WHY MINISTER GEORGE MUST OPPOSE THE APPLICATION BY THE SOUTH AFRICAN HUNTERS AND GAME CONSERVATION ASSOCIATION TO REMOVE WELL-BEING CLAUSES FROM ENVIRONMENTAL LEGISLATION EMS...
Our Burning Planet: Elephant Culling: Solution or sacrifice for Kruger Park?
In a discussion with Mike Wills, Sam Ferreira, a Large Mammal Ecologist at SANParks, highlights the complexities of managing elephant populations in Kruger Park, where...
The elephant in the room: Tourism futures in Southern Africa
Substantive wildlife tourism potential should be producing rapid broad-based development in all southern African countries. Of the world’s remaining African...
CNRG STATEMENT ON ELEPHANT CULLING
Harare –18 September 2024 – The Centre for Natural Resource Governance (CNRG) has learned with shock and deep concern a decision made by the government to slaughter 200 elephants...
Hunters’ association fires first salvo at state law legislating ‘wellbeing’ considerations of wild animals
It was only a matter of time before hunters challenged former environment minister Barbara Creecy’s new laws on the treatment of wild animals. The first salvo has just been fired...
Outcry over killing of elephants in KZN
Ezemvelo said a difficult decision was made to kill the elephants as there was a potential threat to property and human life. Photo: Supplied The Human Elephant...
Out-of-Control Wildlife Trade Is Shackling a Key Climate Solution
Reining in the unruly global trade in wild species could help mitigate the climate emergency, experts say. According to trade records, people plucked more than 400,000...
Ecotourism: An obvious panacea or a looming conundrum?
I have been working across three spheres of the ecotourism sector for the past 33 years. Principally, I am a co-owner of a safari company, and at times, I accompany guests as a...
Domestic ivory markets must not be reopened – EPI Foundation
The EPI Foundation, the secretariat to the 24 African member states of the Elephant Protection Initiative (EPI), has expressed its strong opposition to the reopening of domestic...
Cruel and needless — the grim truth about wildlife farming exposed in new report
A generation ago, farming with animals like lions, rhinos and crocodiles would have seemed bizarre. Today, millions of wild animals are raised on farms to supply a burgeoning...
Lawsuit launched against environment minister in bid to halt African penguin extinction
Forestry, Fisheries and Environment Minister Barbara Creecy has barred fishing around key African Penguin breeding colonies, but conservation bodies say the closures fail to...
Mozambique: Authorities seize huge haul of elephant tusks bound for Dubai
The Criminal Investigation Service (SERNIC) and Mozambique Tax Authority (AT) yesterday intercepted a 20-foot container containing 651 pieces of elephant tusk ivory at the port...
Open letter to Michel Mantheakis – chairman of the Tanzanian Hunting Operators Association (TAHOA)
BACKGROUND: We approached Michel Mantheakis – chairman of the Tanzanian Hunting Operators Association (TAHOA) – before publishing our report on the recent trophy...
Trading in wild things: Major rethink required, for biodiversity’s sake
An international shortage of lab monkeys is driving prices higher, with concerns that this is fuelling the hidden market. (Photo: Nature Needs More) Every year,...
Dolphins and porpoises increasingly slaughtered for food and fish bait
Two bottlenose dolphins cavort in the sea, jumping high out of the water, off the coast of False Bay, Western Cape. (Photo: Gallo Images / Deaan Vivier) As food fish...
If the captive big cat industry is left to thrive, species harm will be irreparable
Only when South Africa commits to implementing a phase-out of the entire captive big cat industry, with time-bound goals and objectives, can it begin to piece together its...
‘It looked like a slaughterhouse’: Hawks arrest US man after finding rhino carcasses, horns on his farm
In a striking development, American national Derek Lewitton was arrested by the Hawks, South Africa’s elite police unit, following the unearthing of 26 unreported rhino...
Conservation of South Africa’s protected areas is tenuous as long as the law is weak
South Africa’s limited protected-area estate is increasingly coming under threat from mining. This is facilitated by an enabling regulatory environment that permits mining...
Canada blocks import of ivory, rhino horn and trophies
Importing iconic African animal parts is no longer acceptable in Canada – but in the UK, peers blocked a similar ban. The Canadian government has banned domestic trade in...
Untreated sewage is putting Cape Town’s endangered penguins at risk. The city is pleading poverty
Chemicals in Cape Town's coastal waters could be affecting the breeding of endangered penguins. Research showed that contaminants around penguin colonies...
Snaring in Kruger National Park spikes more than 200% amid socioeconomic crisis
Since 2020, snaring has tripled in the crown jewels of South Africa’s Big Five reserves. This suggests economic hardship, although it is not the sole factor to blame. Snared...
Government opens public comments on policy to end captive lion breeding
A draft government policy proposes to end the keeping of lions for commercial purposes, as well as phasing out intensive commercial breeding of rhinos and regulating leopard...
UK conservationists must stop spreading deceptive trophy hunting narratives
The debate over trophy hunting has been raging in the UK again. As Sian Sullivan previously wrote for the Canary, pro-trophy hunting lobbyists turned...
Trophy Hunting is Neo-Apartheid
Far from benefitting the lives of indigenous people and rural communities, trophy hunting activities trap them in a never-ending cycle of impoverishment and social...
Trophy Hunting in Botswana’s NG13: we follow the money
NG13 is a remote, largely unpopulated 2,907km2 (290,000ha) region in the northern Botswana, zoned for multiple uses, including photographic tourism and trophy hunting. It shares...
Kruger lions being poisoned by poachers for body parts, says SANParks
South African National Parks has confirmed that lions have been targeted in a poisoning campaign in the northern Kruger Park by poachers seeking the animals’ body parts,...
How a $100 Cheetah Cub Becomes an Illegal $50,000 Status Symbol
Inside the cheetah black market, from poachers to messaging apps. For different reasons and in different black markets, the value of animals and animal parts varies. In...
House of Lords must beware the misleading campaign to thwart the trophy hunting import ban
Ahead of the House of Lords’ 16 June debate on the Hunting Trophies (Import Prohibition) Bill, pro-trophy hunting group Resource Africa sent peers...
‘Distressing and Tragic’ Elephant Killing Sparks Outrage
An elephant has been found dead after it was shot eight times during a trophy hunt in South Africa. The "deeply distressing and tragic trophy hunt" took place September 3 at the...
Bloody wildlife cull at KZN reserve stopped after 900 animals slaughtered, but elephants still at risk
A trustee, whose husband was killed by an elephant from Mawana Game Reserve, tried to have 3,600 of its wild animals culled ‘to get some cash flow going’. By the time the...
New Study: Conservation Experts Warn of Current Dangers Posed by the Legal Wildlife Trade
A multinational and interdisciplinary team of scientists has published new research that provides critical insights into the damage that the legal wildlife trade...
South Africa resorts to triage as casualties pile up in devastating rare succulent poaching spree
Overwhelmed by the sheer number of bleeding soldiers at the Battle of Metz in 1793, a French military surgeon was forced to develop a rapid classification system to determine...
More money, better leadership, trained staff: How to prevent SA’s provincial wildlife gems from sliding into ruin
One of three elephants shot and killed early in 2021 after escaping from Hluhluwe-iMfolozi Park. (Photo: Supplied) On paper, there are more than 400 provincial parks...
