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Four men were arrested after allegedly being found in possession of perlemoen and diving equipment near Port Alfred on Tuesday. An off-duty Port Alfred police officer apprehended four men after allegedly catching them with about R13,000 worth of perlemoen. Police spokesperson Captain Mali Govender said the officer, based at a unit in Port Alfred, received information about possible perlemoen poachers in the Kasouga area.

Despite being 20 times smaller and having much lower rainfall, Richtersveld has more plant species than the country's famous Kruger national park. It is, says Van Wyk, "the most important succulent laboratory in the world". But it is this variety of rare succulents that draws the poachers. Many Richtersveld species are so specialised that they grow only in one valley or on one mountain slope. In extreme cases an entire species can be confined to an area smaller than a football pitch, so a poacher could render a species extinct in a morning.

Pangolins (Order: Pholidota) are considered a very rare and threatened group of mammal taxa, and are widely recognized as the most trafficked mammals globally. In recent years, Africa has become an increasingly important source to supply demand, particularly from Asian markets. However, the extent and scale of the trade within South Africa remains poorly documented. Our study aimed to investigate the extent of the illicit trade in the Temminck’s pangolin (Smutsia temminckii) in South Africa between 2016 and 2024.