Nearly 2 million animals, mostly wildebeest and zebra, migrate roughly 800 kilometers (500 miles) each year between Serengeti National Park in Tanzania and Maasai Mara National Reserve across the border in Kenya. Their joint search for fresh green grass is an ecological phenomenon and a major tourist attraction in both countries. But along with tourists, […]
Tag: wildlife crime
POLL: Should there be a global treaty on biodiversity based on the Paris climate deal?
How is that fun?” asked US talkshow host Jimmy Kimmel in a segment about trophy hunting aired after Cecil, a well-known lion tagged by researchers, was killed in Zimbabwe by Minnesota dentist Walter Palmer in 2015. Kimmel choked up as he asked viewers to donate to Oxford University’s conservation research programme, and his shame and […]
POLL: Should Iceland be sanctioned for continuing to slaughter whales?
Iceland’s lone whaling company’s ongoing defiance of an international ban on commercial whaling is outrageous and offence enough as it continues to target endangered fin and minke whales, but now it’s reached a new low after having illegally slaughtered the first blue whale in decades. After a two year break from whaling, Hvalur hf announced […]
POLL: Should trophy hunting of lions be made illegal?
On June 7th, a trophy hunter shot a male lion in Umbabat Private Nature Reserve in South Africa, a part of the Greater Kruger National Park. Nothing surprising about this: around 500 lions, usually males, are killed every year by trophy hunters on the African continent. What’s made this different is the suspicion that the […]
POLL: Should US Wildlife “Killing” Services Be Disbanded?
From foxes and falcons to otters and owls, the USDA program is doing away with wildlife in droves. Wow. Who knew that the Wildlife Services branch of the USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHS) was so busy? I stumbled across their “Program Data Report G – 2017” and honestly, it stopped me in […]
POLL: Should the trophy hunting of giraffes be made illegal?
Tess Thompson Talley, a 37-year-old woman from Kentucky, is facing backlash after shooting and killing an elderly male giraffe on a hunting trip in South Africa. The trip took place last summer, but a photo of Talley posing with the animal’s body has recently gone viral on social media, sourced from a Facebook post she […]
POLL: Should cormorants be culled to protect local fisheries?
The House Natural Resources Committee met in Alpena, Michigan for a field hearing on double-crested cormorant (Phalacrocorax auritus) management. Cormorants are migratory birds and are therefore regulated under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. However, recreational and commercial fishermen around the Great Lakes say growing populations have negatively impacted local fisheries. Previously, managers were allowed to […]
POLL: Should all protections be stripped from gray wolves?
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) has announced that it has begun reviewing the status of the gray wolf in the lower 48 states under the Endangered Species Act, and the agency intends to publish a proposal revising the wolf’s status “by the end of the calendar year.” Translation: Gray wolves will probably lose […]
POLL: Should Trump’s Administration Remove Protection for Red Wolves?
While another assault has just been launched on protection for gray wolves, federal wildlife officials have also just announced a plan that conservationists fear will doom critically endangered red wolves to extinction. Red wolves once roamed vast portions of the southeast, but they were essentially wiped out by the 1960s due to habitat loss and […]
POLL: Should this Florida zoo offering swims with tiger cubs be closed down?
Thanks to animal activist organization People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, a Florida zoo will likely never be allowed to own tigers again. In October of 2016, PETA sued Dade City’s Wild Things and owners Kathryn and Randall Steares in federal court in Tampa. The organization alleged that DCWT’s practice of allowing the public […]