Ranger shortage poses danger for rhino conservation
While official rhino poaching numbers are down, a lack of conservation personnel – specifically rangers – could see the small gains in numbers disappear. Warning bells on the...
As CITES turns 50, a report on the ‘extinction business’ shows urgent need for change
It’s World Wildlife Day on 3 March. This year, the event coincides with the 50th anniversary of the global wildlife trading body. World Wildlife Day is an annual celebration of...
Tigers in South Africa: a farming industry exists – often for their body parts
A tiger escaped from a residence and roamed the countryside outside Johannesburg, South Africa, for four days this month. It attacked a man and killed several animals,...
Bones of contention – fate of thousands of captive lions in SA depends on implementation of government report findings
From 2008 to 2018, South Africa permitted the export of captive-bred lion skeletons. The well-being of a lion in captivity is irrelevant when all you want is its bones. This has...
Jozini Dam: Twenty-five slaughtered elephants later, tourists in a viewing boat come under poachers’ gunfire
Tourists viewing elephants from a boat on the Jozini/Pongolapoort Dam in northern KwaZulu-Natal ducked for cover on Wednesday as suspected elephant poachers opened fire. Eight...
Study reveals the true value of elephants
An assessment of the categories used in existing ecosystem valuation frameworks, incorporating our additional elements. Categories are taken from the Common International...
Canadian company exploring for oil in Namibia in battle for credibility
ReconAfrica, a start-up oil exploration company with interests in Namibia and Botswana, is fighting for survival as its auditors resign, a cash crunch looms and a New York court...
As baboons and monkeys are slaughtered in Magaliesberg, we desperately need to find our humanity again
As you read this, global attention is on COP15, the world’s biodiversity conference in Montreal, Canada. We are using the resources of 1,6 Earths and the ecosystems that sustain...
EU moves get praise from telling factions at wildlife conference
The European Union has come under fire from wildlife charities, among others, for some of its actions at the World Wildlife Conference. Not everyone is displeased with the trade...
Battle lines drawn over the future of elephants
Are elephants global treasures in urgent need of protection, or a commodity on the world market? According to positions being taken at the UN wildlife trade organisation Cites...
Worried about elephant numbers? Quit counting them
That’s the advice of Professor Rob Slotow, who says protected areas need to be sufficiently diverse and robust to bounce back from a range of major disturbances such as storms,...
Translocation of SA cheetahs to India — ‘there is going to be a lot of heartache and pain’
Some say sending African cheetahs to India is a brilliant idea, others insist it’s possible but with warnings, and some say it’s an absolute disaster. If the 20 African cheetahs...
Leopard study reveals staggering fact about wildlife trade body CITES
The global wildlife trading body urgently needs to review the assessments it uses to set leopard trophy hunting quotas, according to a recent study. The review is necessary to...
Those who kill animals in a church trophy hunt would do well to read the Green Bible
As an Afrikaner I understand the passion to hunt — it’s what we learnt at our father’s knee. But justifying it by the Bible and for pleasure is a step too far. I read the...
Killing for the House of Jesus — church trophy hunt raises a storm
The Schweizer-Reneke Afrikaanse Protestantse Kerk boosts funds by offering prizes for killing as many wild animals as possible. The prizes? The licence to kill even bigger wild...
South Africa’s new environmental policy – a positive shift or a licence to kill?
Our much-heralded new White Paper on Biodiversity establishes a much higher duty of care towards wild animals, but another strategy document makes a mockery of the minister’s...
When will sustainable use activists admit that trophy hunting is destructive?
Another paper has come out highlighting the negative impacts of the trophy hunting but is being spun by sustainable use activists in defense of trophy hunting. A Strampelli et...
Creecy’s plan to save plummeting African penguin population is crucial — but it’s not urgent enough
We are urging the minister to immediately close the feeding grounds of South Africa’s African penguin colonies to the sardine or anchovy fishing industry for as long as necessary...
Africa: More than 150 vultures poisoned to death, seemingly for ‘muti’
Conservationists in South Africa have sounded the alarm about 150 endangered vultures found dead in two separate poisoning incidents. Body parts were removed, seemingly with a...
On World Elephant Day 2022, these endangered giants are facing a renewed ivory trade threat
Today (12 August) is World Elephant Day 2022 and, in a year full of important meetings likely to impact elephant conservation, we’re taking the opportunity to flag up key issues....
IUCN SULi is supporting a narrative-changing ‘hunter advocacy’ program
The Wild Harvest Initiative seeks to normalize hunting with the help of IUCN SULi and trophy hunting industry groups. IUCN SULi (Sustainable Use and Livelihood) and Oxford...
US trophy hunter one of many spilling blood on “the dark continent”
Trophy hunting is still legal in South Africa, and people like Tom Miranda from the USA represents a R1.4 billion sector that has many up in arms. Along with the bloody fate...
The Long Read: Fishing Industry Lobbies Against CITES Modernisation – Here’s Why
Over the last two years, Nature Needs More has continued to meet with politicians and government agencies in our push for modernising CITES. During this time, it has become clear...
Trophy hunting incentivises killing of endangered animals, warns Zambian environmentalist
Germany has become the latest European country to announce a potential ban on the import of hunting trophies. The move comes as those who support the practice have...
Report on captive lions raises huge welfare, health red flags, and a zoonosis warning
Zoonosis, where disease jumps from animals to humans, caused the Covid-19 pandemic. Apart from welfare concerns, the huge number of pathogens in caged and farmed lions is a time...
Inside how Botswana’s trophy hunting is making the rich richer and the poor poorer
Botswana’s trophy hunting which was supposed to benefit local communities is instead shifting wealth from them to the country’s big businessmen- Sunday Standard investigations...
Uproar over plan to litter Botswana’s Chobe National Park with lodges
Chobe National Park’s goose that lays the golden egg of Botswana tourism is under threat of being killed by eight 75-bed lodges planned for its prime riverfront. If it goes...
CHARLIE THE ELEPHANT HELD IN CAPTIVITY IN THE NATIONAL ZOOLOGICAL GARDENS
EMS FOUNDATION PUBLIC STATEMENT OF CONCERN THE SOUTH AFRICAN GOVERNMENT FAILS CHARLIE, THE ELEPHANT HELD IN CAPTIVITY AT THE NATIONAL ZOOLOGICAL GARDENS, PRETORIA This statement...
Desperate land invasions condemn South Africa’s wild lands to ‘death by a thousand cuts’
Expanding croplands, human settlement, plantation forestry and mining are speeding up habitat loss in game and nature reserves across the country. Small groups of people...
Media release: Namibia exports 22 Wild elephants in blatant disregard of international law
On the 6th March 2022, the Namibian Ministry of Environment, Forestry and Tourism (MEFT) finally admitted in an emailed statement that it has exported 22 wild-caught elephants...
Wildlife trade body branded ‘toothless paper tiger’ amid ongoing elephant-related scandals
Elephants are going to be the talk of France in the coming days. The international wildlife trading body has a meeting there from 7 to 11 March, and it has a...
NAMIBIAN WILD ELEPHANTS SENT INTO CAPTIVITY IN THE UAE: THE CITES TREATY – A PAPER TIGER AND AN ACTIVE ENABLER OF CRUELTY
PUBLIC STATEMENT SATURDAY 5TH MARCH 2022 The EMS Foundation has been informed that rare wild caught Namibian desert adapted elephants, as part of a clearly commercial...
