Tony Weaver has defended Botswana’s decision to reintroduce trophy hunting. Personally, he doesn’t ‘quite understand what motivates hunters’, but intellectually, he fully...
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...
Captive lion breeding in South Africa: the case for a total ban
A new report by global NGO, World Animal Protection, provides a damning indictment on the captive predator breeding industry. Big cats are being bred for the use of...
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...
The Great Elephant Debate: Myth-busting jumbo fallacies
Botswana has a growing population of humans and cattle, not elephants. Outside protected areas, desertification caused by cattle over-grazing too often gets ignored. Hunting will...
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...
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....
Yes, I’m a hunter. My targets are duplicity, lies and cruelty
The trophy hunting industry is on the wrong side of history, serves the macabre leisure pursuits of a handful of the wealthy elite and yet, bizarrely, we environment writers are...
Joburg Zoo squanders R1,25 million on new elephants
The Zoo paid almost R1milion more than the market rate for its two new elephants from Inkwenkwezi Private Game Reserve. The City's funds have been grossly overspent,...
WILDLIFE CRIME IN SOUTH AFRICA IN 2019
National Director of Public Prosecutions To: National Prosecuting Authority VGM Building123 Westlake Avenue Weavind Park, Silverton Pretoria, 0184...
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...
Botswana trophy hunting poached 385 elephants
At least 385 elephants were poached in the last year, however the Botswana government has just set an annual quota of 400 elephants to be killed by trophy hunters and...
Captive lion breeding coalition submission to DEFF
Public Participation Submission of the Coalition To Stop the Captive Breeding and Keeping of Lions and Other Big Cats for Commercial Purposes June 2019 Content Introduction...
SA plans for 2019 lion bone export quota a ‘big middle finger to conservation’
The Department of Environment, Forestry and Fisheries’ determination to set yet another export quota for lion bones flies in the face of several ongoing processes ...
Zambian pseudo hippo cull cancelled
A controversial contract to hunt at least 1250 hippos under the pretext of culling in Zambia's world-renowned Luangwa Valley has been cancelled following global criticism and...
Botswana shoots itself in the foot
After Barack Obama came Donald Trump, a bigoted populist prone to crass outpourings and some peculiar legislative ideas. His time in office has reminded the world how prone...
The elephants in the room – the myths informing Botswana’s hunting policy
Botswana has lifted its ban on hunting based on five myths about that country’s elephant population. The decision has as much to do with Botswana’s upcoming elections and the...
Botswana brings back trophy hunting
Botswana has now committed to a policy built on myths, while the rest of the world takes stock of the implications ecological crisis. Botswana’s Ministry of Environment, Natural...
Botswana’s elephants: myths vs facts
Botswana president, Dr Mokgweetsi Masisi, recently hosted a summit in Kasane for five southern African heads of state to forge a common regional elephant conservation policy....
Kruger poachers get power rifles.
A gun manufacturer in the Czech Republic is implicated in flooding Africa with thousands of high-calibre hunting rifles. Now poachers are even more deadly, writes Don Pinnock A...
Elephants reduced to a political football as Botswana brings back hunting
Splashing in the Zambezi River at Botswana’s Chobe National Park. Shutterstock Ross Harvey, University of Cape Town Botswana has reinstated trophy hunting after a 5-year...
Follow-up to colloquium on captive breeding for hunting & press release re high-level panel to review policies
Minister of Environmental Affairs: Honourable Ms Nomvula MokonyaneEmail: nmokonyane@environment.gov.za c/c: Ministerial Communication Services: Ms Zanele Mngadi Email:...
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...
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...
New report highlights continued threat to African elephants from poaching
PRESS RELEASEGeneva, 10 May 2019 – An updated assessment by the CITES programme Monitoring of Illegal Killing of Elephants (MIKE) has confirmed that poaching continues to...
Trophy Hunting, Part One: The nasty colonial sport of shooting wild animals
A male white lion, part of a rare white lion pack, in the wild in South Africa. (PHOTO: EPA/LIESL EICHENBERGER) Trophy hunting has historically been the preserve of...
