“I am ready to die for conserving the rhino,” says Wisdom Makhubele. But the brave young ranger now has another weapon in the war against rhino poaching: the extraordinary nose of tracking hounds. The trained dogs can run poachers to ground far faster than people, sometimes even being set free in packs and followed from […]
Tag: wildlife trade
POLL: Should all countries worldwide ban the trade in elephant ivory?
A bid to give the highest level of international legal protection to all African elephants was defeated on Monday at a global wildlife summit. The EU played a pivotal role in blocking the proposal, which was fought over by rival groups of African nations. But the Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species (Cites), […]
Zimbabwe accused of preparing to ship dozens of young elephants to China
Concerns have been raised that Zimbabwe is again preparing to send dozens of young elephants to wildlife parks in China. The government’s national park authority, ZimParks, began capturing elephants from Hwange national park in August and keeping them in pens at Umtshibi wildlife capture and relocation unit. The agency has said it plans to capture […]
The fight to save Gibraltar’s famous macaque monkey
Conservation groups from around the world have come together to save the famous monkey from being exploited by the wildlife trade.Gibraltar’s famous ape is really a Barbary macaque, the only primate found north of the Sahara with a home range across Morocco, Algeria and Gibraltar, where it is said that Britain’s outpost will fall if […]
The grey parrot and the race against Africa’s wildlife extinction
Perry, a five-year-old African grey parrot, is for sale on a well-known pet trade website for £750. She looks in good condition with her large black bill, red tail and white mask and her owner says she can whistle the tune of Flower of Scotland, does a passable imitation of R2D2 and is “very clever […]
Revealed: the criminals making millions from illegal wildlife trafficking
A major investigation into global wildlife crime today names for the first time key traffickers and links their illegal trade to corrupt officials at the highest levels of one Asian country. The investigation, published by the Guardian, exposes the central role of international organised crime groups in mutilating and killing tens of thousands of animals […]
China accused of defying its own ban on breeding tigers to profit from body parts
China has been accused of deceiving the international community by allowing a network of farms to breed thousands of captive tigers for the sale of their body parts, in breach of their own longstanding ban on the trade. The Chinese government has allowed about 200 specialist farms to hold an estimated 6,000 tigers for slaughter, […]
POLL: Should Namibia’s cape fur seal trade be banned?
Namibian Sunshine isn’t what you might think. It’s oil derived from the blubber of the Cape fur seal, advertised online as rich in Omega-3 fatty acids and allegedly more readily absorbed by the human body—given its mammalian source—than fish oil. Since 2005 Namibia has exported almost 33,000 gallons of sunshine, nearly a third to China. […]