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The Black Mambas, an all-female anti-poaching unit in South Africa's Greater Kruger National Park, have significantly reduced rhino poaching since their inception in 2013. Comprised of local women, the unit patrols 20,000 hectares, acting as the eyes and ears for the vulnerable rhinos. Their efforts highlight the critical role of community involvement in wildlife conservation

South Africa has become the world's largest exporter of big cats and their body parts, with a thriving yet poorly regulated industry enabling illegal trade, according to a new report by global animal welfare organisation Four Paws. More than 3,500 live big cats and 34,000 body parts were exported from South Africa over the past two decades, revealed the report based on data from the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES).

The Zimbabwean wildlife authority is investigating a suspected case of lion poaching after three carcasses of the big cats were discovered in the country's biggest wildlife reserve on October 22. Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority (Zimparks) spokesperson, Tinashe Farawo told Down to Earth (DTE) that their rangers patrolling the Hwange National Park had discovered carcasses of the three lions that had their heads and feet cut off. "We are investigating a suspected case of lions poaching in Hwange.

A furious row has blown up in the UK's leading succulent society over the practice of taking desirable specimens from the wild, with the chair resigning in protest over the behaviour of his fellow enthusiasts. Succulents have risen in popularity in recent years: they are attractive and hardy. A succulent won the Royal Horticultural Society plant of the year award in the UK in 2022, while the plants have also become wildly popular in Asian countries, leading to a massive boom in demand. However, the drought-tolerant plants are often sourced from the wild.

Cameroon ranked seventh out of 29 African nations in terms of being a source or transit point for illegal wildlife trafficking (IWT) during the decade spanning from 2009 to 2019, according to a new report. This is despite the measures taken by the law enforcement to curb the menace as increased involvement from the Ministry of Forestry and Wildlife (MINFOF), CITES authorities and various other stakeholders, according to the report titled Analysis of Wildlife Court Cases in Cameroon: Jan 2010-Dec 2022. The most frequently…

In a recent development in Sesheke, the Subordinate Court has handed down a five-year prison sentence to a foreign national, Edward Mushanana, aged 50, hailing from Botswana. Mr. Mushanana was found guilty of illegally possessing a lion skin weighing 12.7 kilograms.

The Itezhi -Tezhi Magistrates' Court in Southern Province has convicted and slapped a five year jail sentence with hard labour on a 51-year-old man for being found in possession of Ivory. Particulars were Shamazongo on 15th September 2023, in Itezhi -Tezhi had in his possession a prescribed trophy namely 10.4 kilograms of Ivory without a certificate of authority from the Director General of the Department of National Parks and Wildlife.

ZAW officers in Livingstone on Sunday killed an elephant that attacked 1 36 year old man of Simoonga village. Below, members of the community share the meat of the elephant in question Three people in Lumezi District have been sentenced to one month imprisonment with hard labour for unlawful possession of a government trophy.

The Itezhi Tezhi Magistrates Court has found a farmer guilty of unlawful possession of game meat and sentenced him to three years in prison. The details of count three are that Mafuta unlawfully hunted and killed a game animal, namely a warthog, without a hunting license on the same date, jointly and with others unknown.

The Itezhi Tezhi Magistrates Court has convicted and sentenced three Itezhi Tezhi residents to five years in jail and fined two others K120, 000 for unlawful possession of 810 kilograms of game meat worth K42, 448.

Facts before court were that on 1 April 2022 the duo whilst acting together possessed a prescribed trophy namely elephant ivory weighing 25 KG and valued at K 90,467 without a certificate of ownership issued by the Director General the Zambia Wildlife Authority.

A single transnational criminal network may be poaching elephants across southern and eastern Africa, a new study has claimed. The criminals may be trying to shift base to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) from east Africa, warned the report published February 14, 2022, in the journal Nature Human Behaviour. Such criminal networks may be seeking to use porous borders of the DRC as well as the weak rule of law there to their advantage, the study said.

"In the last couple of weeks, we found in certain areas a marked increase in the number of snares and a zebra was just left to rot where it had died, caught up in the snare." "We need to ask people to walk regularly and look for the snares. Quite often, they will set the snares and then they don't return in time to see if the animal has been caught in the snare and the animal is just left to rot." The Msunduzi Municipality has also raised concern about the rise in poaching at the reserve in recent weeks.

The Chinsali subordinate court has sentenced a 51-year-old poacher to seven years imprisonment with hard labour for unlawful possession of 9.5 kilogrammes (kg) of ivory.

The Chama Subordinate Court has sentenced a poacher to seven years imprisonment for illegal possession of elephant ivory weighing 10 kilograms. Lovemore Nkhowani, 60, a former wildlife police officer, turned into a notorious elephant poacher nicknamed Mbanje, was charged with one count of Unlawful Possession of Prescribed Trophy, that is elephant ivory, contrary to section 130(1) of the Zambia wildlife Act No. 14 of 2015.

The Department of National Parks and Wildlife has arrested a 39 year old Kapiri Mposhi man for being in possession of 12 pieces of elephant Ivory tusks worth over K100, 000. Department of National Parks and Wildlife Central Region Warden Patrick Sakanga has confirmed the arrest to ZANIS yesterday.