A collection of pictures, videos, news and facts about animals and their habitats.
Posts are those which are submitted or found on external sites as noted.
A Filipino wildlife official shows seized elephant tusks and dried sea turtles estimated to be worth more than $2m from a shipment that came from Tanzania in 2009. The Philippines has launched an investigation into the alleged involvement of Catholic priests in the illegal trade of African ivory in the country, officials said. Elephant tusks are commonly used in the manufacture of statues, figurines and image replicas of saints
Photograph: Dennis M. Sabangan/EPA
(Source: Guardian)
Seized ivory ready for the burn in Libreville, Gabon, in a ceremony to symbolise Gabon’s commitment to ending poaching and other wildlife crimes. An estimated 5,000 to 12,000 elephants are killed each year for their ivory. Gabon’s President Ali Bongo Ondimba last year created an elite military unit whose mission is to secure Gabon’s parks and to protect wildlife, especially against poaching and illegal trade of ivory and the confiscated ivory was a product of this crackdown
Photograph: James Morgan/WWF-CANON VIA AP IMAGES
A pangolin crawls on bags wrapping other pangolins during a news conference on wildlife rescue in Bangkok, Thailand. Thai customs officers rescued 138 endangered pangolins worth about $46,000 that they say were to be sold and eaten outside the country. The animals hidden in a pickup truck were seized at a custom check point in Chumporn province, south of Bangkok, according to the officials
Photograph: Apichart Weerawong/AP
(Source: Guardian)
A tiger cub attempted to be hidden in a suitcase illegally.
This cub was drugged and stuffed in a suitcase to be flown from Thailand to London for the illegal pet trade.
Photo Credit: Anonymous/Associated Press
An vendor in Equatorial Guinea sells live crocodiles at a market in Bata. In the absence of proper controls, endangered animals are often captured and sold to be eaten
Photograph: Abdelhak Senna/AFP/Getty Images
(Source: Guardian)
A female rhino in Natal, South Africa, that four months earlier survived a brutal dehorning by poachers who used a chainsaw to remove her horns and a large section of bone in this area of her skull. She survived the dehorning and has joined up with a male bull who now accompanies her. Rhino horn is now worth more than gold on the international market. South Africa alone has lost more than 400 rhino to illegal poaching incidents in 2011. The demand for Rhino horn is fueled by a wealthy Asian middle and upper class and used overwhelmingly as medication.
Brent Stirton
“Lam Tak-fai, acting head of Ports and Maritime Command, arranges rhino horns, part of a 33 rhino horns, ivory chopsticks and bracelets shipment seized by the Hong Kong Customs and Excise Department, during a news conference in Hong Kong November 15. Hong Kong Customs seized on Tuesday a total of 33 rhino horns, 758 ivory chopsticks and 127 ivory bracelets, worth about HK$17.4 million ($2.23 million), inside a container shipped from Cape Town, South Africa, according the a customs press release.”
Source: MSNBC
(via earthhour)
