Trump administration quietly makes it legal to bring elephant parts to the U.S. as trophies

By Michael Biesecker 6 March 2018 (Associated Press) – The Trump administration has quietly decided once again to allow Americans to import the body parts of African elephants shot for sport, despite presidential tweets decrying the practice as a “horror show.” President Donald Trump personally intervened in November 2017 when the U.S. Fish and Wildlife […]

36 exotic animals disappear from Florida wildlife sanctuary after fake “help yourself” ad – “They took the dollar animals. They knew exactly what they wanted.”

By Richard Luscombe 6 March 2018 MIAMI (The Guardian) – The advertisement on Craigslist was specific: “Free exotic animals. We’re a sanctuary going out of business. Go around back and help yourself.”Early on Sunday morning, somebody did just that, driving a truck up to the rear gate of the We Care Wildlife Sanctuary in Miami […]

Costa Rica prepares to export 10 tons of fins poached from endangered hammerhead sharks – “Once again, Costa Rica is evading its CITES obligations in order to favor private interests”

2 March 2018 (The Costra Rican Times) – Ten tons of hammerhead shark fins have been in storage in Costa Rican warehouses since 1 March 2015, when the government issued a ban on the export of hammerhead shark fins as part of its Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora […]

New maps reveal industrial fishing in more than half of world’s oceans

By Shreya Dasgupta 24 February 2018 (Mongabay) – Industrial fishing takes place across more than 55 percent of the world’s oceans, according to a new study published in Science.Fishing is vital for food security and livelihoods across the globe, yet the extent of industrial fishing has remained largely unknown. Now, a team of researchers has […]

China’s lust for jaguar fangs imperils big cats

By Barbara Fraser 23 February 2018 (Nature) – The jaguar was found floating in a drainage canal in Belize City, Belize, on the day after Christmas last year. Its body was mostly intact, but the head was missing its fangs. On 10 January 2018, a second cat — this time, an ocelot that may have […]

A veterinarian looks at an X-ray photo of the Bornean orangutan, showing 130 pellets in its body. The male Bornean orangutan (Pongo pygmaeus) was found barely alive on 5 February 2018 by officials from Kutai National Park in East Kalimantan. It died the next day from its extensive injuries. Photo: Centre for Orangutan Protection

Four Indonesian farmers charged in killing of orangutan that was shot 130 times – “All took turns shooting at the orangutan”

JAKARTA, 18 February 2018 (Mongabay) – Police in Indonesia have arrested and charged four farmers with the killing of an orangutan found shot more than 100 times. Investigators in East Kalimantan province, in Indonesian Borneo, detained the four men on 15 February 2018 and charged them the following day. They have been identified as 36-year-old […]

Dramatic decline of Borneo orangutans – Global demand for natural resources has reduced the orangutan population by more than 100,000 in the last 16 years

15 February 2018 (Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology) – Nearly 50 years of conservation efforts have been unable to prevent orangutan numbers on Borneo from plummeting. The latest data published by a team from 38 international institutions, led by researchers of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, the German Centre […]

Study reveals high percentage of illegal timber exported from Peruvian Amazon – “There is a status quo that does not care about the legal status of the exported wood”

By Yvette Sierra Praeli; Translated By Romina Castagnino 13 February 2018 LIMA, Peru (Mongabay) – More than two years after a massive seizure of illegal timber sent from Peru to international markets in the Dominican Republic, Mexico and the United States, much of Peru’s exported wood is still illegal according to a new report. The […]

Poached Abalone from South Africa is flowing into China markets – “Right now, in preparation for the upcoming Chinese New Year, thousands of people are buying abalone in Hong Kong”

Hong Kong, 9 February 2018 (TRAFFIC) – A new TRAFFIC report reveals a thriving trade in poached South African abalone Haliotis midae in Hong Kong, where the marine mollusc is considered a delicacy in Cantonese cuisine. Over the last 20 years, the illegal harvest of abalone in South Africa has exceeded the legal quotas, with […]

Who killed this benevolent man who saved so many rhinos and elephants? A land grab may have been behind the murder in Kenya of American conservationist Esmond Bradley Martin

By Margot Kiser 11 February 18 NAIROBI, Kenya (The Daily Beast) – Esmond Bradley Martin was found dead on 4 February 2018, a stab wound in his neck and the floor of his home covered with blood. The famous white-haired American wildlife activist and expert on the illegal ivory trade had been murdered within the […]

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