National Geographic: Happy Ending for Smuggled Pangolins

Wildlife Watch 16 rare scaly anteaters are back in the wild after being rescued from Vietnam’s illegal wildlife trade. By Laurel Neme PUBLISHED March 15, 2016 This story was updated to reflect that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service today issued a preliminary finding to a scientific petition submitted by conservation groups, saying that Endangered Species Act…

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National Geographic: Circus Lions Rescued in Peru, Headed for New Home in Colorado

Twenty-one circus lions and ten monkeys await transfer to a Colorado sanctuary early next year. Photograph by Animal Defenders International Laurel Neme for National Geographic Published November 26, 2014 By early next year Jan Creamer, co-founder and president of Animal Defenders International (ADI), intends to see 30 lions rescued from circuses in Peru and Colombia running…

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National Geographic: Elephant Foster Mom: A Conversation with Daphne Sheldrick

  Posted by Laurel Neme in A Voice for Elephants on December 6, 2013         Orphaned elephants “can be fine one day and dead the next,” says Daphne Sheldrick, a Kenyan conservationist and expert in animal husbandry. She knows. To date, she has fostered over 250 calves, first in partnership with her husband, David Sheldrick, founding warden…

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Injured Bald Eagle Gets New Prosthetic Beak

  Heartwarming story of rehabilitation of an injured bald eagle, named Beauty. Beauty was found around a garbage dump in Alaska with part of her beak shot off. With the help of an Idaho-based raptor specialist and a kinetic engineer, Beauty just recently received a prosthetic beak — the first-ever of its kind. Amazing! For…

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Orangutans 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…

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The Forgotten Bear

From JeffCorwinConnects.com: By Laurel NemeMay 25, 2011 Malayan sun bears, also known as honey bears (or Helarctos malayanus), are the least known of the world’s eight bear species. Few people know they even exist, especially compared with other types of bears, like polar bears and grizzlies. Perhaps part of that is because sun bears are so challenging to…

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The WildLife: Wildlife Rescue in Cambodia, Nick Marx

Nick Marx of Wildlife Alliance talks about rescuing wildlife from illegal trade in Cambodia. He tells “The WildLife” host Laurel Neme that since 2001, the Cambodian government has cracked down on the illegal wildlife trade with the Wildlife Rapid Rescue Team (WRRT), an inter-agency wildlife crime investigation and counter-trafficking unit of the Forestry Administration and Royal Gendarmerie of Cambodia operating with technical…

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Mongabay.com: Teaching orangutans to be wild – orangutan rehabilitation

By Laurel Neme, special to mongabay.com December 15, 2010     This interview aired in on April 4, 2010 and November 22, 2010). It was transcribed by Ben Kennedy. Part 2 of 2. Part 1: The problem-solving ape: what makes orangutans special and why they are threatened   Michelle Desilets, Executive Director of the Orangutan Land Trust, spoke…

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Mongabay.com: Dangerous and exploitative: a look at pet wild cats

By Laurel Neme, special to mongabay.comJuly 13, 2010     Lisa Tekancic, president of the WildCat Conservation Legal Aid Society spoke with Laurel Neme on her “The WildLife” radio show and podcast about captive wildcats and the wildcat pet trade. During her interview, Lisa describes the history of wildcats in captivity—from the Roman spectator games and royal…

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