Press Release: Lawsuit Prompts U.S. Officials to Consider Protecting Giraffes
WASHINGTON— After a prod from a lawsuit filed by conservation groups, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced today that giraffes may qualify for protection under...
Joburg Zoo To Get Second Elephant In Spite Of Public Outcry
Photo: Francis Garrard The Joburg Zoo continues to make unilateral decisions regarding Lammie the elephant’s future while the DA led City council turns a blind eye. The zoo...
Tall order to save the giraffe
WILL giraffes survive humanity? They are as iconic as lions, rhinos and elephants and their long-term existence in the wild is under similar threat. However, the world’s tallest...
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...
Canned lion hunting campaign muzzled at World Travel Market
The Blood Lions presentation by Campaign Director, Nicola Gerrard, at WTM Africa in Cape Town last week was abruptly cut short after only five of a planned 20 minutes. “Blood...
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...
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 &...
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...
Young elephant shot 13 times: Tourists watched in horror
Balule Associated Nature Reserve has justified the killing of a young elephant bull in front of tourists as an ‘act of self-defense’, backtracking on an original announcement...
The Last Elephants – Book review
Did you know that in Africa there is one elephant for every 20 000 people; fewer than 450 000 according to the (most recent) Great Elephant Census of 2016, down from the 3 to 5...
Kleinmond ‘Safari Park’ Elephant Plans Approved Despite Objections & Environmental Risks
A new safari park near the small town of Kleinmond in the Western Cape may hold economic gains for its owners – but at what cost to the sensitive Overstrand environment or...
US poll says ‘No’ to Botswana plans to hunt and cull elephants
As tourism is a mainstay of Botswana’s economy, lifting the hunting ban could, the poll suggests, have severe economic consequences and damage Botswana’s international...
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...
DEA bactracks on parliamentary resolution on captive lion breeding
Picture: Martin Meja/AP A Parliamentary Resolution to end the Captive Breeding of Lions in South Africa has been ignored by the Department of Environmental Affairs (DEA), who...
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...
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...
Botswana elephants caught in the middle of a scramble for votes
Photo credit: Francis Garrard President Mokgweetsi Masisi of Botswana said last week that “elephants bleed [the] government coffers”, as “Botswana is indirectly subsidising...
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...
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...
Extinction looms for Namibia’s Wild Horses
Nambia's wild horses. Photo: Christine-Wulff-Swiegers The desert sun is setting on the Wild Horse population that has roamed Namibia’s Garub plains for over a hundred years as...
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...
Escalating poaching worrying
Killing of elephants for their tusks crisis is not a new issue Photo credit: Mike Chase After months of controversy, the results of the most extensive elephant population survey...
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...
Parliament slams Kruger Park for defying directive not to sign agreement with neighbours
Kruger National Park has been condemned by Parliament for signing an agreement which it had been expressly forbidden to sign by the Portfolio Committee on Environmental Affairs....
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...
Elephant experts at Joburg Zoo? Keep looking
Johannesburg Zoo claims that Lammie the lonely elephant is getting the best care and that there’s no need to mover her to a sanctuary. Who’s doing the caring is cause for...
The hidden iniquity of the African Ranger Awards
Rangers risk their lives while Chinese tech giants facilitate illegal wildlife trade. Instead of dealing with the problem, last year the former head of Alibaba, Jack Ma, was in...
Does trophy hunting really benefit conservation and local communities?
Every year, thousands of tourists visit South African private nature reserves to see wild animals in unspoilt surroundings. But how many of these travellers know that some of the...
Elephant experts call on Joburg Mayor Mashaba to #FreeLammie
Photo: South African Breaking News Thirteen of the world’s most respected elephant behavioural specialists and researchers have supported calls to release Lammie to a rewilding...
Zoos need a radical rethink — a plea for Joburg’s Lammie the elephant
Image supplied. We need to talk about the future of zoos. There are about 1,500 formal and many more informal ones in the world, holding between three and four million...
Greater KNP Hunting Protocol for Reserves where hunting takes place
PREAMBLE Demands for competing land uses that are not compatible with conservation practices, make the need for viable conservation incentives more urgent. Well governed trophy...
