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When people think of wildlife trade, they often picture smugglers sneaking in rare and endangered species from far-off countries. Yet most wildlife trade is actually legal, and the United States is one of the world's biggest wildlife importers. New research that we and a team of colleagues published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences shows that, over the last 22 years, people in the U.S. legally imported nearly 2.85 billion individual animals representing almost 30,000 species.

Habitat loss and poaching have driven dramatic declines in African elephants, but it is challengingto measure their numbers and monitor changes across the entire continent. A new study hasanalyzed 53 years of population survey data and found large-scale declines in most populations ofboth species of African elephants. From 1964–2016, forest elephant populations decreased on average by 90%, and savanna elephantpopulations fell on average by 70%. In combination, populations declined by 77% on average.

Poachers have killed at least five elephants in the Sahel state of Chad, stoking fears for the country's surviving animals, an NGO said Tuesday. The elephants were found slaughtered in the Beinamar area, about 400 kilometers (250 miles) south of the capital N'Djamena, Adam Ahmat Assane, secretary of SOS Elephants, told AFP.

The latest reports from national governments and agencies reveal (so far) that approximately 548 rhinos were poached in Africa last year. Overall, the total is a slight increase compared to 2021, when 539 rhinos were poached. This is a significant change from 2013 - 2017, when more than 1,000 rhinos were killed each year, yet it’s still dangerously high. On average, one rhino is still poached every 16 hours. Most of the rhinos poached last year were killed in Namibia and South Africa. In both countries, poachers have shifted their focus to new places.

South Africa, with its abundant wildlife, suffers from a scourge of poaching that has become a significant challenge in the country's national parks. In particular, the poaching of rhinos for their horns has increased dramatically since 2014, so SA National Parks (SANParks) sought out a system that could enable it to successfully counter this: one that could detect movement - specifically of people - in protected areas.

Since the beginning of 2022, more than 100 rhinos have been poached in South Africa’s KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) Province. This staggering toll compares to 102 rhinos poached in the Province during the whole of 2021, and 93 in the whole of 2020. Unless this trend is urgently reversed, 2022 could end with a new KZN poaching record, going beyond the horrific 222 rhino poaching deaths recorded in 2017. The recent increase in poaching in KZN is likely due to several factors. First, there has been a devastating decline in the number of rhinos in the Kruger National Park.

Since the first reported pangolin seizure in Nigeria in 2010, the country has seen an explosion in the black market for the world's most trafficked mammal - becoming Africa's hub for the criminal export of pangolin products to East Asia. Use of pangolin scales in traditional Chinese medicines has resulted in Asian species declining dramatically this century.

Gunshot technology ShotSpotter is being used to deter rhino poaching in Kruger National Park, helping authorities reduce unsanctioned killings by 60% inside the park’s Intensified Protection Zone (IPZ). South Africa, which holds nearly 80% of the world's rhinos, has been the country hit hardest by poaching criminals, with more than 1 000 rhinos killed each year between 2013 and 2017. Kruger is a critical poaching area.