Search results

Environmentalists in Namibia have accused local wildlife officials of hiding the real extent of rhino poaching in the Etosha National Park, which holds the highest concentration of black rhinos in the world. The Ministry of Environment recently acknowledged that rhino killings at the park quadrupled during the first quarter of 2024. Namibian police apprehended two suspects Sunday for the killing of an adult female black rhino and a medium-sized male calf black rhino at the park's waterhole earlier that day.

The tusks had a street value of more than Sh8 million, officials said In Summary: Despite a ban on the international trade in ivory, African elephants are still being poached in large numbers; As part of efforts to stop the crime, Kenya has started using high-tech surveillance equipment including drones to track poaching gangs. Two men including a Tanzanian national were arrested while transporting 81.7 kilograms of elephant tusks in Mukaa area, Makueni County.

Rhino poaching is driven by the demand for rhino horn in Asian countries. In Summary: They were arrested in September last year with a firearm and ammunition at a game farm with the aim of slaughtering rhinos to extract their horns for commercial purposes. This is the second time that a hunter of a protected species has been sentenced to 30 years in prison.

Namibia is experiencing a surge in poaching, with the number of poached rhinoceros rising to 48 this year, Ministry of Environment, Forestry and Tourism spokesperson Romeo Muyunda said Wednesday. In a statement, Muyunda said of the poached rhinoceros, 32 were black rhinoceros and 16 were white rhinoceros.

DCI detectives based at the Serious Crimes Unit on Tuesday arrested three suspects in Kinango, Kwale County, after being found in possession of a male pangolin.

Nationally South Africa lost 259 rhino in the first six months of this year - 10 more than in the corresponding period last year - with concern expressed about the amount of poaching in KwaZulu-Natal and private game reserves. Forestry, Fisheries and Environment Minister Barbara Creecy maintains the "trend" away from what has long been poacher target number one - the Kruger National Park - makes it "important for national government to shift its focus to supporting provincial authorities and private reserves in the war on rhino poaching".

Kwale police have arrested two men who were illegally in possession of a pangolin. The two were nabbed at Malomani area in Samburu sub-county.

The charge sheet says the tusks weighed three kilograms, worth Sh300,000.

Two suspected poachers were on Thursday arrested in Korinda junction in Busia county. Police acted on a tip-off from members of the public and nabbed the two men, 60-year-old Mohamed Abbas and a 70-year-old Paul Wafula Njoka. The suspects were using a motorbike with registration number KMEV721N in their operation. The police recovered the haul after conducting a search. They took them as exhibits together with the motorbike. The two suspects were taken to Busia Police station as they wait to be arraigned to answer to charges.

Rhino poaching in South Africa is at a critical level despite a "deafening" silence from official government communications and mainstream media, one of southern Africa’s most dedicated and respected wildlife vets Dr Dave Cooper maintains. Referring to the violent killing of rhino as "murders" rather than the mild, mundane "poaching", he issued a massive cry for action before it's too late, begging the world to wake up, see and stop what is happening in South Africa, according to Rhino Review. His plea comes days after witnessing possibly the "worst…

In January 2021, Nigeria seized pangolin scales and tusks and bones from endangered species hidden in a container of furniture materials. The seized materials are used in traditional Chinese medicine despite having no medicinal value. Studies have suggested that pangolins, the most-smuggled animals in the world, may have been an intermediate host of the coronavirus that was discovered in an outdoor farmers market in Wuhan, China, in late 2019. Customs officials said the contraband consisted of 162 sacks of pangolin scales and 57 sacks of mixed animal parts, including ivory and…

South African National Parks (SANParks) today (10 December) said its Environmental Crime Investigation Unit (ECI) in collaboration with the South African Police Service (SAPS) Directorate of Priority Crime Investigations (DPCI), conducted a series of intelligence driven operations which led to the arrest of eight suspected poachers in October and November in villages adjacent to the Kruger National Park (KNP).

South Africa is no stranger to wildlife crime as shown in Operation Thunder, an Interpol-led effort against environmental crime in the broadest sense of the words. The worldwide enforcement operation against wildlife and timber crime co-ordinated by Interpol and the World Customs Organisation (WCO) disrupted crime networks and saw hundreds of arrests internationally, the France-headquartered policing body said.

Kenya Wildlife Service wardens in Laikipia on Wednesday evening arrested four suspected poachers and recovered four pieces of elephant ivories weighing 76 kilogrammes.