CITES – The trade system that doesn’t know that it doesn’t know
A picture made available Wedensday 22 September 2004 shows young black rhinoceros staring at the camera in this undated file photo. EPA/JON HRUSA CITES, the United Nations...
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...
CITES – Proposals for amendments of appendices 1 & 2 regarding elephant populations of Botswana, Namibia, South Africa and Zimbabwe
CONVENTION ON INTERNATIONAL TRADE IN ENDANGERED SPECIES OF WILD FAUNA AND FLORA Eighteenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties Colombo (Sri Lanka), 23 May – 3 June 2019 Read...
East London Zoo animals remain confined in small barren enclosures
East London Zoo - Photo: SABC News This is a story about a lonely bear in a pit, a jaguar with nowhere to run or trees to climb, a vulture with nowhere to fly and the cruelty of...
HSI/Africa urges department of environmental affairs to heed Parliament’s call to end captive lion breeding for trophy hunting and the bone trade
HSI/Africa urges department of environmental affairs to heed Parliament’s call to end captive lion breeding for trophy hunting and the bone trade CAPE TOWN (6 DECEMBER 2018) – In...
Parliament moves to put the brakes on ‘unethical’ captive lion breeding and bone trade
Are we about to see the end of one of South Africa’s most infamous practices – captive lion breeding for hunting and trading of their parts? If Parliament adopts the...
CITES lets world’s worst elephant poaching countries off the hook
Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, China, Thailand and the Philippines, some of the world's worst countries for poaching and illegal trade in ivory have been allowed to exit a key...
Botswana’s elephant poaching crisis under scrutiny
Reports of elephant poaching in Botswana are under the spotlight with various claims in national and international media that the current adverse situation is driven by...
A nail in the coffin of the captive lion breeding industry?
There was an overwhelming consensus for the need to bring an end to the controversial captive lion breeding industry in South Africa at a two-day Parliamentary Colloquium of the...
Information Sheet: Parliamentary Colloquium on Captive Lion Breeding for Hunting
Should we be farming lions to slaughter? The Problems No conservation value Inadequate welfare standards Lack of regulation Inability of DEA, DAFF and Provinces to enforce...
OP-ED: Lion bones and predator farming – picking on the carcass of SA tourism
Predator breeding using lions and other species could cost South Africa over R54-billion over the next 10 years in loss of tourism brand attractiveness. This is according to a...
Kruger threatens to re-erect game fences over private reserves’ poor governance
A number of the private reserves in the Greater Kruger National Park appear to be violating the protocols and regulations that permitted them to drop fences with Kruger and hunt...
SA’s macabre captive lion breeding industry to be investigated by Parliament
South Africa's unregulated captive lion breeding industry will shortly be reviewed by the Portfolio Committee on Environmental Affairs in a two-day hearing open to the public....
KNP Recommendations for hunting in Umbabat PNR, 6 February 2018
Animal numbers in APNR reserves, proposed hunting quotas and basis for recommendations with reservations, does not recommend hunting a male lion. Read SANParks-KNP's...
Outrage after Kruger lion baited and shot by trophy hunter in neighbouring reserve
An American is believed to have paid R1-million to bring down a Kruger Park lion from a pride beloved of tourists. On Friday a male lion was shot by a trophy hunter...
Urgent call to save parks in the North West
EMBATTLED North West Premier Supra Mahumapelo has set his sights on the wildlife reserves within the province, proposing a bill last week repealing the North West Parks Board...
East London Zoo plans to cage endangered Wild Dogs for ‘conservation’
The troubled East London Zoo’s plans to buy Wild Dogs as soon as a moratorium on purchasing animals at the zoo is lifted are facing criticism from conservationists. The Zoo is...
Endangered Species Day – What you need to know to help save SA’s natural heritage
HAVE WE FORGOTTEN THAT WILDERNESS IS NOT A PLACE BUT A SEASON AND THAT WE ARE IN ITS FINAL HOUR? – IAN MCCALLUM, WILDERNESS This Friday, 18...
