TLALPAN, Mexico — Mexico City is, by some counts, one of the largest cities in the world. Its 9 million citizens occupy 1,485 square kilometers (573 square miles) of sprawling…
A dramatic surge in jaguar poaching and confiscations could be linked to Chinese-led investment in Latin America, poverty and corruption, according to a new study.
They don’t fly, nor do they breathe fire from their mouths, but the “little dragons” of the Abronia genus are the latest craze on the pet reptile market. Far from…
The largest carnivorous mammal of tropical America – the King of Beasts of the Amazon rainforest – is the jaguar. Found from the deserts of the American southwest as far…
Jaguar numbers at specific study sites in Central and South America are rising, based on surveys over the past decade and a half by the Wildlife Conservation Society. Elizabeth Bennett,…
BOLIVIA — A skull rests in the hands of a hunter. It is a jaguar’s skull that has all of its teeth in place, except the four fangs that the…
new shipment of illegally trafficked parrots arrives at the Los Pozos market in Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia. The sellers and middlemen are approached and questioned. The species, age…
determined collaborative effort between health officials and activists has resulted in the shutting down of one of the most egregious and flourishing illegal wildlife markets in all of Peru. Bellavista…
ima’s central markets are famed for sprawling mazes of interconnected shops, organized by product; this block for shoes, that for textiles. At the heart of this bustling district, there is…
he monk parakeets were small and bright green, crowded, almost on top of each other in a cage the size of two stacked shoeboxes. It was a humid day in…
ast March, a four-year manhunt finally paid off when U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) investigators teamed with Mexican officials to arrest a notorious American wildlife trafficker. Isaac Zimerman, 66,…
orsino Huallata Ibarra was helping his parents round up their herd of llamas at their home in the Bolivian countryside when the sound of gunshots made him jump. Scanning the…
ildlife trafficking casts a toxic net of negative impacts across the entire landscape it exhausts. The nightmarish media imagery emerging from the poaching battlefield of Africa has set the horrific…
ach year millions of travelers stream through the gates of Costa Rica’s Juan Santamaría airport in route to one of the country’s many natural wonders. But often when tourists leave,…
ildlife trafficking transit chains in Latin America are complex, secret, and as varied as the many common and threatened animal species targeted. After poachers illegally pluck wildlife from their habitats,…
The Green Macaw (Ara ambiguus) is an Endangered species. Traffickers hunt it on the banks of Nicaragua’s San Juan River. Captured birds are often transported for sale to San Salvador…
n July 19, 2011, officers from the Galapagos National Park Service and the Ecuadorian Navy stopped the Fer Mary I, a long line fishing vessel out of the bustling Ecuadorian…
ith its spectacularly diverse ecosystems, rare and endemic species, remote terrain, often loophole-riddled laws, and sketchy enforcement, Latin America is a haven for a booming illegal wildlife trade. South and…
cuador’s troubled relationship with oil began in 1964, when Texaco first discovered ‘black gold’ in the Eastern Amazon. That discovery led to some times violent cultural clashes between modern society…
uliana Machado Ferreira moves quickly through the chaotic sprawl of tables and stalls at Vila Mara, one of São Paulo’s busiest street markets. The vendors hawk shoes, clothing, piles of…
The hunters ransack the vulnerable nests of tropical birds in richly biodiverse but poorly patrolled Venezuelan rainforests. Wildlife merchants brazenly display young fledglings, monkeys and other animals, right next to…
ast October, a TV report from Peru’s Chanchamayo province depicted protesters swarming the streets, raising their voices in unison chanting: “Pepe Lucho is free! Pepe Lucho will not go!” The…