Welcome to the latest news Archives for June 2007

30/6/07 Two studies suggest that condors are being poisoned by lead that they ingest from carcasses and gut piles left by hunters. Now, wildlife officials in Arizona are trying to persuade hunters to switch to lead-free ammunition in an attempt to save the endangered bird.

29/6/07 Two men who pleaded guilty to felony alligator poaching are set for sentencing at 10 a.m. Tuesday before Monroe County Circuit Court Judge Wayne Miller in Key West.

28/6/07 A fur trader in Kashmir has surrendered 55 animal hides to wildlife wardens.  The haul, the largest till date, included skins of several endangered species like the snow leopard, marble cat, wolf, pine martin, brown bear, and tigers.

27/6/07 Poaching feeds and bleeds Russian Kamchatka.

27/6/07 LEAGUE VOWS TO 'STEP UP' ILLEGAL HUNT PROSECUTIONS

27/6/07 An Oscar-nominated filmmaker will exhort Indians to conserve wildlife with a new film, but the message is contained in a racy thriller set in a famous tiger sanctuary instead of in a preachy documentary

27/6/07 The bald eagle, America's national symbol since 1782, is expected to be removed from the list of the most endangered animals.

26/6/07 Trapping Tiri's hawks a first priority but gun threat stays. The Department of Conservation has given two hawks a stay of execution, after an outcry over plans to shoot them so it can introduce three endangered kokako to the Hauraki Gulf island where the birds live.

26/6/07 There has been widespread outrage among wildlife conservationists at the death of around eighteen Asiatic lions since January 2007 in Gir Sanctuary. More than a dozen perished since March alone.

26/6/07 Residents trying to drive roving bears out of town could worsen situation.

26/6/07 Two of four tiger cubs, saved in the period from the beginning of the year by IFAW (International Fund for Animal Welfare IFAW and Federal Governmental Administraion Special Inspection “Tiger” on Primorye Territory, have arrived in Moscow on Wednesday.

26/6/07 Booming tourism in the Galapagos Islands and poaching in Senegal's Niokolo-Koba National Park have caused the United Nations World Heritage committee to add the sites to its list of those in danger, the committee said Tuesday.

25/6/07 Dozens of crocodiles bred in captivity in eastern India have been enlisted to protect their endangered counterparts in the wild and are being released in forests to scare away poachers, authorities said on Monday.

24/6/07 Chitwan National Park has expressed concern over the increased involvement of local villagers in poaching rhinoceros and smuggling their hides and parts for immediate gains.

23/6/07 There's an excellent column in the June issue of the BBC Wildlife magazine by noted conservationist Richard Mabey who states that "wildlife persecution in the UK ought to be a thing of the past.

23/6/07 The number of animals or birds killed by the misuse of pesticides has reached a 12-year high, according to a repo. A total of 177 suspected incidents were investigated last year involving golden eagles, red kites, buzzards, peregrine falcons, swans, rabbits, grey and red squirrels, foxes, cats, dogs, cattle, sheep and horses

23/6/07 A total of 485 birds covered in oil as a result of the grounding of the MSC Napoli in Devon have been cleaned, rehabilitated and released back into the wild by the RSPCA.

22/6/07 The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) has announced that the bald eagle will continue to be strongly protected by federal law under a series of actions designed to govern management of eagles should they be removed from Endangered Species Act protection

22/6/07 Pressure is building to legalise the sale of tiger parts for use in traditional medicine, writes Mary-Anne Toy in Guilin, China

21/6/07 Man held in ivory trade raid. A man was arrested at an address in Barton this morning in connection with the illegal trade and smuggling of ivory to the USA.

21/6/07 Uganda Wildlife Authority has partnered with the Uganda Peoples Defence Forces to fight poaching and encroachment . The Commandant of the National leadership institute in Kyankwazi Henry Masiko warned the public against deliberate mismanagement of natural resources

21/6/07 Wildlife officials are offering a reward for information about a shooting that left two baby golden eagles dead in their nest and a third injured after it escaped in Iron County west of Cedar City.

