Rhino poaching in South Africa declines for fifth straight year
South Africa reports that rhino poaching has declined for a fifth straight year in the country, with 594 rhino poached in 2019, down from the 769 rhino killed for their…
Rangers in Indonesia’s Aceh to get guns as officials flex on violators
JAKARTA — Forest rangers in Indonesia’s Aceh province will this year be allowed to carry firearms for the first time in decades, in the latest move by local authorities toward…
Audio: Reporter Katie Baker details Buzzfeed’s explosive investigation of WWF
On today’s episode of the Mongabay Newscast, we speak with Katie Baker, a reporter for Buzzfeed News investigating allegations of human rights violations and other abuses committed against local indigenous…
How Laos lost its tigers
The last tiger in Lao PDR likely died in terrible anguish. Its foot caught in a snare, the animal probably died of dehydration. Or maybe, in a desperate bid to…
The Pan Borneo Highway could divide threatened wildlife populations
This is the fourth article in our six-part series “Traveling the Pan Borneo Highway.” Read Part One, Part Two and Part Three. BATU PUTEH, Malaysia — They call it the…
The Pan Borneo Highway brings wildlife threats to nat’l park doorstep
This is the second article in our six-part series “Traveling the Pan Borneo Highway.” Read Part One. TELOK SERABANG, Malaysia — At the westernmost tip of Borneo sits a dense…
Europe-bred rhinos join South African cousins to repopulate Rwanda park
Five eastern black rhinos translocated from European zoos to Rwanda's Akagera National Park have successfully completed an initial period of acclimatization and been moved into larger, 1-hectare (2.5-acre) enclosures. They…
Suspected totoaba poachers shot by authorities in Mexico’s Sea of Cortez
Three suspected totoaba poachers were reportedly shot yesterday by Mexican marines following a confrontation over illegal gillnets that had been confiscated. According to local news outlet Fronteras, the governor of…
Elephant in the room: Botswana deals with pachyderm population pressure
This is the second article in a two-part series on Botswana’s population of African elephants. Read the first part, about a reported increase in poaching, here. CHOBE NATIONAL PARK, Botswana…
Trouble in Botswana’s elephant paradise as poaching said to rise
This is the first article in a two-part series on Botswana’s population of African elephants. Read the second part, about measures to deal with the number of elephants, here. CHOBE…
Graphic anti-wildlife-trafficking campaign tackles Vietnam’s pangolin problem
HO CHI MINH CITY, Vietnam — On Jan. 28, a graphic new anti-wildlife-trafficking campaign called “Be Their Bodhisattva” launched at a major pagoda here in Vietnam’s commercial center. Under the…
Wildlife rangers in DRC park report waning motivation, job satisfaction
A recent survey of wildlife rangers at a national park in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) found that most aren’t happy with their jobs. Faced with low pay, little…
Virtual meetup highlights networked sensor technology for parks
Technology users and tech developers don’t always talk directly to each other, but they should. The relatively small size of the scientific/conservation community and its need for a particular suite…
$25m in funding to help African gov’ts prosecute poachers, traffickers
A prominent African wildlife conservation NGO has committed $25 million to help protect iconic fauna from poaching and habitat loss across the continent by investing in African institutions and people.…
New survey results show Nepal is on track to double its tiger population by 2022
A census led by the government of Nepal has found that the tiger population in the country nearly doubled over the past ten years. Data gathered from camera trap surveys…
DNA database helps Nepal’s officials monitor tigers, punish poachers
In December 2015, officials from Nepal's Central Investigation Bureau had a hunch that something was amiss with the country’s tigers. The bureau, in the past few months, had seized more…
An anti-poaching technology for elephants that is always listening
Working under cover of night in parks as large as US states, poachers are skilled in avoiding detection. If they kill with silencers on their rifles, the animal’s death is…
87 elephants found dead in Botswana, one of last safe havens for the species
Poachers have killed at least 87 elephants in recent months in Botswana, according to the conservation nonprofit Elephants Without Borders, which has been conducting an aerial survey of the animals.…
Poachers caught on video killing mother bear and cubs at den in Alaska
Authorities in Alaska say they have identified two poachers who reportedly killed a female black bear and her cubs from footage taken at the animals’ den in April. Unbeknownst to…
The appeal acquittal of Feisal Mohamed Ali: A victory for rule of law, a process corrupted, or both? (commentary)
Could it have come at a worse time for Kenya’s Tourism and Wildlife Ministry? With Kenya still stinging from the humiliation and embarrassment over the translocation-related deaths of 11 rhinos,…
In Kenya’s Maasai Mara, detection dogs are a ranger’s best friend
It took Gage roughly six seconds to find the tiny piece of ivory hidden on the underside of our vehicle. Gage, a Labrador retriever, specializes in finding ivory and firearms,…
Securing a future for Grevy’s zebras and the cultures of northern Kenya (commentary)
For most foreigners, the mention of Kenya conjures images characteristic of the country’s southern safari circuit — the famed Masai Mara wildebeest migration, Amboseli’s elephant herds dwarfed by Mount Kilimanjaro’s…
‘Better and better’: Thermal cameras turn up the heat on poachers
Nearly 2 million animals, mostly wildebeest and zebra, migrate roughly 800 kilometers (500 miles) each year between Serengeti National Park in Tanzania and Maasai Mara National Reserve across the border…
Two suspected poachers arrested for killing of Sumatran elephant
Authorities in Indonesia have arrested two of four suspects alleged to have killed a rare Sumatran elephant and hacked off one of its tusks last month. Police in East Aceh…
Poachers blamed in second Sumatran elephant death this year
BANDA ACEH, Indonesia — Authorities in Indonesia have blamed poachers for the death of an elephant found with one of its tusks hacked off, in one of the world’s most…
New technology leads to the arrest of eight people suspected of trafficking wildlife parts
A multinational search in May resulted in the arrest of eight men, including three government officials, for allegedly smuggling pangolin scales and elephant tusks, according to Freeland, a Bangkok-based anti-trafficking…
This tiny camera aims to catch poachers — before they kill
If it wasn’t for the hidden camera, the poachers might have escaped undetected. A few minutes past midnight on Jan. 19, a camera positioned at an obscure location inside the…
Scientists tackling conservation problems turn to artificial intelligence
New technologies are generating far more information than ever before to help scientists assess and predict the health and behavior of species and ecosystems, as well as the threats they…
Kenyan reserve’s tourism monitoring app builds revenue and transparency
Nature reserves frequently operate with scarce resources, relying on revenue from tourism or donations for their survival. When managers of the Mara Triangle portion of Kenya’s renowned Maasai Mara National…
Duterte orders navy to fire on foreign poachers in Philippine waters
President Rodrigo Duterte of the Philippines has called on the navy to shoot at foreign ships suspected of extracting natural resources from his country’s exclusive maritime territory. Duterte made the…
