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 police officer stands among caged animals during a raid on the outskirts of Bangkok. Almost 1,000 sugar gliders, 14 white lions, 12 peacocks, 17 marmosets and many other wild animals were found in cages in the suburbs of Bangkok
Picture: Reuters
Many iconic species are being pushed to the brink of extinction. Let’s stop wildlife crime.
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Tickling slow loris - the truth behind those ‘cute pet’ videos.
The slow loris is an endangered primate species from South-East Asia. Partly due to videos on You Tube, the slow loris is a very popular pet both in its native countries and internationally.
Although the videos show a cute, furry animal which seems to enjoy being tickled or playing with an umbrella, the truth is very different. The slow loris trade is not only illegal but also cruel. Teeth are broken off using pliers to prevent the toxic loris bite. Many animals die either during transport or in captivity, while population numbers in the wild are dwindling and the slow loris is on the brink of extinction.
A confiscated cheetah inside a cage seized from animal traffickers at an unknown location in Tanzania
Photograph: RWP/EPA
(Source: Guardian)
Stranded polar bears on Cross Island outside Prudhoe Bay, Alaska. The export of polar bear skins, teeth and paws from Canada will continue unabated after a bitter debate at the world’s biggest wildlife summit ended in defeat for a US proposal to outlaw the trade
Photograph: Will Rose and Kajsa Sjölander/70° North/Greenpeace
RSPCA:
In November, four elephant calves were caught from the wild, removed from their mothers and family group and exported from Zimbabwe to China. These elephant babies were sent to two zoos in China, Taiyuan Zoo in northern China and Xinjiang Safari Park in north-west China.
Sadly one baby has already died at Taiyuan Zoo, and the surviving male calf is very sick. The photos and video footage we have seen are very distressing; this baby is physically sick and given his condition and environment, suffering psychological distress. Elephant experts and vets around the world have expressed concern that he is very underweight, his skin is covered in marks and sores and the swelling under his belly needs urgent attention. He is in need of immediate veterinary care, but so far the zoo has refused all offers of help.
Kenya Wildlife Services rangers move confiscated ivory in Nairobi. Two Tanzanian nationals were arrested with 16 pieces of ivory in Kenya’s Ongata Rongai township. Trade in elephant ivory has been outlawed since 1989
Photograph: AFP/Getty Images
(Source: Guardian)
Indonesian men puts a chain onto a young pig-tailed macaque as it’s displayed for sale in Padang Pariaman, West Sumatra, Indonesia
Photograph: Rivo Andries/AP
(Source: Guardian)
Chains are put onto a young pig-tailed macaque as it is displayed for sale in Padang Pariaman, West Sumatra, Indonesia. Macaques are commonly sold in the region to be trained to pick and harvest coconuts.
Picture: Rivo Andries/AP
One of three African pygmy hedgehogs after being rescued from a courier package delivery in Lodz, Poland. Reports said four hedgehogs were purchased at an auction and posted in a box. The DHL hub collectively opened the box after an employee pointed to bad smell. One hedgehog had died in the box
Photograph: Grzegorz Michalowski/EPA
Wildlife trafficking - be warned.
(Source: Guardian)
An Indonesian animal vendor stands behind a cage full of monkeys at the Sungai Sarik market in Padang Pariaman, West Sumatra, Indonesia.
Photograph: Zulkifli/EPA
(Source: Guardian)
A one-horned rhinoceros grazes inside the Kaziranga national park, a wildlife reserve which provides refuge to more than 2,200 endangered one-horned rhinoceros, in the north-eastern Indian state of Assam. Even in this well-protected reserve, where rangers follow shoot-to-kill orders, poachers attempt to sheer off the animals’ horns, to supply a surge in demand for purported medicine in China. A number of guards have been killed, along with 108 poachers, since 1985, while 507 rhino have been killed by gunfire, electrocution or spiked pits set by the poachers, according to the park
Photograph: Anupam Nath/AP
(Source: Guardian)
A slow loris before being caught at the Sabah Girang field centre on Borneo Island in Malaysia. It was then tagged by wildlife researchers to study the newly discovered species, which is already threatened by the illegal pet trade
Photograph: Danau Girang Field Centre/AFP/Getty Images
A pangolin in a rescue centre in the Tra Pang Sap village in Cambodia’s Takeo province.
Photograph: Heng Sinith/AP
(Source: Guardian)
