News
Iceland drags back first fin whale of season
After just a couple of days at sea the Icelandic whaling company Hvalur hf have dragged back to port their first harpooned fin whale of the season. Tow boats left port at Reykjavik on Sunday and the first arrived at the Hvalfjordur whaling station with a fin whale strapped to its side yesterday, Tuesday 18th June. [...]
Poacher behind March slaughter of 89 elephants captured in Chad
A prolific elephant poacher in Chad has been captured by authorities and paraded to the media. The poacher Hassan Idriss, also known as Gargaf is said to be behind the slaughter of 89 elephants in one night (14-15 March) near to Ganba. He is thought to lead a gang of poachers that has killed 192 [...]
What? No lions – quick report on the UNESCO World Heritage sites meeting
The UNESCO World Heritage Sites committee is currently meeting in Phnom Penh Cambodia. The welcoming session started yesterday (Sun 16th June) and it is planned to last until 27TH June. However at the speed in which they are going it is going to be difficult to fill up those days. Today was meant to be [...]
KWS Director delivers speech to annual meeting
The Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) Director, William Kiprono, has delivered a speech about the current state of wildlife to the annual meeting of Wardens and Scientists. The meeting was held at the KWS headquarters in Nairobi. As you would expect the bulk of the speech was connected with the current wildlife poaching crisis. Some of the [...]
Fewer than 1,000 Great White sharks remain in South Africa
South Africa is thought to be home to the world’s largest population of Great White sharks. The species is one of the most beautiful and awe-inspiring of the shark family. A new survey though highlights just how at risk the Great White shark is. The survey estimates just 908 are still swimming around the coast [...]
Springwatch rustles a few feathers over nesting
Just catching up on yesterday’s BBC Springwatch programme and it appears that one of the items has caused a fair bit of controversy on the internet forums and in the media. The culprit was a feature on field craft on how to find bird nests. Sadly lots of people are complaining about the feature and [...]
China trains first wildlife detection dogs
China’s largest dog training complex in Ruili is now not just training dogs in the battle against drugs. They have three labradors undergoing training to detect contraband wildlife products. They are expected to complete their training and be ready for deployment at airports and border crossings later this year. The dogs have been in training [...]
China’s secret rhino farms
Could a Chinese company be making a second attempt at establishing a rhino farm in the country to harvest horn? It would be one way for China to get around the CITES rhino horn ban as domestic trade is not covered by the international agreement. China has a track record for getting around trade bans [...]
Losing the fight to save the rhino
Over the last 3 or 4 years there has been a chilling increase in the number of rhinos being poached each year. While the numbers seem to escalate there was hope that the rhino would survive provided the poaching could be bought under control before deaths exceeded the birth rate of the rhino. Sadly the [...]
Manta Ray tourism worth $140 million a year
Swimming with manta rays is one of the highlights for any scuba diver and can be a valuable source of money and jobs for local people. The latest estimate for the value of manta ray tourism has been put at USD140 million a year. Just 10 countries account for 93% of the value and manta [...]
South African MP calls for restart of seal hunt
ANC MP Miss Meriam Phaliso has called for the restart of the South African fur seal hunt as a way of boosting jobs now that a number of fisheries around the coast has been fished out. Phaliso who is a member of the Parliamentary Committee on Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries said the only thing that [...]
450000 water monitor lizards killed each year for handbags
A team of Indonesian and German researchers have recently published a comprehensive study into the current state of south-east Asia’s giant lizard populations. Despite all the species of the giant lizards having protection under CITES they are under threat from an un-controlled trade. The pet trade is the biggest threat to the giant lizards- such as [...]
10 KWS staff investigated for spying for poachers
The re-organisation of the Kenya Wildlife Service earlier this year appears to be starting to pay dividends. 10 officers of the Kenya Wildlife Service, including a senior warden and company commander, in Tsavo have been suspended for working with poaching gangs. Tsavo was one of the regions in Kenya that saw a massive increase in [...]
CFCs and cosmic rays drive global warming not carbon dioxide
An interesting paper has just been released by the University of Waterloo in Canada that seems to indicate the driving force behind climate change is CFCs and cosmic rays rather than carbon dioxide. One of the biggest arguments in favour of the new proposal is that its models actually match the real world situation – [...]
Scottish puffins survive the Spring wreck
Puffins observing the puffin count on the Isle of May (photo credit: Liz Mackley ) Earlier this year major storms in the North Atlantic led to thousands of dead puffins being washed ashore on the northern Scottish coast. There were real fears for the impact on the puffin population of Isle of May which is [...]
The travelling dolphin circuses of Indonesia
Indonesia is the last bastion of one of the worst examples of treatment of dolphins in the world. It is here that the last three travelling dolphin circuses exist, despite being declared illegal by authorities. The three companies are left unchallenged by the government to transport dolphins around in unsuitable and harmful conditions despite Forestry [...]
Icelandic whalers go on hunt for…. dog food
What do you do with the meat from endangered species that people are no longer prepared to eat? In the case of the Icelandic whalers they turn the meat from endangered fin whales into doggie treats for pampered pets and ship it off to Japan. While there is certainly still a demand for whale meat [...]
Chinese court sentences licensed ivory dealer to 15 years in prison
A Chinese court in Fujian Province has sentenced a licensed ivory trader to 15 years in prison for importing illegal ivory for sale in his shop. Two colleagues involved in the operation were also sentenced, one for 7 years and the other for 15 years. Over the last 18 months or so there has been [...]
Badger lovers to find sanctuary at Asda, Waitrose and M&S
People who are against the badger cull have three options of buying their milk if they want to ensure they are not buying from farms that may be part of the governments badger trial. Three supermarkets have confirmed that they do not source their own-brand milk from Gloucestershire or Somerset. Wildlife charity Care for the [...]
UK court sentences coral smuggler to 6 months in prison
A 23 year old Manchester man has been sentenced to 6 months in prison for attempting to smuggle 750kg of rare and endangered coral into the country from Vietnam. The smuggler, Alex Montgomery,of Mottram Old Road, Stalybridge, pleaded guilty after being caught by UK Border Force guards at Manchester Airport last May. More than 650 live [...]