In Nigeria, a decade of payoffs boosted global wildlife trafficking hub
An investigation by Nigeria’s Premium Times and Mongabay has found evidence of systematic failure by Nigerian law enforcement and the judicial system to hold wildlife poachers...
To hell in a gift basket: The deceptions and dangers of corporate conservation and philanthrocapitalism
In July 2021, the Born Free Foundation (BFF) published another in a series of reports that challenge the claims, and public perception, of zoos as venerable...
Namibia’s wild elephants are being rounded up for international sale
Namibia is in the process of capturing 57 wild elephants sold last year at auction, according to a statement today from the country’s Ministry of Environment, Forestry...
Great sadness for Botswana
Today, the last two introduced white rhinos at Mombo are being captured and moved to a sanctuary. It is maybe the last toll of the bell for Botswana’s enthusiastic programme to...
Latest rhino poaching statistics are beyond alarming: We are facing annihilation of the species
The reality is that rhino numbers in SANParks reserves have decreased by 75% over the past 10 years. In a few years’ time, private reserve owners may well be guarding the only...
Polar bear auctions and declining elephant numbers: the trophy hunting industry’s latest scandals
The trophy hunting lobby group Safari Club International (SCI) attracted media attention in January. This was for auctioning off killing trips for a polar bear and...
Creecy under fire over proposed law change – Is there a sinister plan to strip civil society of legal recourse in environmental disputes?
On 31 December, when much of the country was on holiday or gearing up for the New Year’s Eve jollies, Environment Minister Barbara Creecy quietly proposed some seemingly...
Hunting trophy ban must be backed by a global fund to support communities living with wildlife
The issue of trophy hunting is highly emotive, and the UK government plans to ban the import of trophies. But if it goes ahead, it must look at establishing a global conservation...
Psychology of trophy hunting: why some people kill animals for sport
Do you have any desire to stalk and kill an elephant? Probably not, but some relish the idea. Recently the world’s largest trophy hunting convention took place in Las...
Despite crackdown, ‘demand keeps China’ on wildlife smuggling map
Wildlife Justice Commission says South Korea-China shipping route should be flagged as ‘high risk’ for traffickingWJC says case involving Chinese family shows criminals are...
Botswana’s big problem is not elephants, but runaway bushfires
When vast areas of northern Botswana are denuded of trees, elephants almost always get the blame. We need to start looking elsewhere. The debate on what to do about elephants in...
China sees slump in ivory smuggling amid intense crackdown
BEIJING, Jan. 24 (Xinhua) -- China has seen a significant decline in ivory smuggling, as efforts to clamp down on the practice intensified, the General Administration of Customs...
Beyond its exceptional beauty, Kruger National Park is on the ropes and hurting
The Kruger National Park has a major rhino-poaching crisis, but that’s just one of many mounting problems — and it’s extremely worrying. Crags of ancient rock and twisting...
UK government puts animal welfare policies on pause
Delayed legislation includes ban on trophy hunting imports and stricter sentences for puppy thieves. Some of the government’s most prized new animal welfare...
A court challenge that could be of enormous benefit to wildlife conservation
Dr Bool Smuts of the Landmark Foundation is known in the environmental field for his willingness to fight for ethical conduct towards wildlife, particularly leopards. He doesn’t...
Hong Kong ban on ivory sales finally comes into effect
Hong Kong has been accused of playing an oversized role in the ivory industry. A ban on selling most ivory products in Hong Kong came into effect Friday, the culmination of a...
Wise old elephants keep the young calm
Male elephants are more aggressive when fewer older males are present, new research suggests. The research, by the University of Exeter, suggests that the removal of...
Oil company accused of drilling in African wildlife reserve, offering jobs for silence
RUNDU, NAMIBI Canadian oil and gas exploration company Reconnaissance Energy Africa has bulldozed land for a test oil well inside a protected wildlife area in northeastern...
Namibia’s community wildlife conservation system has come off the rails, investigation shows
Namibia’s Community-Based Natural Resource Management is seen as a global gold standard for conservation. But a probe has found that it’s falling apart. An investigation into...
Elephant movers and the shakers: the three musketeers
Since 2016, Elephants Alive started collaring elephants in Mozambique, building on our 18-yearelephant tracking history in South Africa prior to this. In 2018, together with the...
Animal welfare bill being developed in isolation
A giraffe that was decapitated in 2014 when a transporting vehicle moving the animal to a game farm drove under a low bridge in Pretoria; captive lions found neglected...
Watch: This is where our critically endangered species end up… in a dusty auction house of horrors in Iowa
There should be a “zero hunting quota” put in place for elephant, black rhino and leopards. That was the comment from Humane Society International Africa (HSI) as public...
Shocking new footage reveals horrific conditions lions and tigers are subjected to at big cat farms in SA
Johannesburg - Global animal welfare organisation Four Paws have urged government to consider legislative changes to stop the commercial trade of all big cats in South Africa....
Concerns over trophy hunting mount as pro-killing lobbyists go on charm offensive
A number of concerns related to trophy hunting have come to the fore recently. South Africa has faced criticism for releasing killing quotas that lack scientific evidence to back...
By the people, for the people: Mining’s big ocean grab off South Africa — and the communities that say ‘no’
Grassroots opposition to the relentless deluge of applications for offshore oil and gas exploration and drilling will continue until extractive industries leave our shores. he...
Ezemvelo land is under threat from communities who say they will invade parks
DURBAN - EZEMVELO Wildlife is facing escalating threats from communities around some of its parks who are demanding full-time employment and are threatening to invade the parks...
South Africa is a global hotspot for these types of crimes
While South Africa’s national crime statistics make it evident why the country is seen as one of the worst places in the world for violent crime, the latest Global...
30 Lions Euthanised After Burning in Free State Fires in Shocking Animal Cruelty Case
Thirty captive lions on a private breeding farm in the Free State, South Africa, have had to be euthanised after the farm owner apparently left them suffering for days after...
How tourism fuels Southeast Asia’s wildlife trade
Tour operators and guides encourage visitors to buy illegal ivory, tiger ‘glue’ and other products Tourist guides and information centres in Southeast Asia have been fuelling the...
EXCLUSIVE Wildlife traffickers creeping back as pandemic restrictions ease – U.N. report
SINGAPORE, Sept 21 (Reuters) - After a drastic reduction in wildlife trafficking during the pandemic, authorities in Southeast Asia must act swiftly to stop smugglers getting...
White rhino population down by two-thirds, new global report says
The estimated rhino population in Africa is about 18,000, which represents a 12% decline in the past decade, according to the latest State of Rhino report, published by the...
Cop and court official nabbed for attempting to smuggle 32 rhino horns to Malaysia
A 53-year-old warrant officer within the South African Police Service (SAPS) was on Friday appearing in the Palm Ridge Magistrate’s Court, with a female accomplice, on...
How trafficked cheetah cubs move from the wild and into your Instagram feed
Criminal networks in Somaliland smuggle cubs out of Africa to wealthy buyers abroad. Now the breakaway African state is fighting back. Do you know these animals? The question...
