The Goldman Environmental Prize, the world’s most prestigious award for grassroots environmental activism, has announced seven winners this year. Six of the winners are women. Dubbed the Green Nobel Prize,…
An unlikely group of experts have teamed up to apply software developed to find distant stars to help solve problems in conservation ecology. The “astro-ecology” project at Liverpool Johns Moores…
Illegally sourced South African abalone (Haliotis midae), a marine snail considered a delicacy in East Asia, continues to flood Hong Kong markets, according to a new report by TRAFFIC, the…
Keeping equipment running in harsh field conditions can challenge any tech project, as can working successfully with volunteers. Some projects have to manage both. A recent Wildtech post describes wpsWatch,…
South African Minister of Water and Environmental Affairs Edna Molewa announced in a press briefing today that 1,028 rhinos were illegally killed in the country in 2017. That figure represents…
In 1962, at the First World Conference of National Parks in Seattle, U.S., Carleton Ray, a marine biologist at the University of Virginia, pleaded the cause of setting aside “unmolested”…
For the last two years, a U.S. non-profit and local partners in South Africa have quietly been catching wildlife poachers using remote cameras connected to a unique cross-continent volunteer monitoring…
Authorities protecting rhinos in Africa now have a tool to help them catch poachers based on fine-scale differences in the DNA of different individuals. The Rhino DNA Index System, or RhODIS…
A new federal ruling against an Obama-era ban on Zimbabwe elephant trophy hunting imports could throw Trump’s trophy hunting policy into even further confusion.
Prince Harry is joining African Parks as President of the South Africa-based wildlife conservation organization, according to an announcement made today during a BBC Radio 4 program guest-edited by the…
When times are tough for elephants, knocking over a tree may be the best way to get at the food resources it offers. Trees with bees, however, may avoid damage…
A year ago, scientists reported that cheetahs had disappeared from across 91 percent of their historic range. The cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus), the researchers recommended in their study, should be up-listed…
Each year, trafficking in wildlife parts earns international crime syndicates some $8 billion to $10 billion. A portable DNA analysis tool can now rapidly identify the species of plant and animal samples found on suspected smugglers.
BOGOTA, Colombia – Up here amidst the clouds and on the spine of the Andean mountain range, it's hard to believe that San German is situated on the outskirts of…
Grassland researchers attending the COP23 climate summit opening in Bonn next week could urge creation of REDD-style initiatives to encourage savanna conservation.
Criminal networks of Chinese origin operating in southern Africa have started processing rhino horn into jewelry and other trinkets before smuggling it out of the continent, reports wildlife trade monitoring network Traffic.
South Africa’s first “legal auction rhino horn auction” opened Monday online, amid a global rhino poaching crisis. The auction tests the ramifications of an April 2017 court decision to lift…
HOEDSPRUIT, South Africa – Vince Barkas, a grizzled high-school dropout with a sharp tongue and piercing blue eyes, is at war in the grasslands and savannas here in northeast South…
The slideshow in this story contains an image that some readers may find disturbing. Forbidding black cliffs relentlessly shuddered by massive Southern Ocean waves give way to a mountainous interior,…
On June 14, a routine scanning of baggage at Johannesburg’s OR Tambo Airport revealed a grim contraband. A Vietnamese citizen’s suitcase contained 28.7 kilograms (63.3 pounds) of poached rhino horns…
The sun is just about to rise over a savanna in Zululand, South Africa. Just like early morning in the city, the hum of insects is rising, the chorus of…
As agriculture expands into traditional elephant habitat, human-elephant conflict (HEC) has become a major threat to long-term survival of African (and Asian) elephants, often facilitating poaching and habitat destruction. Governments…
South Africa banned the hunting of leopards last year amid uncertainty over the species’ numbers and ongoing threats to its survival posed by mismanagement of the trophy hunting industry and…
A top court in South Africa just made it legal to trade in rhino horns within the country. The South African government, in 2009, imposed a moratorium that banned domestic…
A South African court ruling this month put the brakes on the approval of a coal station in the northern Limpopo province, marking a victory for environmental justice organization Earthlife…
One might assume that the biggest challenge in managing an ambitious, multinational initiative like the Barcode of Wildlife Project (BWP) stems from the cross-cultural dimensions of the enterprise. But the…
An ambitious global initiative, the Barcode of Wildlife Project unites research biologists, investigators, prosecutors, and members of law enforcement in partner countries in using DNA barcoding to combat wildlife crime.
A new report released by the Humane Society International (HSI) finds that trophy hunters are “grossly” overstating the economic benefits of big game hunting in Africa. HSI timed the release…
Evolution can be an exquisite hammer, tapping out finely honed strategies for the survival of life on Earth against the blunt force of the environment. But mess with those surroundings too…
It takes less than 20 milligrams of rhino horn to prosecute poachers. This is all scientists need to discover a rhinoceros' unique DNA pattern, a sort of genetic fingerprint investigators…
