JAKARTA — The songbird trade in Indonesia has battered the wild population of the Sunda laughingthrush, an important seed disperser in the primary forest ecosystem, a new study shows. Bird market surveys in more than 30 cities across Indonesia between December 1991 and February 2020 point to a population decline in the Sunda laughingthrush (Garrulax […]
The high-end French fashion brand Hermès wants to build one of Australia’s biggest crocodile farms in the Northern Territory that would hold up to 50,000 saltwater crocodiles to be turned into luxury goods such as handbags and shoes. But the proposal has come under fire from animal welfare groups, who say other fashion brands have […]
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 […]
A hunger for shark fin soup — a brothy, gelatinous dish that’s considered a delicacy in East Asia — is responsible for the deaths of about 73 million sharks each year. It was previously believed that many of these sharks were being caught in international waters, beyond the authority of any individual country, but a […]
This year, the world has come face to face with the consequences of how we treat animals and our environment. From isolation to job loss, COVID-19 has had a profound impact on our daily lives and how we experience the world. Most people know that Coronavirus is a zoonotic disease, meaning that it spreads between […]
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 […]
Experts estimate that nearly 2,000 chimpanzees may be lost to the wildlife trade each year. Chimpanzees are currently listed as endangered by the IUCN (the western chimpanzee, one of four subspecies, is listed as critically endangered), and their numbers are still declining. While chimpanzee conservation has many components, researchers say genetic studies are an increasingly […]
As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to wreak havoc across the world, much of the blame for the human and economic devastation caused by the virus has been directed toward China. In particular, the country’s “wet markets” have come under fire for endangering public health, despite the fact that few offer the species of wildlife hypothesized […]