Elephant exports reported to Cites
Cites regulations prohibit Namibia from exporting elephants, except to conservation programmes within the species range The non-governmental organisation Foundation Franz Weber...
Japan must finally end the sale and trade of elephant ivory
James A. Baker III was secretary of state under President George H.W. Bush. Hillary Rodham Clinton was secretary of state under President Barack Obama. As the world watches...
Comment on the Draft Policy Position on the Conservation and Ecologically Sustainable Use of Elephant, Lion, Leopard and Rhino.
Parliament invites the public to comment on the Draft Policy Position on the Conservation and Ecologically Sustainable Use of Elephant, Lion, Leopard and Rhino. CALL FOR ACTION:...
CITES has failed the natural world. Here’s how it can be fixed.
The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna, based in Geneva, was set up to protect endangered species, but it has as many holes as Swiss...
Has trophy hunting changed since the death of Cecil the lion?
It has been six years since the death of Cecil, a male lion who was a popular individual for wildlife viewing tourists visiting Hwange National Park in Zimbabwe. The...
Opposition mounts against vast new oil project in endangered elephants’ ‘last stronghold’
Canadian company ReconAfrica is currently digging for oil in Namibia, with further exploration in Botswana moving forward too. Ultimately, the company aims...
Under immediate threat: Zambia’s Kasanka NP and world’s largest mammal migration
The Kasanka National Park in Zambia – home to the world’s largest mammal migration – is under immediate threat from agricultural development. Up to ten million fruit bats migrate...
Problem planning, not problem elephants
Durban - Dr Audrey Delsink was afraid of elephants when she started out in the field of natural sciences, but now has a real passion for them, as well as managing and conserving...
Wildlife farming vs Creecy’s panel
Allowing the manipulation of the genes of indigenous wildlife species through their listing as domesticated wildlife under the Animal Improvement Act will erode the...
Penguins can’t get enough to eat
When one of South Africa’s worst environmental disasters unfolded 21 years ago, Lauren Waller made her way to the Salt River warehouse in Cape Town, donned rubber gloves and...
Oil exploration company in Okavango wilderness misled investors, complaint to SEC says
A whistleblower complaint to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission cites “egregious” violations by ReconAfrica and executives. ReconAfrica, a Canadian company exploring for...
Kruger rangers face lie tests to catch rhino poachers
Lie detector tests are to be introduced for staff at Kruger National Park amid fears that international poaching gangs have infiltrated the ranger force in South Africa’s...
LION FARMING – A HIDEOUS COMPLEXITY
Environment Minister Barbara Creecy has announced: “The Panel identified that the captive lion industry poses risks to the sustainability of wild lion conservation resulting...
The planet’s favorite wild creature speed bred and factory farmed for body parts
Tiger Mafia Synopsis The initial 200 hours of footage shot for this documentary came together over a ten year period and a dozen trips to SE Asia and several to South Africa....
Namibia: Concern for elephants in Okavango Basin grows
Interested and affected parties in the oil exploration activities in the Okavango Basin are deeply concerned about the impacts of potential 2D seismic surveying to be undertaken...
We love animals — so why do we treat them so badly?
Before the pandemic, it was one of the best time ever to be a human. We lived longer, fought much less and had extra alternatives than our ancestors. This is the world that we...
Captive lions kept in ‘stressful conditions’ create perfect recipe for disease, experts say
Researchers have identified that captive and wild lions carry 63 pathogens that could result in about 83 diseases and clinical symptoms.Drawing on this research, conservationists...
Botswana Government to shoot 287 elephants by the end of September
The elephant hunting season opened on April 6th, 2021 in Botswana. The Botswana authorities have issued permits to kill 287 pachyderms by the end of the season in September 2021....
Growing Demand for Vulture Heads Threatens the Birds’ Survival in Africa
Across the continent, traditional healers are increasingly using the body parts of vultures, creating an illegal market that has experts alarmed. Last year, at dawn on...
Huge sums of unaccounted for cash in Zimbabwe’s cruel elephant sales
The controversial sale of elephants from Zimbabwe to other countries, mostly China, is again in the spotlight. The renewed scrutiny comes due to author...
African elephants only occupy a fraction of their potential range
Many wildlife species are threatened by shrinking habitat. But according to new research, the potential range of African elephants could be more than five times larger than its...
Seaspiracy shows why we must treat fish not as seafood, but as wildlife
The film gets some things wrong, but it exposes the grim ecological destruction of the Earth’s oceans When the BBC made a film about the crisis in our oceans, it somehow managed...
Why the Kruger Park is demolishing artificial water sources
Years of artificial water sources in the park have led to a number of ecological problems and landscape degradation. Strategically placed boreholes to cope with...
40 SANParks employees sacked over rhino poaching
Cape Town - FORTY SANParks employees found guilty of being involved in rhino poaching have been dismissed, Forestry, Fisheries and Environment Minister Barbara Creecy has...
ZIM DUPED OF US$13MIL IN ELEPHANT EXPORT DEALS TO CHINA, DUBAI
The Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority may have misled the Convention on Trade in Endangered Species of Flora and Fauna (CITES) when it reported having sold 97 baby...
Why the global wildlife trading system is an absolute sham
The essential and gorgeously diverse array of life on Earth is disappearing fast. That’s a tragedy of Shakespearian proportions*, as a future planet without...
The Covid-19 question: How do we prevent future pandemics?
The EndPandemics alliance brings together various groups working to prevent future zoonotic disease outbreaks by ending the wildlife trade and the destruction of nature, and...
‘The Sick Five’: Captive lion breeding industry poses public health risk
The captive lion industry is putting the health of tourists, industry workers and communities at risk because of the so-called 'Sick Five'. You’ve heard about the Big Five, but...
Two legal challenges expose grave flaws at the heart of global wildlife trading system
The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) is one of the most important international bodies in the world right now. Its actions...
The ‘Enterprise,’ the Burundi Stockpile, and other Ivory Behind the Extradition.
In the morning hours of Monday, January 25th alleged ivory/rhino horn, and drug trafficker, Mansur Mohamed Surur, was led from his Nairobi jail cell to a waiting vehicle. He was...
Test drilling for oil and gas begins in Namibia’s Okavango region
This month, ReconAfrica’s multimillion-dollar drilling rig pierced a riverbed in elephant habitat some 160 miles from the wildlife-rich Okavango Delta. WALVIS BAY, NAMIBIAThe...
Two thirds of rhinos in South Africa’s Kruger park lost to poachers in a decade
Kruger National Park, home to the world’s largest concentration of rhinoceroses, has lost two thirds of its animals to poaching over the past decade, according to new data....
How much is an elephant worth? Meet the ecologists doing the sums
The idea of being able to put a price on nature is dividing opinion, but the financial value of ‘ecosystem services’ is increasingly guiding policy In 1996, Prof Shahid Naeem was...
MAN FACING JAIL IN SLOVAKIA FOR ILLICITLY IMPORTING ‘CANNED’ TIGER TROPHY
Flemming Emil Hanson (Zenger, 26 January 2021) reports that “A hunter is facing up to five years in jail for killing an endangered tiger in South Africa, importing it to...
Kruger rhino populations plummet – latest official stats
After years of silence about Kruger National Park rhino populations from South Africa’s Ministry of Forestry and Fisheries and Environmental Affairs, we can now confirm that...