Among its many responsibilities as custodian of South Africa's natural heritage, the national conservation agency SANParks ensures the survival of rhino, black and white, in the face of continued poaching of this Big Five species. This responsibility, Democratic Alliance (DA) shadow forestry, fisheries and environment minister Dave Bryant maintains, is at least partially undermined by the agency’s setting of a rhinos poached "target".

Cameroonian police say they have for the first time during the pandemic seized parts of an estimated 2,000 pangolins poached in Cameroon and neighboring Equatorial Guinea and Gabon. Police say travel restrictions had slowed trafficking of the endangered anteater to Asia, where its meat is considered a delicacy and the scales are used in traditional medicine. At least 12 bags of Pangolin scales and leopard skin are in a police warehouse at Nlonkak, a neighborhood in Cameroon's capital, Yaounde.

Kenya's Wildlife Service says that for the first time in 21 years, not a single rhinoceros was poached in the country's national parks in 2020. To maintain the progress, it is conducting the first ever wildlife census and placing mobile container housing in parks for rangers.

South African National Parks (SANParks) has announced further arrests of suspected poachers in the Kruger National Park (KNP), with four men apprehended. The four suspected poachers were arrested on Sunday 30 May in the Pretoriuskop Section and on Monday 31 May in the Houtboschrand Section of the park. On 30 May, rangers (with K9 support) responded to a visual of two poachers and made a follow up in pursuit of the suspected rhino poachers. The Airwing Unit was called in to support the ground teams; and soon thereafter two suspects were arrested without incident.

South African National Parks (SANParks) has welcomed the finalization of two long running rhino poaching trials by the Skukuza Regional Court. One rhino poacher was sentenced on 14 May whilst three, including a former SANParks employee, were sentenced on 17 May respectively. Nito Mathebula was arrested in Tshokwane Section in January 2019 while hunting in the Park illegally. Two of his accomplices managed to evade arrest. He was found guilty of trespassing in a National Park, breaking the Immigration Act and the killing of a rhino.

The South African National Defence Force (SANDF) has deployed to the Overstrand region of the Western Cape to combat poaching and related crime in conjunction with local law enforcement and other roleplayers. The SANDF said Joint Tactical Headquarters Western Cape launched Operation Corona in the Overstrand on 6 May together with the Maritime Reaction Squadron, local law enforcement and Department of Environment, Forestry and Fisheries. The main goal is to stop the poaching of marine resources and enforce maritime security.

South African National Parks (SANParks) has announced another operation that led to the arrest of three suspected poachers on Wednesday 21 April in the Crocodile Bridge Section of the Kruger National Park (KNP). A high calibre hunting rifle, ammunition and poaching equipment were seized during the successful operation.

Botswana, confronting an unprecedented rise in poaching, has refuted reports by former President Ian Khama that at least 120 rhinoceroses have been killed in the last 18 months. Instead, the government says, wildlife crimes have dropped by 70 percent since the start of the coronavirus pandemic.

At least five white rhinos were killed and dehorned on different occasions in November, the Department of Wildlife and National Parks in Botswana confirmed Thursday.

Botswana's National Assembly has rejected a call to rearm its game rangers that was driven by a surge in rhinoceros poaching in recent years. Guns were taken away from the rangers in 201, but an opposition party lawmaker had moved a motion to rearm the wildlife officers.

Botswana has decided to re-arm its wildlife rangers as the southern African country battles increased cases of poaching. In the last six months, at least 17 poachers have been killed in gunfire exchanges with the army. The government had disarmed wildlife rangers in 2018, saying that under the law, only the military was allowed the use of firearms during anti-poaching patrols. With the country losing 56 rhinoceros to poachers in the last two years, the government is reconsidering that approach. Wildlife and Tourism …

As we now know, Botswana is home to a third of Africa's declining elephant population. But, over the last two months, 350 elephant carcasses have been spotted in the Okavango Delta since the start of May. It is a serious worry that over 350 elephants have died with no clear reason and indeed a conservation disaster.
The world looks at this mysterious deaths and needs to know the real cause of the mass loss of elephants, and what should be done to stop this unnatural disaster, one thing the deaths are unrelated to drought.

Kruger National Park, South Africa - Officials at South African National Parks say cooperation with neighboring Mozambique has been a key factor in reducing rhinoceros poaching in the famous Kruger National Park. Kruger is home to the world's largest wild rhino population, and has proven a tempting target for poachers who for years jumped the park’s borders.