Like the fossil fuel industry, trophy hunting is unsustainable
Trophy hunting is like the fossil fuel industry. They’re both messy, unsustainable, in need of an alternative approach and, ultimately, fail to deliver on their promises. ...
The second Giants Club Summit addresses the survival of our elephants
The second Giants Club Summit meets in Kasane over the next few days, uniting African leadership with global science, finance and influence to accelerate anti-poaching efforts,...
Final Report Survey of Small Elephant Populations in South Africa
1. PROJECT BACKGROUND AND CONTEXT Since the early-1980s the number of fenced elephant populations on private property in South Africa has grown considerably, contributing to the...
Unbanning US trophy imports: Trump jams a spanner in the works
In a surprising move, President Donald Trump has left-footed his own Department of Interior’s attempts to overturn former president Barack Obama’s ban on the import of wildlife...
The shared nature of Africa’s elephants
Abstract The world's biodiversity is shared by countries that are increasingly recognizing the need for effective responses to human influence and climate change impacts through...
US conservation groups sue over Lion and Elephant trophy import confusion
Two major US conservation NGOs are suing the Trump administration for allowing American hunters to import elephant and lion trophies from Zimbabwe and Zambia. Two major US...
Savanna elephant numbers are only a quarter of their expected values
RESEARCH ARTICLE Savanna elephant numbers are only a quarter of their expected values Read original report: Robson et al 2017 Savanna elephant numbers are only a quarter of their...
New trade ruling spells end for rhinos say conservationists
With the Sumatran rhino officially extinct in the wild, are South Africa’s rhino doomed to the same fate? With the Sumatran rhino officially extinct in the wild, are South...
More questions than answers as Kruger park continues shooting buffalo
Confused explanations at a public meeting in Skukuza on Saturday are concerning stakeholders as the Kruger National Park forges ahead with its program of shooting buffalo as part...
Open letter to ambassador Xin Shunkang of the People’s Republic of China to Namibia
Dear Ambassador Xin Shunkang, During the past few weeks, several Chinese nationals have been apprehended and charged with wildlife crimes, including illegal possession of rhino...
North West Province ducks R100m game donation questions
Parliament is struggling to get answers out of the North West province’s Department of Rural, Environmental and Agricultural Development about a suspicious “donation” of 130...
Problems with trophy hunting in Zimbabwe exposed
Trophy hunting in Zimbabwe’s Matetsi Safari Area is not sustainable at current levels as trophy sizes are declining, there is little scientific data supporting quota sizes and...
The struggle over Japan’s ivory market
Japan has ensured the continued existence of its deeply flawed internal ivory market through sly diplomacy at the CITES conference in Johannesburg. However, reports in the...
Ivory: When is a ban not a ban?
The failure to effectively shut down domestic ivory markets at the recent COP17 in Johannesburg leaves the ban on international ivory trade as little more than an ineffective...
Bushmeat hunting and extinction risk to the world’s mammals
Abstract Terrestrial mammals are experiencing a massive collapse in their population sizes and geographical ranges around the world, but many of the drivers, patterns and...
Wildlife under threat from legal trade in Southern Africa
Photo: ©conservationaction.co.za Southern Africa is losing protected wild plants and animals at an alarming rate. Between 2005 and 2014, around 18,000 individual species worth...
Can We Sustainably Harvest Ivory?
Despite the 1989 ivory trade ban, elephants continue to be killed to harvest their tusks for ivory. Since 2008, this poaching has increased to unprecedented levels driven by...
What can we expect from SA at CoP 17?
As the countdown begins to the 17th meeting of the Conference of the Parties (CoP17) for CITES, which commences in Johannesburg on 24 September, conservationists question the...
Poachers kill 26 elephants in Chobe National Park
At least 26 elephants, their faces hacked off and their tusks removed, lay in congealing blood on Botswana’s Chobe National Park floodplain. Poachers had killed them within sight...
SA Scientists slam Swazi Elephant Export
In a statement published this week South Africa’s Elephant Specialist Advisory Group (ESAG) says that the export of the elephants, three adult females and fifteen sub-adults to...