China and wildlife trade watchdog face legal challenge over ‘flagrant’ sales of chimps and elephants
Heavily-pregnant animals among species transported across continents, lawyers say China and the world’s wildlife trade watchdog are facing legal questions over the...
From Africa to the Persian Gulf: Inside the booming illegal market for wild pets
https://youtu.be/ECzGSOco1sg In the United Arab Emirates, the possession and trafficking of wild animals have been officially banned since 2017. Yet every day on social media,...
Why great white sharks are disappearing from South Africa’s coastline
Eleven years ago, out in the cool, coastal waters of Gansbaai on the Western Cape’s Atlantic seaboard, Dr Sara Andreotti was awed by how many great white sharks she...
We can’t sacrifice Africa’s Okavango Delta for oil
Environmental activists warn that plans to drill in Namibia and Botswana pose significant ecological risks. “The day we die a soft breeze will wipe out our footprints in the...
The ethics of eating octopus
Should the undoubted intelligence of octopuses change the way we treat them? This question has been asked a lot of late because of the documentary My Octopus Teacher. ...
Global wildlife trading body under fire over highly questionable Asian elephant exports
2020 was a bumpy year for the wildlife trade and the UN body that is meant to oversee the buying and selling of wild lives on an international level. The coronavirus...
The black-market trade in wildlife has moved online, and the deluge is ‘dizzying’
llegal wildlife ads have increased on Facebook despite its steps to combat animal trafficking. Crime watch groups are calling for broad legal reforms. WHEN A SQUAD of...
Public support in China for Government action on wildlife trade is an opportunity for pangolins
Pangolins are considered the most trafficked mammal in the world and one of the major threats facing them is the demand for their scales, primarily in China. The legal...
Trophy hunters unmasked as trolls target government over clampdown
Two prolific British trophy hunters are unmasked today as a network of trolls targets Boris Johnson’s government for threatening to clamp down on big-game hunting. Abigail Day, a...
Pesticide lobby in sly bid to self-license
Pesticide lobby group CropLife SA, which represents major manufacturers, wants to oversee the licensing of scientists responsible for testing its members’ pesticides, leaked...
SA tourism body calls for ban on captive lion breeding
Conservation and animal welfare organisations, Humane Society International-Africa (HSI-Africa) and Blood Lions on Monday called for a ban of South Africa’s captive lion breeding...
Trophy Hunting is a Major Threat to Lions – Interpretive Bias
Once again, a scientific paper is presented in a way to disparage critics of the trophy hunting community despite its shortcomings and potentially contradictory interpretations....
Oil drilling, possible fracking planned for Okavango region—elephants’ last stronghold
Hundreds of oil wells could come to cover a huge expanse in Namibia and Botswana, in what has been called possibly the “largest oil play of the decade.” Conservationists and...
Empathy in conservation is hotly debated. Still, the world needs more stories like My Octopus Teacher
Empathy in conservation is hotly debated. Still, the world needs more stories like My Octopus Teacher IMDb Kathryn Williams, University of Melbourne; Christopher McCormack,...
Wildlife watchdog put to shame after experts say baby elephants sold to ‘perfect’ China zoo violated rules
Zimbabwe sold 32 baby elephants to China in October 2019, after tearing them away from their wild families in 2018, for the latter country’s use in zoos. The...
Big cat banquets and ‘deboned’ live tigers: a new film exposes the gruesome scale of the tiger trade
Content warning: The following article contains images and descriptions of animal abuse that readers might find distressing. Tigers are in a very precarious situation, with only...
Trophy Hunting and Conspiracy Theories: A Perfect Match?
Michael ‘t Sas-Rolfes told me know that he thinks some of my more recent posts were verging into “QAnon territory.” He is presumably referring my claims about the Property and...
Trophy Hunting Advocacy Group Endorses Climate Change Denying Politicians
Trophy hunting advocates love to argue that those who disagree with their views on wildlife conservation are incapable or unwilling to understand science. Yet, trophy hunting...
With a drastic decline in tropical fruit, Gabon’s rainforest mega-gardeners go hungry
Climate change appears to be disrupting the yield of fruit trees, a critical food source for many large mammals in Central Africa.A new study warns that endangered forest...
How Africa’s exportation of ‘countless’ wild animals fuels the deadly wildlife trade
We are working with conservation charity Space for Giants to protect wildlife at risk from poachers due to the conservation funding crisis caused by Covid-19. Help is desperately...
Safari Club International’s Plan to Colonize Africa’s Hunting Grounds
In 1996, Safari Club International and their African Chapter held a series of visits and meetings around the African continent. The result was a report called the SCI...
Pangolins: Scales of injustice by Richard Peirce
“The price of the private dining room would be included in the price of the pangolin, along with the rest of the dinner”. In this excerpt, Peirce recounts a trip to Vietnam...
Ghost fishing gear an ‘immortal menace’ in oceans
In the relatively shallow waters of the upper Gulf of California in Mexico a ghostly menace has driven the world’s smallest porpoise to the brink of extinction: gill nets. Only...
Leaf blowers and their contribution to possible insect extinction
Three years ago, a friend and I went to the Two Oceans aquarium in Cape Town and witnessed the damage plastic causes to endangered species such as turtles. The aquarium rescues...
KZN Wildlife’s future hangs in limbo despite ‘action’ promises from government
Two months after the entire board of the Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife conservation agency packed their bags to go on suspension, the organisation remains in limbo – with no clear...
It looks as if China won’t be banning commercial trade in pangolins, tigers, leopards and bears
Lawmakers in Beijing are currently revising the Wildlife Protection Law of the People’s Republic of China, the country’s most important piece of legislation covering...
STOP KILLING LIONS FOR FUN
Last year, Born Free released The Bitter Bond—a multi-award-winning animated short film depicting the callous exploitation of lions from birth to premature death by the...
Elephants, Water and Droughts in HNP
The formal protection of Hwange in Zimbabwe dates from 1928. At that time most game species were at low concentrations and elephants in particular were very rare. From the...
Botswana wants to draw a line under their elephant deaths – not so fast!
In a press conference today, the Deputy Director and Chief Veterinary Officer of the Botswana Department of Wildlife and National Parks presented little convincing information to...
More than 25 apes trafficked from Congo recovered in Zimbabwe
At least 26 great apes illegally removed from the Democratic Republic of the Congo have been seized in Zimbabwe, where four suspected traffickers have been arrested....
Stolen from the wild, rare reptiles and amphibians are freely traded in EU
With its pastel-colored skin and mouth that seems fixed into a smile, the web-footed gecko (Pachydactylus rangei) is a charming-looking creature. The species, which is endemic to...
Old males vital to elephant societies
Old male elephants play a key role in leading all-male groups, new research suggests. Trophy hunters justify targeting older bull elephants on the grounds they are...
Questions re-appear over costs, staffing levels and politics at KZN’s ‘sinking ship’ conservation agency (Part 2)
The Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife conservation agency is in the news again for all the wrong reasons after the entire board of directors was suspended last week following ‘prima facie...
KZN’s ‘sinking conservation ship’ hits another storm (Part 1)
The entire board of Ezemvelo KwaZulu-Natal Wildlife has been suspended, bringing into sharp focus the deep management problems within the entity that is responsible for 80 game...
This ‘rhino court’ had 100 percent poacher convictions. Why was it closed?