20/6/07 The death of a panther in the Sariska tiger reserve has again raised concerns over the safety of wild animals in the sanctuary that has already lost all of its tigers due to poaching.

20/6/07 Snakes hidden in lawn gnomes smuggled into Australia. During a routine check of international mail June 10 an officer discovered two snakes and three lizards stuffed inside three of the diminutive garden figurines in a shipment from Britain.

19/6/07 EU to ban cat and dog fur trade. The European Parliament has backed a ban on cat and dog fur imports, in a move to curb the slaughter of millions of cats and dogs in China

19/6/07 A man accused of killing or transporting 100 migratory birds, including great-horned owls and red-tailed hawks, has reached a plea agreement with federal prosecutors, court documents show.

19/6/07 China will inevitably lift its ban on the trade of tiger bones and body parts, a wildlife official told state media, saying groups seeking to profit from the government's captive-bred tigers were too strong to resist.

19/6/07 The League Against Cruel Sports is issuing a clear warning to hunts that illegal activity will simply not be tolerated.

19/6/07 The RSPCA is calling on the government to rule out a badger cull once and for all, as a scientific study on the effects of badger culling on the spread of bovine tuberculosis in cattle is published.

18/6/07 Almost 60% of Zimbabwe  country’s wildlife has been wiped out through rampant poaching and organised plunder by newly-resettled farmers and cartels headed by powerful politicians, conservationists have said.

18/6/07 Baby boom for endangered tigers. The endangered Siberian tiger has been given a boost, with the birth in captivity of 84 cubs since March this year, Chinese state media report.

17/6/07 Milan airport shut by hare plague. Officials have been forced to suspend flights into an airport in the Italian city of Milan due to a plague of hares. The animals invaded the runways at Milan's Linate Airport - and affected the operation of vital equipment

17/6/07 Poisoning of birds of prey hits a record high. THE NUMBER of birds of prey poisoned illegally in Scotland rose to a record high last year after an eight-year campaign by Labour and LibDem ministers to crack down on wildlife crime.

16/6/07 Welcome to the latest edition of the ACE e-newsletter

16/6/07 The RSPCA is appealing for information after a cat was caught in a snare in Clowne, near Chesterfield, on Monday, 4 June.

16/6/07 A budget row dominated the final day of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) forum. Member states approved a cut in real terms in CITES' budget, which could compromise attempts to control the illegal wildlife trade.

16/6/07 The last of a pack of endangered Mexican gray wolves--an alpha male and female and their seven pups--have been trapped and removed from the Gila Wilderness, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service says the adults will not return to the wild.

16/6/07 The Wildlife authorities would not have asked for more: the stock surrendered by Kashmiri furriers under an agreement in the past two weeks includes skin and fur coats of rare species like clouded leopards and tiger which are found in geographical areas other than north India

16/6/07 A midlands coursing club has been fined 300 Euro for hunting hares without a licence and the club's chairman found guilty of the same offence. Westmeath United Coursing Club was reported to the National Parks and Wildlife Service by ICABS after a caller to our offices alerted us to the presence of hares on the club's grounds.

15/6/07 China's bloody and brutal 'entertainment' (graphic & disturbing footage) 

15/6/07 Police investigate the suspected poisoning in the Cairngorms of one of the UK's rarest birds of prey. The red kite, which had been radio tagged by RSPB Scotland, was found near Tomintoul, Moray, last month.

15/6/07 Kenyan anti-poaching forces have killed at least six gunmen and arrested others suspected of shooting elephants for their ivory. At least 15 elephants have been killed there in the past four months

15/6/07 A UN forum on Thursday approved a landmark nine-year ban on international ivory trade to stem a surge in poaching that has killed up to 20,000 elephants per year.

15/6/07 New Delh (IANS) As the plunge in the number of tigers in the country rings alarm bells, Minister of State for Environment and Forests Namo Narayan Meena has called for a more conscious and concerted action against wildlife crimes at the regional, national and trans-national levels.

