The fearsome mongoose. It can fight a cobra, kill a snake with one bite, and keep a farmer’s field clear of mice, rats, and insects. But to some in India, which is home to six species of the ferret-like animal, they’re valuable in another way. Their fur makes expensive—and illegal—paintbrushes for artists. As long ago […]
Tag: wildlife trade
China to shut down its ivory trade by the end of 2017
China will shut down its domestic ivory trade by the end of 2017, according to an announcement made today by the Chinese government. The announcement comes more than a year after China’s President Xi Jinping and United States President Barack Obama pledged to enact “nearly complete bans” on the import and export of ivory, an […]
Wildlife for sale: Jaguars are the new trafficking victims in Bolivia
Bolivia introduced a general and indefinite ban on the wildlife trade two decades ago, but this measure has failed to stop the trafficking of wild animals. Birds, monkeys, turtles and reptiles that are in high demand as pets remain particularly vulnerable to wildlife crime. In recent years, jaguars (Panthera onca) have also become victims of […]
POLL: Should the bear bile trade ban be strictly enforced?
In 2005, the Vietnamese government made it illegal to extract bile from bears. But the illegal trade in bear bile and gall bladder is still going strong, more than ten years after the ban, according to a new report. The unending demand for bear parts is driving two bear species — Sun Bear (Helarctos malayanus) […]
POLL: Should lion canned hunting be banned?
Some 8,000 lions bred for the sole purpose of being hunted are kept on game ranches in South Africa. Every year thousands of hunters – mostly Americans – pay handsomely to kill these lions within the confines of walls and fences, a practice known as canned lion hunting. But starting today they’ll no longer be […]
POLL: Should snow leopards be protected by stronger law enforcement?
Hundreds of snow leopards are being killed every year across the mountains of central Asia, threatening the already endangered big cat, according to a new report. There are as few as 4,000 of the solitary and elusive cat remaining and numbers have fallen by a fifth in the last 16 years. But between 220 and […]
It’s a bear, it’s a cat; no, it’s a binturong and it’s threatened
It has been said that the binturong is part bear, part cat, and has a monkey’s tail. Indeed, it does seem a bit like a composite animal, with parts gathered from here and there. But truly, it is in a class by itself — or at least, a genus all its very own. The binturong (Arctictis […]
Special investigation: Inside the deadly rhino horn trade
It was a five-hour drive from South Africa’s Kruger National Park, home of the world’s largest wild rhinoceros population, to Polokwane, home of the world’s most wanted man when it comes to rhino horn trafficking: a millionaire safari operator and ex-policeman named Dawie Groenewald. To meet Groenewald, photographer Brent Stirton and I sped in two […]