Some conservationists and activists in South Africa are concerned that criminal syndicates are making it even more difficult to protect rhinos from poachers. “GO NOW!...
The Trophy Hunting Industry’s Latest Tone-Deaf Argument About Racial Inequality
In their latest marketing ploy, the trophy hunting industry co-opted the Black Lives Matter movement to fight California’s proposed trophy hunting import ban....
Europe’s double-standards on saving elephants
The EU’s new Green Deal strategy offers ‘guidance’ to African countries but does nothing to stop Europe’s own ivory market, Rosei Awori writes As part of its plans to be the...
Trophy hunters threaten endangered animals
How can anyone be proud of killing such magnificent creatures, asks leading primatologist Jane Goodall. The natural world is becoming increasingly threatened as we move into...
We commended China for closing wet markets. But it’ll take bolder steps to end all captive wildlife breeding
We are protecting wildlife at risk from poachers due to the conservation funding crisis caused by Covid-19. Help is desperately needed to support wildlife rangers, local...
Could the COVID Crisis Provide an Opportunity for Thailand’s Captive Elephants?
The pandemic has revealed the truth about Thailand’s unsustainable and exploitative elephant tourism sector — and a chance to rethink the relationship between humans and...
WWF targeted over trophy hunts
The nature charity WWF provides lobbying and practical help for the trophy hunting of wild animals, a former campaign staffer has disclosed in a book. The Worldwide Fund for...
Hundreds of elephants dead in mysterious mass die-off
Botswana’s government is yet to test the remains of the dead animals in what has been described as a ‘conservation disaster’ More than 350 elephants have died in...
Python skin jackets and elephant leather boots: How wealthy Western nations help drive the global wildlife trade
Three-quarters of new and emerging infectious diseases in humans originate in wildlife. COVID-19, SARS and Ebola all started this way. The COVID-19 global pandemic has drawn...
Govt proposal to add rhino, elephants to list of animals that can be slaughtered for consumption
Johannesburg - The government has proposed changes to South Africa’s meat safety legislation, suggesting that threatened species such as rhinos, elephants and giraffes end up on...
South African proposal to breed wildlife for slaughter courts disaster The proposed Meat Safety Act will see more wild animals landing on dinner plates. GettyImages Chris Alden,...
The vultures aren’t hovering over Africa – and that’s bad news
It’s hard to love vultures. Their bare-headed appearance, scavenging habits and reputation as the refuse disposal workers of the bird world rarely endear them to a public who...
Conservation Leaders Urge UN World Tourism Organisation: Curb Wildlife Exploitation
The thing with keeping wildlife in cages is that it almost always turns around to bite you in the behind. The current global pandemic is case-in-point and going forward, a new...
The Trump Administration Is Reversing 100 Environmental Rules. Here’s the Full List.
After three years in office, the Trump administration has dismantled most of the major climate and environmental policies the president promised to undo. Calling the rules...
Wildlife at risk as hunger encircles Kruger Park
The Kruger National Park is being encircled by a ring of human hunger triggered in part by the Covid-19 pandemic. The Mozambican and Zimbabwean regions that border the park on...
South Africa traffics thousands of endangered wild animals to China in ‘corrupt and growing’ trade, investigation finds
South African traders with China are illegally selling thousands of wild animals threatened with extinction and endangered, under the guise of legal exports, according...
Exploitation changes leopard behaviour with long-term genetic costs
Throughout their range leopards are in rapid decline, having disappeared from North Africa, much of the Middle East and Asia. Declines have been so severe that the species...
WHAT HAPPENED TO THE MISSING SIX HOURS? KWAZULU NATAL WILDLIFE AUTHORITY UNDER FIRE FOR KILLING A LONE ELEPHANT BULL.
DA spokesperson on Economic Development, Tourism and Environmental Affairs, Heinz de Boer, has called for an urgent portfolio committee investigation into the state of affairs at...
‘TIGER KING’ AND THE TRUTH ABOUT CAPTIVE TIGERS
Netflix's "Tiger King" makes for good television drama but it fails miserably in exposing the truth about captive tigers and other animals in captivity. Netflix’s “Tiger King”...
Coronavirus is a crisis for South Africa’s captive lions, campaigners warn
Captive lions in South Africa could face starvation or euthanization as tourist revenues disappear amid the COVD-19 pandemic, according to animal welfare groups.Conservationists...
Coronavirus: WHO urges China to close ‘dangerous’ wet market as stalls in Wuhan begin to reopen
'75 per cent of emerging infections come from the animal kingdom... It’s partly the markets, but it’s also other places where humans and animals are in close contact,'...
The new coronavirus emerged from the global wildlife trade – and may be devastating enough to end it
COVID-19 is one of countless emerging infectious diseases that are zoonotic, meaning they originate in animals. About 75% of emerging infectious diseases are zoonotic,...
The captive lion breeding industry puts conservation and public health at risk
South Africa is replicating China’s policies that resulted in the Covid-19 outbreak, including mandates promoting domesticating and breeding wild species. South Africa’s captive...
China’s coronavirus battle may be ending but its war on eating wild animals has just begun
China’s latest ban on the trade and consumption of wild animals will wipe out wet markets, but they are just the tip of the icebergTo avoid simply driving the problem...
Unbelievable: Chinese Gov’t recommends injections containing bear bile to treat coronavirus
Despite a scientific consensus pointing to China’s wildlife trade as the most likely cause of the coronavirus pandemic, the country’s Government is currently touting a treatment...
South Africa wants to promote wildlife consumption
South Africa is turning towards the implementation of new laws that fully allows the economic exploitation of wildlife. The intention is to market the use of all kinds of wild...
Scales tip in favour of pangolins as hosts of Coronavirus ‘transition’
As the Covid-19 pandemic spreads its tentacles across all continents except Antarctica, scientists in China and the US are racing to pin down its biological origins. Mounting...
Botswana’s conservation policies driven by profit, not science
When Botswana banned hunting in 2014, proponents of ‘sustainable utilisation’ of wildlife claimed the government was pandering to emotions and ignoring science. The decision,...
Covid-19: Planet Earth fights back
The flip side to Covid-19 is first the understanding that we are not invincible and are just another species on this planet. That the world is round and a crisis in one place can...
Should elephants be considered refugees?
A refugee is by definition a human—but should elephants and other animals qualify, too? Consider what life is like for so many African elephants: family and friends killed,...
Coronavirus closures reveal vast scale of China’s secretive wildlife farm industry
Peacocks, porcupines and pangolins among species bred on 20,000 farms closed in wake of virus Nearly 20,000 wildlife farms raising species including peacocks, civet cats,...
Canned lions: Remove van Coller from TBCSA board
A coalition of 35 conservation organizations, in a letter to the Tourism Business Council of South Africa (TBCSA), requests the removal of Dries van Coller, president of the...
As coronavirus spreads, China bans trade in wild animals for food
China today announced a ban on buying and selling wild animals for food, taking its most decisive action yet to halt a trade that has been implicated in the global coronavirus...
Inside The Global Conservation Organization Infiltrated By Trophy Hunters
GENEVA — Giraffes may well tower over all other animals in the natural world — but in the wild, their numbers are rapidly dwindling, and they are desperately in need of...
