Poaching
Huffington Post: For Pangolins, A Long Hard Road to Freedom
03/18/2016 by Laurel Neme Freelance Journalist and Author This pangolin was recently rehabilitated and released in Vietnam. Photo courtesy of Save Vietnam’s Wildlife. Pangolins are scaly anteaters about the size of a house cat. They’re presumed to be the world’s most trafficked mammal, with an estimated 100,000 plucked from the wild every year in Africa and…
Read MoreMongabay.com: Wildlife forensics unmask poachers and traffickers
Mongabay WildTech 10th July 2015 / Laurel Neme When border agents seize two tons of smuggled ivory, how do they tell where it’s from? When meat on sale in Southeast Asia is suspected to be from a tiger, how can the police prove it? And when blood in a hunter’s truck is thought to come from a poached…
Read MoreNational Geographic: Citizens Spur States to Ban Trade in Ivory and Rhino Horn
From Vermont to California, grassroots efforts drive state actions to protect elephants and rhinos. By Laurel Neme, for National Geographic PUBLISHED April 06, 2015 SHELBURNE, Vermont—”When you think things need to change, you have the power to make it happen,” Ashley McAvey, homegrown elephant activist and mother of two, told students recently at Endeavour…
Read MoreNational Geographic: Will Mobilization of Military Forces Stop Elephant Poaching in Cameroon
Posted by Laurel Neme in A Voice for Elephants on February 14, 2015 Ten elephant carcasses discovered in mid-January in and around Cameroon’s Bouba Ndjida National Park are raising fears that poachers may again be targeting the park. But information remains sketchy. According to the Cameroon Tribune, a government newspaper, the military made several patrols following reports of gunfire…
Read MoreNational Geographic: For Rangers on the Front Lines of Anti-Poaching Wars, Daily Trauma
Both wildlife rangers and rare species are victims of the relentless onslaught from the illegal wildlife trade. Unsung heroes face daunting challenges. By Laurel Neme for National Geographic Published June 27, 2014 In May 2008 in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), 80 Mai Mai militia ambushed a unit of 12 wildlife rangers on…
Read MoreNational Geographic: Good News for Animals in Nepal: A Full Year Without Poaching
Bucking the worldwide trend, Nepal continues its successful fight against poaching. Laurel Neme for National Geographic Published March 12, 2014 On World Wildlife Day, March 3, Nepal celebrated 365 days with zero poaching. No rhinos, tigers, or elephants were killed. It’s the second year of such success in Nepal. In 2011 the country also had…
Read MoreNational Geographic: Chaos and Confusion Following Elephant Poaching in a Central African World Heritage Site
Posted by Laurel Neme in A Voice for Elephants on May 13, 2013 As poachers fired on forest elephants inside the Dzanga-Ndoki National Park, a World Heritage Site in the Central African Republic (CAR), the impotence of foreign governments and non-governmental organizations in preventing the slaughter of wildlife amid political chaos was, once again, revealed. Earlier this week, the World…
Read MoreNational Geographic: New Promises Follow Elephant Slaughter in Chad and Cameroon
Posted by Laurel Neme in A Voice for Elephants on March 27, 2013 In the aftermath of the largest elephant poaching episode thus far in 2013, Central African governments met to coordinate and adopt an emergency plan to combat the killings. But is it too little, too late? On March 14-15, at…
Read MoreNational Geographic: Poachers Capitalize on Chaos in Central Africa
Posted by Laurel Neme in A Voice for Elephants on February 5, 2013 Poachers are capitalizing on the disarray in the Central African Republic (CAR) and appear to be moving freely in a search of elephants. Late last year several columns of Sudanese poachers, up to 200 well-armed men, were spotted traveling across northern CAR toward…
Read MoreNational Geographic: Elephant Poachers Caught in Chad, Protection Efforts Stepped Up
Posted by Laurel Neme in A Voice for Elephants on October 5, 2012 In late July and early August in the Mayo Lemie and Chari Baguirmi regions of southwestern Chad, poachers slaughtered 63 elephants. The government launched a massive land and aerial search with 200 soldiers to track down the perpetrators. After several skirmishes,…
Read MoreAnimal Planet: Rescued Elephant Orphan Adopted by New Herd
08/22/2012 GUEST POST ALERT:Today’s guest post comes from Wildlife expert Laurel A. Neme, Ph.D., author of Animal Investigators: How the World’s First Wildlife Forensics Lab is Solving Crimes and Saving Endangered Species and a regular contributor to Mongabay.com, where she broke the story on recent poaching of Chad’s elephants. Learn more about Laurel at LaurelNeme.com. Toto Finds a…
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