Thousands of pangolins are killed each year in the illegal wildlife trade. Photo courtesy of Tikki Hywood Trust, Zimbabwe. An unexpected newcomer has joined the world’s most iconic species — the elephant, rhino, and tiger — under the international wildlife trafficking crisis spotlight: Meet the pangolin. Pangolins are unmistakable in appearance — they are covered...
By Rhishja Larson A young rhino was killed Friday night at a resort near Pietermaritzburg, South Africa, by poachers who shot him with an AK-47 assault rifle, the South African media reported. According to News 24, the eight-year-old rhino was found on Saturday morning, with both horns missing and an AK-47 cartridge nearby. The game manager at...
By Rhishja Larson A female rhino in South Africa’s Krugersdorp Game Reserve is the latest atrocity in the illegal rhino horn trade–killed by poachers who crudely slashed off her horns. And there is another victim of this shameful crime: Her helpless nine-month-old calf is without a mother. According to Independent Online, employees of the reserve found the...
By Rhishja Larson Although few features in the animal kingdom are as magnificent as the horn of the rhino, such magnificence comes at a deadly price: The illegal rhino horn trade is responsible for decimating the world’s rhino population by more than 90 percent over the past 40 years. Greater one-horned rhino (Rhinoceros unicornis), Chitwan National...