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A Kenyan court has sentenced four men to one year in prison or pay a fine of $7,700 (£5,800) for trying to smuggle thousands of live queen ants out of the country. The four suspects - two Belgians, a Vietnamese and a Kenyan - were arrested last month with live ants suspected to have been destined for collectors in Europe and Asia. They had pleaded guilty to the charges, with the Belgians telling the court that they were collecting the highly sought-after ants as a hobby and didn't think it was illegal.

Ten endangered flamingos have been saved after smugglers were caught trying to traffic them out of Tunisia, according to the country's customs body. Photos of the birds crammed into crates with their wings, legs and torsos bound up were posted by the force online. The flamingos were rescued close to the Algerian border on Sunday, having been "loaded onto a lorry bearing a Tunisian registration plate", officials said in a statement. The birds have now been safely returned to their natural habitat, officials added, "as part of efforts to preserve the species".

When South African officials at Cape Town's international airport came across cardboard boxes labelled as toys being sent to China they became suspicious. China is famous for exporting toys around the world - not importing them. The boxes were opened for a spot check - and instead of finding the promised toddler’s cooking set or a board game inside, they discovered bundles of endangered succulent plants all carefully wrapped in toilet paper.

The number of endangered rhinos poached in Namibia last year was the highest on record and almost twice as many as the year before, officials say. A total of 87 rhinos were killed compared with 45 in 2021, official government data show. Most were poached in Etosha, Namibia's biggest national park, officials say.

Zimbabwe has started removing the horns of its entire rhino population to deter poaching. The de-horning process of more than 1,000 animals is being done by veterinarians from the Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority, according to its spokesman Tinashe Farawo. They will be cut off after the rhinos have been anesthetized, and typically grow back within a year.

The Botswana government is moving rhinos out of the Okavango Delta after a surge in poaching that has seen 92 of the endangered animals killed in the past two years, compared to just seven in 2010 to 2018. The delta is one of two World Heritage Sites in the southern African country, a 20,000 square-kilometer (7,700 square-mile) wetland populated by 130 animal species, including white and black rhinos. It's Botswana's premier tourist attraction and the rhinos are a major drawcard.

A local game breeder has earlier today been charged with the illegal possession and the selling of rhino horns after a combined intelligence operation involving several law enforcement units.

The National Prosecuting Authority has welcomed the sentences handed to two Mozambique nationals found guilty for poaching related offences by the Malamulele Regional Court. Enock Sibanda(31) and Eckson Shirinda (28) were arrested by Kruger National Park rangers on 14 November 2018 and were each sentenced to eight year’s imprisonment, said Mashudu Malabi-Dzhangi, the Regional Spokesperson of the Directorate of Public Prosecutions (DPP) in Limpopo.

Three black rhinos were found killed in separate incidents in the Lephalale and Gravelotte policing areas. In the first incident, a rhino was found shot and killed at a local game reserve in the Waterberg district on Friday, 22 January.

The police on Friday arrested three suspects for possession of elephant tusks worth over R100 000. The suspects were arrested at a local mall during an undercover operation which was conducted by the police together with the Endangered Species Unit in Limpopo, K9 unit, Crime Intelligence, LEDET and KNP ECI .

The trio were arrested following a R50 000 transaction for parts of lions they killed on a private game reserve outside Lephalale.