Coronavirus source found in pangolin meat
As the death toll climbs in the China pandemic, researchers reveal new origins for the coronavirus in Earth’s most threatened mammal. The deadly novel coronavirus pandemic has...
Lifting Botswana’s hunting ban endangers its status as a global conservation leader
In a world where global understanding of true conservation and the interconnectedness of all life on the planet is growing at an exponential rate, Botswana cannot afford to be...
The implications of the reclassification of South African wildlife species as farm animals
TheGovernmentGazette No.42464 dated 17 May 2019 amended Table 7 of the Animal Improvement Act (Act no.62of 1998), which lists breeds of animals, to include at least 32 new wild...
China temporarily bans wildlife trade in wake of outbreak
BEIJING (AP) — Chinese authorities temporarily banned the trade of wild animals Sunday following a viral outbreak in Wuhan, saying they will “severely investigate and punish”...
Trophy hunting fuels ‘colonial race and slave injustice’, MPs warned as they consider imports ban
Trophy hunting is reinforcing deep apartheid-era social and racial inequalities in Africa, an economist will tell the UK government this week as it...
Elephant Carrying Capacity Is An Antiquated Concept
The concept of carrying capacity gets thrown around a lot when countries and parks complain about having too many elephants. However, carrying capacity has no relevance in highly...
Eleven Blaauwbosch elephants relocated safely to new home
Eleven elephants were successfully transferred from Blaauwbosch Private Game Reserve to their new home near Makhanda on Thursday. After being darted and loaded at Blaauwbosch,...
South Africa struggles to manage wildlife ranching: why it’s a problem
South Africa struggles to manage wildlife ranching: why it's a problem Game farms in South Africa often supply the canned hunting sector. Shutterstock Tariro Kamuti, University...
Trophy hunting: Bans create opening for change
In their Letter “Trophy hunting bans imperil biodiversity” (30 August, p. 874), A. Dickman et al. warn that banning trophy hunting, a practice many of them deem “repugnant,”...
Mega climate shocks for SA biodiversity — government report
Ninety scientific institutions led by the South African National Biodiversity Institute have released a shock report that unveils waves of unprecedented climate impacts tearing...
Anti-hunting groups seek to oust big-game hunters from global conservation body
Anti-hunting campaigners have said they will seek the expulsion of pro-safari groups from the world's most authoritative conservation organisation after a new report concluded...
Trump Admin Grants First Lion Trophy Import Permit Since Listed as Threatened
A Florida man has been allowed to import a Tanzanian lion's skin, skull, claws and teeth, a first since the animal was listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act,...
What is our true heritage?
Swati Thiyagarajan is a conservation journalist and author of book Born Wild: Journeys in the Wild Hearts of India and Africa (Bloomsbury India). What do you say when...
Ships’ risky fuel transfers are threatening African Penguins
The African Penguin is in serious trouble. Its population has fallen by more than 95% over the last century and, despite ongoing conservation efforts, its numbers...
Plunder in the wild: We need to scale up on pangolin protection
Pangolin numbers are dwindling at alarming rates – in South Africa and across the globe – and the future appears bleak for these small, relatively unknown creatures. On...
How to stop trophy hunting? Buy up all the licences
A B.C. conservation group is on a mission to purchase all the commercial hunting licences in the Great Bear Rainforest, where animals like black bears, wolves and cougars can...
THE UNCOMFORTABLE TRUTH ABOUT NAMIBIA’S CONSERVATION MODEL
The hunting of Voortrekker, an iconic Namibian desert elephant, for just R120 000 has sparked the debate on whether Namibia's wildlife is thriving or flailing. A recent...
Trophy-hunting firms banned from gun show after protests (UK)
Trophy-hunting businesses targeting big-game hunters in Britain have been banned from a shooting show after public objections. The NEC in Birmingham said that it would no longer...
FEATURE Zoos Called It a ‘Rescue.’ But Are the Elephants Really Safe?
Despite mounting evidence that elephants find captivity torturous, some American zoos still acquire them from Africa — aided by a tall tale about why they needed to leave home....
Should zoos exist?
Should the future of educating the public about exotic animals be in sanctuaries and virtual zoos, not places where animals are kept in cages? The high-profile death of the...
Over 500 Critically Endangered Vultures Die in Botswana After Eating Poisoned Elephant Carcasses
Poachers are known to poison carcasses to target vultures as the birds circle in the sky and help rangers to track poaching activity. Gaborone (Botswana): More than 500...
African Elephant Coalition (AEC): Japan your ivory market !
The Council of Elders of the African Elephant Coalition (AEC) comprising 32 African countries and the majority of African elephant range states is calling on the government of...
Big-game hunting group ‘using influence on conservation watchdogs to undermine protections for endangered animals’
Exclusive: Organisation has been heavily involved in Cites and IUCN for up to 20 years, winning campaigns to allow African lions and other species to still be killed. Trophy...
Sam Wasser pours his intense passion for protecting wildlife into research and catching poachers
The carcass of a poisoned elephant decomposes in the Masai Mara. The National Academy of Sciences published a report in August 2014 citing that 100,000 elephants had been...
Trophy hunting in Africa: the case for viable, sustainable alternatives
Photographic camps are more beneficial to communities than hunting. Shutterstock Muchazondida Mkono, The University of Queensland For decades, the public has been fed the myth...
Elephants pay the price for politics
Photo credit: ISS Today Are Southern African governments allowing resentment against perceived Western finger-wagging to cloud their judgement? If Botswana’s elephants could...
Could YouTube help save the Pangolin?
View the film trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O2QKPJC0CQY Eye of the Pangolin, the ground-breaking new documentary about the most trafficked mammal on earth, will...
Tiger farms in Laos fuel demand for tiger parts on black market
THA BAK, Laos — He was up there somewhere, at the top of the hill, the man Karl Ammann had come to see. It would soon be night. The forest was all shadows and sounds. Ammann...
Wildebeest migrations in East Africa face extinction. What must be done
White-bearded wildebeest migrate through the Mara. Jane Rix/Shutterstock Joseph Ogutu, University of Hohenheim Across the world, migratory animals like wildebeest – which rely on...
How a South African hunting resort opened a window to Saudi crown prince’s business empire
An investigation that began with an obscure Limpopo game farm has uncovered a shadowy international network of proxies, offshore firms and shelf companies concealing the Saudi...
From Australia to Africa, fences are stopping Earth’s great animal migrations
Wildebeest crossing the Mara River in Tanzania during their annual mass migration. Jane Rix/Shutterstock Bill Laurance, James Cook University and Penny van Oosterzee, James Cook...
The big cat con: Inside Africa’s shocking battery farms for lions
Some ranches are effectively battery farms CREDIT: FERGUS THOMAS he growing appetite for 'conservation holidays' has shone a light on the dark – and poorly...
Bloc adopts scientific wildlife management system (African Kavango-Zambezi Trans-Frontier Conservation Area [KAZA-TFCA] countries)
Minister Priscah Mupfumira Kavango-Zambezi Trans-Frontier Conservation Area (KAZA-TFCA) countries have resolved to adopt a scientific wildlife management system in national...
Kenya on the brink of acquitting ivory trafficker number four
On April 11, Chief Magistrate Francis Kyambia is set to make judgement in a Mombasa, Kenya court on the ivory trafficking prosecution against Ephantus Mbare Gitonga. A not-guilty...