15/6/07 China in the hotseat at UN wildlife trade forum. A voracious appetite for wildlife products driven by a juggernaut economy has pushed China into the spotlight at the UN forum for trade in endangered species as never before, officials and major conservation groups here said Thursday.

14/6/07 The UN body regulating wildlife commerce rebuked China for large-scale tiger farming Wednesday and cautioned Beijing not to lift a domestic ban on the trade in products made from tiger parts.

14/6/07 The Hague, The Netherlands One of the greatest threats to the survival of tigers in the wild was averted today, after parties to CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) adopted a decision prohibiting the captive breeding of tigers for trade in their parts and derivatives.

14/6/07 A Utah man was sentenced Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Reno for illegally taking 124 Nevada bobcats and violating the Lacey Act, a Federal law that prohibits trade in wildlife, fish, and plants that have been illegally taken, possessed, transported or sold.

14/6/07 The body regulating wildlife trade told China to stop breeding tigers for traditional medicine, but failed to reach an agreement on whether to loosen a global ban on ivory sales.

13/6/07 Save London’s Wildlife Crime Unit. The Wildlife Crime Unit (WCU) in London plays a vital role in tracking down and prosecuting wildlife criminals. In the last 10 years the WCU has seized over 30,000 endangered species products from London’s black market, including items made from tigers, rhinos, bears, elephants, reptiles, and musk deer. But proposed budget cuts by the Metropolitan Police will reduce the WCU by half, severely hampering their fight against wildlife crime.

13/6/07 Bickering African countries threw an international trade conference into deadlock over whether to ease an 18-year ban on ivory sales, with opponents warning it will increase the poaching threat in countries where elephants have almost disappeared.

13/6/07 Tiger poaching continues at an alarming pace. Seizures of tiger skins, bones and fat as well as iron traps in the past four weeks indicate that poachers are extremely active in the wildlife sanctuaries of Kerala, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh

13/6/07 Poachers have shot the last two white rhinos in Zambia, killing one and wounding the other, in a night operation at the Mosi-Oa-Tunya national park in Livingstone, an official said Tuesday.

13/6/07 End of the tiger tale To Valmik Thapar, it is a matter of principle, of human dignity, and distortion of the traditional relationship between mankind and nature.   To me it is disgusting," he thunders. "It's not civil to have tiger farms; it's not part of anyone's dream."

13/6/07 The Bush administration today proposed cutting 1.5 million acres from Northwest forests considered critical to the survival of the northern spotted owl, reopening the 1990s battle between timber production and wildlife habitat on public lands.

13/6/07 India will soon sign a tripartite protocol with Bhutan, Myanmar and Bangladesh on tiger conservation, the ministry of Environment and Forest informed the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species meeting in Hague this week

12/6/07 CLASHES IN LEBANON DISRUPT BETA. We really wished we had some good news this time, but as you may have heard there are, again, more clashes in Lebanon. It seems that we are not entitled to have any time with some kind of peace, there always has to be something dangerous happening and in the end it is the innocents and the animals that suffer the most.

12/6/07 Help Us To End Bullfighting.From the moment the bull enters the ring, he is destined to die. His death will be slow and painful, and the last moments of his life will be full of terror and confusion as he hears the sounds of a jeering crowd. For the bull, bullfighting is no “competition”. It is simply slaughter for human entertainment.

12/6/07 Scotland's most senior justice minister has welcomed a proposed by-law banning airguns in Aberdeen. Anthony's view I support this idea as well but all of the UK and Scotland and Wales as well.

11/6/07 Russia Establishes First National Park for the Siberian Tiger in the Russian Far East, says WWF.

11/6/07 At the opening news conference for the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) meeting, Willem Wijnstekers gave more answers on ivory than anything else - in particular, on the question of whether even a very limited legal ivory trade would stimulate elephant poaching.

11/6/07 National park rangers in the Democratic Republic of Congo are battling to save a 2-month-old gorilla found clinging to its dead mother, who was shot dead through the back of the head, conservationists said on Sunday

11/6/07 With poachers killing at least eight Asiatic lions in the Gir Wildlife Sanctuary, the Gujarat Government has decided to strengthen man management in and around the sanctuary areas by recruiting additional field staff. The state will also augment the existing fleet of vehicles and improve communication networks to protect the big cats.