Trophy hunting stronghold on Africa’s wildlife seeping across to SA
The world's wealthiest hunting organization, Safari Club International (SCI) and professional hunting groups, met behind closed doors with the South African Department of...
Export of Swaziland Elephants to US ZOOS : Saving Lives or Making Money
Despite strong opposition and a variety of alternatives, Swaziland’s Big Game Parks appears resolute in its decision to export elephants to US zoos, in what seems to be a...
Experts object to proposed Swaziland elephant import into U
We, the undersigned scientists, conservationists, elephant care, animal welfare and policy experts, are strongly opposed to the proposed import of 18 elephants from Swaziland by...
Hunters: Killers or saviours?
The oft asked question is: are trophy hunters protectors of biodiversity or are they heartless killers of defenceless wild animals? To make any headway with this question, we...
Leopard hunting: Restricted but not banned
Leopards are in trouble. But how much is hard to tell. For hundreds of years they were classed as vermin. Today we don’t know how many have survived the guns – they’re elusive...
Big game hunting in West Africa, What is its contribution to conservation?
The report highlights that the economic results of big game hunting is low. Land used for hunting generates much smaller returns than that used for agriculture or...
Driven hunt organizer implicated in land deal irregularities
The playgrounds of trigger-happy trophy hunters are far removed from the fertile fruit farms of the Western Cape and Eastern Cape. But a recent television expose of driven...
Lion and Leopard Non Detriment Findings – Government Gazette 10th September 2015
The following is recommended: 1) Guidelines for the allocation of leopard trophy quotas must be developed and provided to all provinces by the end of January 2015. 2) A...
Travel conference shirks SA lion film
Travel conference organisers have decided not to screen a documentary that raises critical questions about key tourist attractions that their event promotes. Local delegates to...
Petted cheetahs are biting back
Keeping cheetahs as tourist attractions is widespread in South Africa. But, as a number of attacks have proved, they’re far less tame than ‘cheetah experience’ establishments...
‘Mak’ jagluiperd is g’n troetel-cheetah
Talle jagluiperds word oor die land heen as toeristetrekpleister aangehou. Maar die getal aanvalle wat voorkom, wys hulle is minder mak as wat hierdie ‘cheetah-ervaring’-plekke...
NSPCA CAPTIVE ELEPHANT REPORT
The NSPCAs Wildlife Protection Unit has compiled an in-depth report on the captive Elephant industry in South Africa. All information contained in this factual report has been...
KZN Cheetah petting park closed to visitors after attacks
Following attacks on a child and two women by cheetahs at KwaCheetah ‘petting park’ in KwaZulu-Natal, Ezemvelo authorities this week suspended all non-staff access to the...
How to Save Elephants: Obliterate Ivory Stockpiles Simultaneously
To save African elephants from extinction, “range states should put their ivory stockpiles beyond commercial use immediately and simultaneously,” says South African economist...
World Elephant Day: Study calls for domestic trade bans and projects to cut demand for ivory
If you want to save elephants, don’t legalise the international trade in ivory. That’s the message of a major research paper published to coincide with World Elephant Day on...
KZN pupil attacked by cheetah at petting park
A child from Cowan House Preparatory School in KwaZulu-Natal was on Thursday bitten on the shoulder by a cheetah at the KwaCheetah Breeding Project in the Nambiti Private Game...
Trophy hunting fuels Asian lion bone trade
New research suggests things are getting worse for South Africa’s declining wild lion population as the trophy hunting industry is boosting the Asian trade in lion bones. Tiger...
Zimbabwe says Cecil the Lion hunt was definitely illegal
Parks Authority believes that the use of a bow and an arrow “was meant to conceal the illegal hunt by using a means that would not alert the rangers on patrol.” Bow and arrow...
Illegal kill of Cecil the lion sparks worldwide call for trophy hunting ban
Cape Town - The face of Cecil the lion was projected on the Empire State building over the weekend - just one of the protest action movements sparked by the infamous trophy hunt...
