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US Government pledges to fight Wildlife Trafficking, Remarks by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton
The U.S. will intensify its efforts to combat the illegal wildlife trade, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said at an event on “Wildlife Trafficking and Conservation: A Call to Action” held on November 8, 2012. “Over the past few years wildlife trafficking has…
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 MoreCaptive tiger permits used to launder tigers in Thailand?
Are permits for captive tigers being used to launder tigers from Thailand to Viet Nam? That’s the question being asked following a raid by Thai authorities on an apartment outside Bangkok that led to the confiscation of four adult tigers and two cubs. The large cats had been kept in poor conditions: small rooftop…
Read MoreSlender lorises smuggled in India
Three men were apprehended at India’s New Delhi airport for smuggling slender lorises, a small nocturnal primate. The men were en route from Bangkok to Dubai when a routine pat down revealed a loris stuffed in one man’s underwear. A second loris was found in a nearby trash can. Both primates are now under…
Read MoreOrangutans rescued near industrial timber estates in Indonesia
Three orangutans trapped in an unforested area between industrial timber estates in Kutai Kartanegara, East Kalimantan, were rescued by specially-trained teams from the companies (Sumalindo Hutani Raya and Surya Hutani Jaya) which operate industrial timber estates there. The company planned to release the female orangutan, her baby, and a teenager back into the wild at…
Read MoreIndia’s Prime Minister proposes strengthening wildlife crime fighting
India’s Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on September 5, 2012 said the government would strengthen the country’s Wildlife Protection Act, 1972 and noted a proposal for expanding the number of regional offices, field units and forensic labs of the Wildlife Crime Control Bureau as well as creation of a national database on wildlife crime and…
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…
Read MoreSumatran rhinos survive in northern Sumatra
Another piece of good news – this time related to the Sumatran rhino and reported on Mongabay.com. Using remote camera traps, wildlife rangers confirm the Sumatran rhino (Dicerorhinus sumatrensis) still inhabits the Leuser ecosystem in northern Sumatra, making that forest the only place on the Earth where Sumatran tigers, orangutans, elephants, and rhinos survive in…
Read MoreNew wildlife forensics lab to be commissioned in Kenya to fight wildlife poaching and crime.
Great news! On Monday (13 August, 2012) the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) will commission the construction of $700,000 wildlife forensic and genetics laboratory at its headquarters in Nairobi. This new lab will be able to provide legal evidence necessary in courts to convict suspects for wildlife crimes. It will help not only to link…
Read MoreBehind the Scenes at INTERPOL
Inside INTERPOL, a special programme broadcast by CNN International, goes behind the scenes at INTERPOL. This international police agency facilitates international police cooperation and is rapidly at the forefront of many wildlife trafficking cases and cross-border operations. This 30-minute special, hosted by CNN anchor Richard Quest, features interviews with INTERPOL Secretary General Ronald K. Noble…
Read MoreABC News Taps Laurel Neme for Background on Live Animal Trafficking Story
Producers for ABC News with Diane Sawyer interviewed me on Friday (May 13, 2011) for a piece they were doing that night on live animal trafficking. They reported a recent bust at Thailand’s Bangkok airport of a man from UAE who smuggled a “virtual zoo” of live animals. Discovered in this first-class passenger’s suitcase were two leopard cubs,…
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