11/6/07 The Rajasthan Police have been honoured with the Clark R Bavin Wildlife Law Enforcement Awards, 2007, at the ongoing Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species Conference of the Parties being held in the Hague, the Netherlands, for their bravery and commitment towards wildlife law enforcement.

10/6/07 The League Against Cruel Sports has given a cautious welcome to the decision by the NIO Department of Environment to extend the Temporary Protection Order placed on the Irish Hare.

10/6/07 The state Senate voted 19-8 Friday to allow the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife to deputize volunteer houndsmen using radio-collared dogs to chase troublesome cougars up trees so the otherwise elusive cats can be shot at close range.

10/6/07 The rise of organised criminal gangs trading in rhino horns has boosted poaching in some African countries, putting the endangered animals at risk, conservation groups and a UN wildlife pact say.

10/6/07 The world's wild tigers are on a "catastrophic" path as numbers continue to decline because of increased poaching. The preliminary results of the tiger census released by the Wildlife Institute of India (WII) once again prove that our prized national mascot is in dire straits.

 9/6/07 Russian wildlife officials are visiting a zoo in Omaha to learn how to sedate and examine Siberian tigers without endangering them. Only 400 to 500 of the endangered cats, which are native to Russia, China and North Korea, still exist in the wild.

9/6/07 The rise of organised criminal gangs trading in rhino horns has boosted poaching in some African countries, putting the endangered animals at risk, conservation groups and a UN wildlife pact say.

9/6/07 Bird lovers, take heed. Local birds are getting sick and dying of a disease caused by salmonella. The bacteria are transmitted by bird droppings and can be spread among birds at feeders

9/6/07 The Wildlife and Environmental Conservation Society of Zambia is saddened over the killing of a female white rhino in the Mosi-Oa-Tunya National Park in Livingstone by suspected poachers

9/6/07 Following a groundbreaking meeting between LiSPA, Naturewatch, the Lithuanian Veterinary Academy and Government officials, LiSPA now has plans to develop a new wildlife rehabilitation unit.

8/6/07 Hare coursing threats to farmers. Wildlife police in Scotland have been cracking down on the illegal activity of hare coursing.

8/6/07 Smuggling of wildlife goods is a low risk  high profit enterprise doesn’t matter if it is an ivory concealed in a container cans of caviar in a suitcase or baby chimpanzees in a crate it is attractive to crime syndicates.

8/6/07 The bald eagle is officially about to become a conservation success story" for the U.S. government, which has worked for more than three decades to help the national symbol recover from habitat destruction, illegal shooting and contamination of its food source.

8/6/07 With fur back in fashion, the illegal fur trade is also on the rise, wildlife crime experts said Thursday at a world forum in The Hague on regulating wildlife commerce.

8/6/07 The U.S. Forest Service issued draft plans on Tuesday that could allow increased poisoning of prairie dogs on national grasslands in Nebraska and South Dakota, including the nation's most successful reintroduction area for endangered black-footed ferrets.

7/6/07 Five men involved in an organised dog-fighting enterprise have been given prison sentences following a major RSPCA undercover operation.

7/6/07 In the second private prosecution brought by the League Against Cruel Sports, both Richard Down and Adrian Pillivant from the Quantock Staghounds, have been found guilty. They were convicted at Bristol Magistrates Court on 7th June 2007 for breaching section 1 of the Hunting Act after chasing deer with hounds in February 2007. Anthony's view Excellent news this.

7/6/07 Africa's wild rhinos, already classified as threatened with extinction, are under severe pressure from poachers tied to organized criminal networks, conservationists said Wednesday.

7/6/07 New officer fights crime on wildlife. It's one of the rarest birds in Northern Ireland - but this specimen of a goshawk has been unearthed from the vaults of PSNI headquarters at Knock, along with a number of other stuffed birds. Because of illegal persecution, the species is down to between five and 10 pairs in Northern Ireland, nesting in counties Antrim and Fermanagh.

