Baby elephant in South Africa. California congresswoman, Toni G. Atkins, introduced a bill yesterday (AB 96) that would close a major loophole allowing ivory to be sold all over the…
Most wanted environmental fugitives. Top row left to right: Adriano Giacobone, Sudiman Sunoto, Bhekumusa Mawillis Shiba and Ben Simasiku. Bottom row left to right: Nicolaas Antonius Cornelis Maria Duindam, Ariel…
Elephants in Tanzania. All photos by Rhett A. Butler Corruption in Tanzania is enabling large volumes of illegal elephant ivory to be smuggled out of the country, alleges a new…
White rhino in South Africa. Photo by Rhett A. Butler To help fight illegal poaching and trafficking, INTERPOL, the world's largest international police organization, has launched an environmental crimes unit…
A living African elephant has 76 times the value of one poached for ivory, according to report Elephants are worth 76 times more when they’re alive than dead, according to…
WARNING: Graphic photos below. 35,000 elephants killed in Africa in 2012 for black market ivory trade A joint force of the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) and government authorities are in…
Around 100,000 elephants were killed by poachers for their ivory on the African continent in just three years, according to a new paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy…
Reported kills for 2014 in Riau Province reached 22 by June, surpassing 2013 numbers by 63 percent There has been a spike in elephant deaths in Sumatra this year, and…
Elephants in Namibia. Photos by Rhett A. Butler. Marking World Elephant Day, a designation intended to raise awareness about the plight of elephants that are being widely poached for the…
Elephant in Namibia. Photo by Rhett A. Butler. New Jersey Governor Chris Christie has signed into law a ban on elephant ivory sales, reports NorthJersey.com. The measure, passed earlier by…
Decomposing carcass of an adult orangutan in the forest of Southwest Aceh. Photos by Leuser Conservation Forum. The Leuser Ecosystem in Aceh, Indonesia is gaining the attention of international animal…
Elephants in Namibia. Photos by Rhett Butler Musician Billy Joel has weighed in on the ivory bill making its way through the New York State legislature. On Thursday, the legendary…
Report estimates more than 20,000 elephants poached in Africa in 2013 In the first week of June, a huge elephant carcass was found in a swamp in Tsavo East National…
WARNING: GRAPHIC IMAGES BELOW. Poached elephant skull shows bullet hole from above, likely from a helicopter. The elephant's face was cut off by a chainsaw to remove the tusks. In…
Hillary and Chelsea Clinton on stage at the WCS event at the Central Park Zoo June 12, 2014. Photo © Julie Larsen Maher / WCS. Former secretary of state Hillary…
Baby elephant in South Africa. The New York State Assembly has passed a bill that would ban the purchase and sale of elephant ivory and rhino horn, reports the Wildlife…
Elephant in South Africa. Hong Kong has begun destroying its 29.6-metric-ton stockpile of confiscated ivory. On Thursday authorities in the semi-autonomous Chinese city crushed and incinerated a ton of seized…
Desert elephants in Namibia. Photos by Rhett Butler. Actor Leonardo DiCaprio has stepped up with a $1 million donation to the Elephant Crisis Fund, an initiative that aims to stop…
Forest elephants have suffered unprecedented butchery for their ivory tusks over the past decade, according to new numbers released by conservationists today in London. Sixty-five percent of the world's forest…
Yesterday, the Obama administration announced an ambitious new strategy to help tackle the global illegal wildlife trade, including a near-complete ban on commercial ivory. The new strategy will not only…
Elephants in Namibia. Photo by Rhett A. Butler The government of Hong Kong will destroy 28 tons of ivory confiscated from traffickers, reports CNN. The announcement, which comes just weeks…
Elephant in South Africa. China authorities destroyed 6.1 tons of illegal ivory during a public event held in Guangzhou on Monday. The ivory was part of a stockpile of product…
Elephant in Namibia. The Chinese government plans to destroy a stockpile of contraband elephant ivory and other seized wildlife products next week during a public ceremony in Guangzhou, reports the…
The year in rainforest news 2013 was full of major developments in efforts to understand and protect the world's tropical rainforests. The following is a review of some of the…
Elephant in South Africa. Photo by Rhett A. Butler. A newspaper story about the impact of the ivory trade has gone viral in China, raising awareness among millions of Chinese,…
As the African Elephant Summit open in Botswana today, conservationists released a new estimate of the number of African elephants lost to the guns of poachers last year: 22,000. Some…
Illegal elephant ivory. Courtesy of Interpol Raids in southern and eastern Africa yielded a stash of contraband linked to poaching and illegal logging, reports Interpol, which coordinated the operation. The…
A sensor used by researchers to capture low-frequency communication between elephants inadvertently recorded the audio of an elephant being gunned down by a poacher in Gabon, reports the Wildlife Conservation…
Give it a few thousand years, and tusks could completely disappear from the Asian elephant (Elephas maximus). The beautifully smooth, elongated ivory incisors neatly bordering a long trunk are iconic…
A new public-service campaign in China will ask potential ivory and rhino horn buyers to see the victims of these illicit trades in a new light: as the "pandas of…