Wildlife Trafficking

Video: Poachers slaughtered 1,028 South African rhinos for their horns in 2017.

A challenge from the reporter who blew the lid off of Thailand’s Tiger Temple and exposed illegal wildlife trafficking from a Buddhist monastery.

The trouble is, almost all animal populations today are facing increasing stress from changing environments.

This month brings us new books about wildlife trafficking, pesticides and the history of the oceans.

The bushmeat trade and traditional medicine could push tigers, chimpanzees, pangolins and hundreds of other species toward extinction

Tigers aren’t sexy, especially if you're posing with one in captivity.

World Ranger Day gives us an opportunity to recognize the people on the front lines.

Trying to save this species from extinction also means being witness to their destruction.

The cruel practice of tapping and mutilating caged bears for the bile from their gall bladders will soon come to an end in Vietnam. Trade in bear bile, a component of traditional medicine, is illegal in the country but a legal loophole allowed for its continued production. An agreement signed this week between Animals Asia and the Vietnam Administration of Forestry will close that loophole and ensure that the approximately 1,000 bears currently in private hands will move to sanctuaries. This doesn’t completely end the practice; a 2011 report from TRAFFIC found bear bile production and sales in 12 Asian countries. 

The exploitation of threatened slow lorises has spread to Turkey. New research shows that the country is the latest to use the tiny primates as tourist props, where people can pose with the animals for a nominal fee. Researchers found dozens of examples of tourists posing with two vulnerable South Asian loris species, despite the fact that no primate has ever been legally imported into Turkey. Lorises, perhaps best known from seemingly adorable YouTube videos, have become increasingly illegally trafficked in recent years. The fragile, nocturnal animals suffer greatly from the practice and rarely survive long in captivity.