
POLL: Should the export of “legal ivory” be made illegal?
The United Kingdom ships more legal ivory beyond its borders than any other country, according to an analysis released today by the London-based NGO Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA). The announcement comes two days before World Elephant Day on Saturday. Globally, elephant numbers are falling, down 30 percent between 2007 and 2014 — a decline driven largely […]
POLL: Does destroying ivory save elephants?
The owners of an antiques shop in Manhattan, New York, pleaded guilty on July 26 for trying to sell $4.5 million worth of illegal elephant ivory from a back room. On Thursday, some of that confiscated Manhattan ivory and more will be crushed in Central Park as part of a public event organized by the […]
Dozens of Laotian elephants “illegally sold to Chinese zoos”
Dozens of elephants from Laos are being illegally bought by China to be displayed in zoos and safari parks across the country, according to wildlife investigator and film-maker Karl Ammann. According to Ammann, so-called captive elephants in Laos sell for about £23,000 before being walked across the border into China by handlers or “mahouts” near […]
POLL: Should the illegal rhino horn trade be shut down?
How do you disrupt the illicit rhino horn supply chain from Africa to Asia? That’s the question spurring a new investigation into rhino horn trafficking in China and Vietnam undertaken by the Elephant Action League (EAL), a Los Angeles-based conservation NGO. Rhinos are being decimated by poaching. In South Africa, home to almost 80 percent […]
POLL: Should the trafficking of Pangolins be stopped?
If during the past decade you’d wanted to see a scaly creature about the size of a house cat with a long skinny tongue for slurping up ants, California’s San Diego Zoo was the place to go in the U.S. Baba the pangolin arrived there in 2007 after wildlife officials intercepted him in an illegal […]
Wildlife trafficking is threatening nearly half of all World Heritage sites
There are hundreds of UNESCO World Heritage sites around the world that have been protected because they are culturally, ecologically and economically valuable. These sites are among the last strongholds for some of the earth’s most iconic and endangered species, including orangutans, tigers, elephants and rhinos. Unfortunately, even though these sites are recognized for their […]
Video: Rare Indochinese tigers caught on camera in Thai jungle
The critically endangered Indochinese tiger has been found to be breeding in a Thai jungle, providing hope for a subspecies whose total population may number only a couple of hundred. Conservation authorities in Thailand, along with two international wildlife organisations, released photographs of new tiger cubs in the country’s east. The images support a scientific […]