Double controversy hits Southern Africa’s trophy hunting industry
In the past week Southern Africa’s lucrative trophy hunting industry received two devastating blows: the release of an explosive new documentary detailing the unsavoury practices...
Professional hunters to reconsider lion hunting policy
In an unprecedented move, the Professional Hunters' Association of South Africa (PHASA) has been told that its "position on lion hunting is no longer tenable". In an email sent...
Emergency declared as elephant poached
Johannesburg - An emergency was declared as the first elephant was poached on the western border of Kruger National Park. Each day in Africa around 100 elephants die at the hands...
SA doccie reveals the shocking truth behind lion breeding
Durban - Blood Lions, a new documentary film delivers a damning verdict on the rapidly growing South African industry that breeds, hunts and trades lions in captivity. Blood...
Unsavoury practices in canned hunting industry prompt government concern
Government appears intent on reforming and sanitising the business of breeding and hunting lions. Critics want to see it dismantled altogether Minister Edna Molewa has just met...
Sport hunters kill Zim’s best known lion
Wildlife enthusiasts say Cecil, possibly Hwanges’s largest lion, was a favourite among visitors to Zimbabwe’s premier national park as he was extremely relaxed around safari...
New study throws light on South Africa’s Lion bone trade
A new study finds there is little evidence that the Lion bone trade in South Africa is currently adversely impacting wild Lion populations there, but warns the situation needs to...
Female elephant killed at Mabalingwe in botched hunt for bull elephant
A hunter recently shot and killed a female elephant whilst trying hunt a bull elephant at Mabalingwe Nature Reserve near Bela Bela in Limpopo. Controversy surrounds both the...
EU Bans Importation Of Lion Trophies As The World Bank Funds Sport Hunting In Mozambique In An Effort To Stop Poaching
The World Bank has allocated $700,000 bolster trophy hunting of elephants and lions in Mozambique as a way to preserve wildlife. “Hunting, when properly regulated and when...
60% Collapse of Tanzanias Elephants Justifies US Ban on Trophy Imports
The recent announcement that Tanzania had lost 60% of its elephants in just five years as well as Zimbabwe’s continued disregard of international opinion on the capture and...
Will Synthetic Horn Save Or Destroy Wild Rhino Populations?
US based bio-engineering firm, Pembient, is one of three companies that plans to flood Chinese and Vietnamese markets with synthetic 3D-printed rhino horn in an effort to stem...
Congo: Sniffing out wildlife crime – and the corruption at its core
One after the other the carcasses were extracted from the crammed vehicle. Burnt, shrunken-back lips exposed grimacing teeth…a gruesome effect. As the pile of animals mounted up...
Experts: Trading rhino horn will only increase poaching risks
A group of international experts comprised of over 30 conservationists, academics, journalists, authors and lawyers from Africa, Europe, Asia and America has warned the Committee...
Beautiful and twisted: The story of Virunga National Park
Virunga National Park is one of Africa’s treasure troves, and one of its most toxic, and intoxicating, killing fields. Under threat from various armed militias as well as...
CRISIS MANAGEMENT: WORLD EXPERTS GATHER IN CAPE TOWN TO FIND SOLUTIONS TO RHINO POACHING
Cape Town – At a conference here at the end of May, experts from around the world gathered to discuss responses and solutions to the poaching crisis facing South Africa’s...
“So who actually looks after our elephants then?”
The African elephant population is already facing unprecedented pressure on its survival from poaching, so added pressure from the captive elephant industry is the last thing it...
US Upholds Ban on Elephant Trophies from Rogue States
The US government has upheld its earlier ban on the importation of elephant trophies from Tanzania and Zimbabwe for the duration of 2014, despite vocal objections from hunting...
Officials on the horns of a dilemma
The conservation of wild animals is a wrangle that has divided opinion into two diametrically opposed camps, writes Adam Cruise. As today is World Nature Conservation Day, it is...
Wildlife policy matters: inclusion and exclusion by means of organisational and discursive boundaries
As a result of shifting wildlife policy, approximately one-sixth of South Africa’s total land has been ‘game-fenced’ and converted for wildlife-based production during the last...