7/6/07 Police aim to hunt down crimes against wildlife. MILLOM police are today launching a crackdown on people committing wildlife crimes. Wildlife Watch aims to encourage more witnesses of wildlife crime to come forward anonymously.

7/6/07 Chad's President Idriss Deby Itno has detached 400 regular army soldiers to defend the remnants of a once-thriving elephant population decimated by poachers, the country's top conservation official said.

6/6/07 To protect spotted owl, larger rival is targeted. To save the northern spotted owl, federal authorities have listed the bird under the Endangered Species Act, set aside 7 million acres of forest for owl habitat, and imposed stiff fines on those who harm the chocolate-colored football-sized raptors.

5/6/07 IFAW investigation pushes eBay to announce global ban of all international ivory trade. International online commerce site eBay has today said that it will announce a ban on the international trade of elephant ivory on all of its sites around the globe, creating the first-ever online international trade ban of elephant ivory.

5/6/07 A gamekeeper who used live pigeons in cages as bait and laced the carcasses of pheasants with deadly poisons to lure birds of prey yesterday avoided a jail sentence.

5/6/07 Conservation groups today filed a lawsuit in Idaho federal district court challenging the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s decision to eliminate Endangered Species Act protections for the Yellowstone area’s iconic grizzly bear population.

5/6/07 Africa urged to conserve land for wildlife. A global advocacy group, Peace Parks Foundation, is calling on African governments to set aside at least two percent of the continent's land for wildlife conservation.

5/6/07 A Campaign group for badgers has welcomed government plans to seek independent advice on tackling TB Defra raised the possibility of a cull last year to stop the spread of the disease Trevor Lawson spokesman for the Badger Trust said.

4/6/07 THE HAGUE. Representatives from 171 nations monitored by a small army of conservationists and wildlife advocates began debating dozens of measures yesterday, some highly contested, regulating the global trade in wildlife.

4/6/07 POACHING is not restricted to bigger animals but to insects like butterflies, says Sonya V Kapoor, whose documentary film on extinction of butterflies is one of the seven films on Wildlife Crime , to be screened next week

3/6/07 Elephants and the ivory trade come under the spotlight as the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (Cites) summit opens.

3/6/07 Carved up for the dinner table, ground up for medicine or simply sold off as exotic pets, Asia's endangered species are at the core of a lucrative smuggling trade that shows little sign of easing off.

3/6/07 Hunts behaving badly this is a video on You Tube.

3/6/07 Quantock Staghounds duo await verdict. A verdict is not likely to be returned until next week on the private prosecution of the huntsman and whipper-in of the Quantock Staghounds accused of breaching the Hunting Act.

2/6/07 A limited sale of ivory has been approved by a committee ahead of this week's Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) which opens officially Sunday.

2/6/07 Illegal ivory trafficking will figure prominently in the upcoming 14th Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species Conference of the Parties (CITES-CoP) after recent, huge seizures of contraband ivory and a proposal for legal sales

2/6/07 India will soon set up a Wildlife Crime Control Bureau to conserve "national heritage" in the face of rising incidents of poaching and trade in wildlife products.

2/6/07 FALCONS would soon become an endangered species as a result of food shortage, accidents and effect of pesticides, according to Dr Zubair Medammal, the first Asian scientist to win a doctoral degree in falcon studies.

1/6/07 Concerned with reports of the disappearing pug-marks, the Union Government has decided to set up a multi-disciplinary crime control bureau to work on a mandate of detection and prosecution of networks and individuals engaged in the poaching of tigers and other endangered species.

1/6/07 Banning the trade in endangered wildlife can actually result in increased trade in the animals and their parts, a report published Thursday said. The finding, reported in the journal Nature, is likely to fuel debate among conservationists who disagree over how to best curb the trade in endangered species.

1/6/07 The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is seeking information about the shooting death of a Mexican gray wolf whose carcass was found about 20 miles east of Reserve.