Elephant Poaching In Zimbabwe

In 2013, it was reported that poachers in Zimbabwe used cyanide to kill elephants at a nature reserve. Original estimates by wildlife officials found stated that around 100 elephants died from the poison.

After further analysis, the number of elephants killed by cyanide has increased to over 300. Conservation officials state that it is the worst massacre of elephants in Southern African in 25 years.

The poachers killed the elephants by lacking water holes and salt licks with cyanide. Once the elephants die, the poachers cut of their ivory tusks.

The poachers are able to sell the tusks for $482 (4,750 South African Rand) to cross-border traders in Zimbabwe. The tusks are then smuggled to South Africa, where it can be resold for up to $1,604 (15,800 Rand).

USA: Malaysian Wildlife Smugglers Jailed In The US

Orangutan skulls like this one were among the myriad illegal items that the pair shipped to the US from Malaysia

Orangutan skulls. Langur skulls. Macaque skulls. Monkey skull necklaces. Hornbill beaks. Sun bear claws. Bear teeth. Wild boar tusks....

These were among the gruesome "decorative" items that two Malaysian men who ran an online business called Borneo Artifact kept mailing from the island into the United States for a decade. They did so in violation of American and international wildlife protection laws and have now paid the price: they have been sentenced to six months in prison in the US.

During the decade between 2005 and last year, the two wildlife smugglers, who are in their early 30s, shipped $95,000 (RM370,000) worth of parts from endangered species into the US, according to investigators. Eoin Ling Churn Yeng and Galvin Yeo Siang Ann, it soon transpired, maintained a large clandestine network of smugglers, or "runners," across Malaysia and Indonesia whose job was to procure rare and forbidden wildlife parts for the smuggling business.

So as to nab the two men, in 2013 an undercover agent of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service began posing as a buyer and ordered an orangutan skull and a turtle shell from a resident of the State of Oregon who had been acting as an accomplice for the two Malaysian traffickers. Eventually, the agent even managed to lure the two Malaysians into Portland, Oregon, where they were arrested and charged with violating US wildlife protection laws.

The pair have now been sentenced to six months in prison and slapped with a fine of $12,500 each. They will be allowed to return home once they have completed their sentences.

In one of his emails, later obtained by investigators, to a client in the US, Eion Ling boasted: "There are many runners in this business, each and everyone of them are EAGER to find and please his master. It all comes down to money, which can be a bad thing when they come with TONNES of stuff when u only seek for a few."

Unfortunately, we have no reason to doubt the accuracy of that statement. Malaysia continues to remain a global hub of wildlife trafficking with many locals willing to do the dirty work of poaching endangered animals or selling their body parts. A lot of that business is now conducted online. A recent survey of wildlife trafficking on Facebook revealed a booming online market.

The capture of the two Malaysian smugglers is a welcome development, but wildlife officials, both in Malaysia and globally, will have plenty more work to do to roll back the trade in endangered species.

SOUTH SUDAN: Poachers Slaughter 15 Elephants

Regular sources in Juba, South Sudan’s capital, confirmed the killing of at least 15 adult elephant along one of the key migration routes between Unity and Warrap states in late January, even though details are only now emerging.

The incident dealt another blow to the dented reputation of the country which, following over two years of civil strife, has seen poaching increase multifold as little if anything was being done to prevent poaching.

Suggestions have been made that ivory found in transit in Uganda or being confiscated in Kenya after being smuggled in via Uganda, could have come from South Sudan as well as from Eastern Congo, where poaching too is rife. Proceeds are regularly used by armed militia groups to resupply themselves and, what can only be described as a broadly lawless part of Africa, continue to roam without serious efforts to contain them and wipe them out.

In late 2015 were findings published by conservation NGO’s that the endangered forest elephant species had been sighted in South Sudan, documented through camera traps set in forests. The upswing in poaching however suggests that, considering the collapse of the economy – several major East African companies have announced their withdrawal from South Sudan due to lack of foreign exchange – blood ivory remains a valuable commodity and until a recovery of the country is underway, little attention will probably be paid to the killing of wildlife when human lives continue to be wasted through the periodic upsurge in ethnic violence.

South Sudan's elephant population is estimated to be in the 3 - 4.000 range though the Wildlife Conservation Society has suggested the number could be as low as 2.500.