Government decides to slaughter 25 elephants in Mozambique
The Government of Philip Nyusi, which has as one of its priorities "Ensuring the Sustainable and Transparent Management of Natural Resources and the Environment" and receives...
Japan’s new rules for curbing ivory trade won’t work, many experts say
Starting July 1, anyone in Japan who wishes to register and sell a whole elephant tusk must first prove its age through carbon dating. According to Ministry of the...
The massacre of nature’s ‘architects’
This encyclopaedic book sends out a powerful message to give elephants the highest protection status, writes Elise Tempelhoff. The LAST ELEPHANTS Compiled by Don Pinnock &...
People are taking a huge toll on the plains of the Serengeti-Mara
The Serengeti-Mara ecosystem is home to the famous wildebeest migration. Susan Schmitz/Shutterstock The 40,000 sq km Serengeti-Mara plain that straddles the border of Kenya and...
Stay of execution for Riff Raff… for now
The life of an elephant that faces being shot for being a 'nuisance' is hanging in the balance as animal campaigners in South Africa fight in court to keep him alive. Riff Raff's...
Namibia’s Environment Minister rejects criticism over trophy hunting
Namibia's current and Kenya's former ministers for environment engaged in a lively discussion about the polarising issue of trophy hunting at a debate held in at The Arts Club in...
Uganda travel and trafficking
Sub-Saharan Africa has enormous tourism potential: leopards lounging in acacia trees, elephant herds drifting across vast savannah plains, gorillas and chimps rioting in deep...
PES Lawyers demand transparency on the export of Wildlife (Zimbabwe)
A local environmental and wildlife organisation People and Earth Solidarity Law Network (PES Lawyers) together with six others in Zimbabwe, have petitioned Parliament demanding...
Japan to tighten controls on ivory market amid international criticism
"By shutting down the movement of ivory of unknown origin, the domestic market is moving closer to an effective closure," Environment Minister Yoshiaki Harada said at a press...
South Africa kicks the can down the road on captive predator breeding
Once cubs in captivity get too big to be stroked and cuddled by tourists, they’re sold into the canned hunting and Asian bone trade industries. Shutterstock Ross Harvey, South...
China Proposes Ban on Pangolins in Traditional Medicine
Members of the National People’s Congress, China’s legislature, announced a proposal to ban the use of pangolin products, the world’s most trafficked animal, in traditional...
Anger over green light given to lion farms
Non-governmental and conservation organizations are highly upset that the Department of Environmental Affairs has not shown the "political will" to close the Canned Lion Breeding...
A plea to Botswana: Please rethink a “Not Enough Fences” approach (commentary)
The Government of Botswana is considering significant changes to the country’s approach to wildlife management.The proposed policy reflects a worrying lack of recognition of the...
Last photos of Kenya’s ‘elephant queen’
Photo credit: WILL BURRARD-LUCAS For more than 60 years, the elephant known as F_MU1, roamed the plains of Tsavo, Kenya. She was one of Africa's last remaining "super tuskers" -...
Opposition to trophy hunting is a major social movement for good
In an article to mark World Wildlife Day, Leith Meyer, a veterinarian at the University of Pretoria, writes about the danger of poorly informed social media campaigns mounted by...
‘Too many elephants’ in Africa? Here’s how peaceful coexistence with human communities can help
HordynskiPhotography/Shutterstock Vicky Boult, University of Reading Africa’s elephant population has plummeted from roughly a million in 1970 to around 400,000 today – a decline...
New survey raises concerns about elephant poaching in Botswana
Botswana has about 122,000 elephants left. Mike Dexter/Shutterstock Ross Harvey, South African Institute of International Affairs Botswana has an elephant poaching problem. The...
Botswana elephant poaching ‘no hoax’
Elephants Without Borders, who conducted an aerial research survey in Botswana, has had their wildlife research licence suspended by the Botswana government. See original...
Elephant mystique lingers (South Africa)
This image from a SANParks camera trap survey shows the adult female elephant that was repeatedly identified. SANParks has long held that only a single, elderly elephant clings...
Technology is useful, but drones alone won’t save Africa’s elephants
Two elephants play in the Mara Triangle, the north-western part of Masai Mara. Image: Getty, YASUYOSHI CHIBA/AFP Technology has made a tremendous difference in the world, in...
Zimbabwe, CITES attacked over elephant calves
The Humane Society International (HSI) launched a scathingattack on both the Zimbabwean government and the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) last...
Baby elephants torn from mothers and shipped 7,000 miles to China (Zimbabwe)
Thirty-five young elephants are to be flown from Zimbabwe to zoos in China after being forcibly separated from their mothers in an operation "designed to disorientate, exhaust...
Dereck Joubert sets the record straight about trophy hunting impact on lions and refutes claims of so-called benefits
© Dereck and Beverly Big Cat Conservation Opinion post by Dereck Joubert I’ve been asked to respond to the following remarks that came up in a discussion following the...
How wildlife traffickers exploit Chinese New Year
Abalone will be on the banquet table of many Chinese families celebrating Spring Festival this year. The sea mollusc will probably have been illegally poached and smuggled all...
Hong Kong failing to tackle wildlife smuggling epidemic: study
The study by Hong Kong Wildlife Trade Working Group, a coalition of local groups, offers one of the most detailed analyses yet on smuggling rackets in the city. FILE: Seized...
Zoo Elephant Loses Her Entire Family — And Now Her Best Friend Too
Lammie the elephant has lost everyone she knows — her parents, her brothers and now her longtime partner, Kinkel. Not surprisingly, she is devastated. Johannesburg Zoo, where...
Global wildlife regulator to consider relaxing ivory trade bans, prompting fears of huge rise in elephant poaching
The international body responsible for protecting endangered animals is to consider relaxing restrictions on the ivory trade, prompting fears such a move could trigger a huge...
Zimbabwe ships live elephants to wildlife parks in China
Wildlife advocates said the animals, which were being readied for shipment on Friday night, were unsuitable for live export Elephants in Zimbabwe’s Hwange National Park....
Wildlife in Crisis Conference: Cape Town 18, 19, 20 May 2015
Wildlife in Crisis Conference: Cape Town 18, 19, 20 May 2015 Venue: Jules and Kramer Law Building, LECTURE THEATRE 1, UCT , Middle Campus Time: 18.00hrs till 20.00hrs Attendance...
South Africa’s Rhino Horn Trade Proposal risks rhino extermination
This week rhino owners, conservation NGOS and other stakeholders had a chance to address the Rhino Horn Trade Proposal Committee of Inquiry with their support or concerns for...
Biodiversity Management Plan for the Lion in South Africa
The African lion (Panthera leo) is the largest African cat and the only feline that is social living in prides that average twelve individuals, but may reach more than thirty....
Rhinonomics: How different goods (such as rhino horn) will behave in different supply-demand situations
The view of an economist using economic fundamentals to argue against the legalisation of sale of existing stock of rhinoceros horn, or the law of unintended consequences and...
Media Statement on announcement of the Committee of Inquiry to deliberate on matters relating to a possible trade of Rhino Horn
10 FEBRUARY 2015 The Minister of Environmental Affairs, Mrs Edna Molewa this week introduced the Committee of Inquiry tasked with investigating the feasibility of a trade in...