Wildlife trafficking News

RSS
2420 stories
Collage, Giant African Harvester Ant

Why are people buying pet ants?

Abhishyant Kidangoor 23 May 2026
Rhino populations across their ranges in Africa and Asia are threatened by poaching for their horns, which are in demand in China and Vietnam for medicinal uses and as a luxury item.

Rhino-poaching suspect, repeatedly freed on bail, shot dead in South Africa

Spoorthy Raman 23 May 2026
Two hoolock gibbon in Hoollongapar Gibbon Sanctuary, India. Image by কুমুদ ঘোষ via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 4.0).

What drives the trafficking of gibbons? Conservationists shed light on demand

Mongabay.com 22 May 2026

Three Thai nationals suspected of smuggling Galápagos iguanas arrested in Ecuador

Spoorthy Raman 21 May 2026

Texas man convicted of buying eagle parts from a wildlife trafficking ring

David Brown 19 May 2026
African savanna elephants are endangered, after years of poaching for their ivory, decimated their numbers. Now, their habitats are fast-shrinking due to human activities.

Trump called trophy hunting a “horror show,” but permitted 300-plus elephant trophy imports in 2025

Spoorthy Raman 18 May 2026

More than a million live birds imported to Asia in 15 years, report finds

Mongabay.com 18 May 2026
A captive Persian leopard in a British zoo, 2005.

Endangered Persian leopards persist across borders, despite hunters and landmines

Kayleigh Long 15 May 2026
Jaguars are native to the Americas and are found in 18 countries.

Honduran authorities seize jaguar kept as pet, put spotlight on local trafficking

Spoorthy Raman 14 May 2026
White-bellied pangolin (Phataginus tricuspis) in Ondo state, Nigeria. Adedotun Ajibade via iNaturalist (CC BY-NC 4.0)

Nigeria aims for stronger wildlife protections with sweeping new law

Valentine Benjamin 12 May 2026
The Lear’s macaw had been at the center of two recent wildlife trafficking cases.

Brazil police seize devices from bird expert in trafficking probe linked to Vantara zoo

Fernanda Wenzel 7 May 2026

52 dead sloths: Inside Sloth World

Izzy Sasada 7 May 2026
A Bengal tiger from Rajasthan, India. Poaching is one of the biggest threats to tigers, an endangered cat in Asia.

Facebook is a hub for illegal wildlife trade, and that’s by design, report says

Spoorthy Raman 5 May 2026
This red-tailed monkey was photographed at a hotel in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

As wildlife trade expands, so do pathways for disease spillover to humans

Cate Twining-Ward 4 May 2026

Indonesia busts wildlife trafficking ring targeting Komodo dragons

Naina Rao 1 May 2026
A black-bellied pangolin rescued from poachers, released by the Sangha Pangolin Project in the Central African Republic. Image courtesy of Rod Cassidy via iNaturalist, CC BY-NC.

Nigeria arrests suspected pangolin trafficking kingpin on the run

Spoorthy Raman 27 Apr 2026
Lanal Banten (Banten Navy Base) displays hundreds of kilograms of pangolin scales seized from a Vietnamese-flagged vessel.

Investigators eye organized crime links in 3-ton pangolin scale haul at Jakarta port

Anggita Raissa 24 Apr 2026
Mountain gorillas continue to face serious threats as they lose habitat and are stalked by poachers who target them for their meat and body parts, or traffic their infants for zoos and entertainment.

Amid conflict and poaching, tech helps boost mountain gorilla numbers

Aimable Twahirwa 23 Apr 2026
Two suspects were arrested in Kenya in January with 110 kg of ivory. Image courtesy of Freeland.

After 110-kilo ivory bust, familiar questions over Kenya’s follow-through

Charles Mpaka 23 Apr 2026
Black rhinos are critically endangered.

Chinese court cases reveal most trafficked rhino horns come from Southern Africa

Spoorthy Raman 21 Apr 2026
Joy as a baby. Image courtesy of Gibbon Conservation Society.

To tackle trafficking in gibbons, experts probe what drives demand

Ana Norman Bermúdez 20 Apr 2026

Colombia announces plan to cull Pablo Escobar’s feral hippos

Naina Rao 17 Apr 2026
The King River enters Macquarie Harbour, where decades of mining have contributed to contaminated sediment buildup at the river’s delta. Image by Stefan Lovgren.

In Tasmania, the mines have closed but the rivers remember

Stefan Lovgren 16 Apr 2026
A yellow-fronted canary from South Africa. The songbird tops the list of wild birds exported from Africa to Asia.

Nearly a million birds shipped from Africa to Asia in 15 years; canaries top the list

Spoorthy Raman 15 Apr 2026

Two-month-old bear cubs rescued from Facebook sale in Laos

Naina Rao 14 Apr 2026
Cowboy boots made from the skin of the giant Amazon pirarucu fish

Cowboy boots can save an Amazonian river giant

Julia Lima 7 Apr 2026
Rangers prepare to load a rhino into a crate at Ziwa Rhino Sanctuary, Uganda. Image courtesy of UWA.

Decades after poaching drove them extinct, rhinos are back in the wild in Uganda

Benjamin Jumbe 31 Mar 2026
Pangolins are one of the most in-demand wildlife in Asia, used in traditional chinese medicine preparations. After Chinese pangolins plummeted by about 90% in the 2000s, traffickers shifted to African species.

Asia now hub of growing illegal wildlife trade across 100+ countries, study shows

Spoorthy Raman 30 Mar 2026

Zambia seizes half-ton of ivory in major illegal wildlife crime operation

Charles Mpaka 28 Mar 2026
Birds crowded and under severe stress make open-air markets like the Parangaba Fair in Fortaleza ideal locations for the spread of diseases.

Open-air markets: hotspots for a lethal virus infecting macaws and parrots

Fernanda Wenzel 27 Mar 2026
Hooded vultures are small, scruffy-faced vultures native to sub-Saharan Africa.

‘Staggering’ trade for belief-based use drives hooded vultures to near-extinction in Benin

Spoorthy Raman 25 Mar 2026
The endangered Sumatran laughingthrush is another masterbird species threatened by trade. Image by Simon Bruslund

Songbird trade threatens lesser-known ‘master birds’ with secondary extinctions: Study

Sean Mowbray 23 Mar 2026

you're currently offline