Animal 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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Update on the Chad elephant poaching situation

  Update on the Chad elephant situation: On August 15, Chad’s High Administrative Authority informed Stephanie Vergniault, president of the wildlife organization SOS Elephants, that the Chadian army seized 30 tusks from the recent Chari –Baguirmi poaching. With the army in pursuit, the poachers tried to cross the river with them but ultimately abandoned the…

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Sumatran 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…

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Mongabay.com: Elephant slaughter continues in Chad, another baby rescued

Laurel Neme, special to mongabay.comAugust 07, 2012 ‘Toto’, a 3-week-old male elephant rescued by SOS Elephants. Photo courtesy of SOS Elephants Elephant poaching persists in southwestern Chad as poachers slaughtered more elephants on August 3, the second time in less than two weeks. In the first attack, the week of July 23, poachers killed 34…

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Mongabay.com: President of Chad sends troops after elephant poachers

By Laurel Neme, special to mongabay.comAugust 03, 2012 Following the July 24 massacre of dozens of elephants in southwestern Chad, President Idriss Deby Itno sent helicopters to the Mayo Lemie – Chari Baguiri area to catch the poachers, according to Stephanie Vergniault, president of SOS Elephants, a wildlife NGO. President Deby also gave orders to check all the…

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Mongabay.com: Dozens of Elephants Massacred in Chad

Laurel Neme, special to mongabay.comJuly 26, 2012 Poachers killed at least 30 elephants in southwestern Chad during the early hours of Tuesday, July 24. During the night, Stephanie Vergniault, president of the organization SOS Elephants, described on her Facebook page how a group of armed horsemen chased a herd of elephants with “war weapons near…

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Ivory and Rhinoceros Enforcement Task Force Meets to Combat Organized Wildlife Crime

The Ivory and Rhinoceros Enforcement Task Force of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) met in Kenya from 17 to 19 May to discuss urgent actions against crimes targeting elephants and rhinos.  Twenty top law enforcement officers representing wildlife authorities, Customs, investigations, national parks, the police and…

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Advocate Aims to Stop Elephant Slaughter in Chad

Chad is one of the poorest country’s in the world, with 80 percent of its population living below the poverty line. It’s suffered years of civil strife, and unrest in neighboring countries like Sudan often spills over and adds to the nation’s instability. To make matters worse, 200,000 refugees have fled the violence in Darfur…

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The WildLife: Elephant Poaching in Chad, Stephanie Vergniault

Stephanie Vergniault, Founder and Executive Director of SOS Elephants, talks about elephant poaching in Chad. She tells “The WildLife” host Laurel Neme that the situation is spiraling out of control. In just two-weeks, in February 2011, 20 elephants were killed in Chad for their ivory. All were killed outside of protected areas, making them easy targets. Vergniault notes…

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Elephant Killing by GoDaddy CEO Bob Parsons Spurs Debate

The killing of an elephant who had been raiding farmers’ crops during a hunting expedition in Zimbabwe by GoDaddy.com CEO Bob Parsons (who posted a video of the hunt) has prompted an outcry from opponents. PETA notes that is is canceling its account with Go Daddy and calls for others to do the same. Competitors, such as…

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