topic: Animal Welfare

topic: Animal Welfare

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The potential for tracking wildlife health & disease via bioacoustics is great (commentary)
- Bioacoustics is the passive, non-invasive recording of sounds emitted by a wide range of animals.
- Analysis of this information reveals the presence and behavior of wildlife, and can also be valuable indicator of animal health, which can then be used in ecosystem monitoring.
- “As disease prevalence skyrockets in wildlife, we are desperately in need of tools to remotely monitor ecosystem health,” a new op-ed argues.
- This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily Mongabay.

Jane Goodall at 90: On fame, hope, and empathy
- Jane Goodall’s 90th birthday is today, April 3, 2024. To mark the occasion, Goodall sat down with Mongabay Founder and CEO Rhett Ayers Butler at his home in California.
- In the conversation, Goodall delves into the evolving consciousness regarding environmental degradation and the loss of biodiversity, while stressing the importance of fostering hope amidst the doom and gloom often associated with these issues.
- “I’ve come to think of humanity as being at the mouth of a very long very dark tunnel and right at the end there’s a little star shining. And that’s hope,” she said. “However, it’s futile to just sit and wonder when that star will come to us. We must gird our loins, roll up our sleeves, and navigate around all obstacles that lie between us and the star.”
- The conversation also touches upon the transformative power of youth engagement in environmental activism. Goodall highlights the influence young people can have on older generations, emphasizing the importance of voting in elections as a means to support candidates who prioritize environmental concerns.

Report: Rising slaughter of small whales and dolphins threatens ocean balance
- Killings of small whales, porpoises and dolphins are rising, with more than 100,000 of these marine mammals slaughtered each year, according to a new report from German and British NGOs.
- Many regions report increased catches driven by demand for dolphin meat as food and shark bait in areas impacted by economic crisis and dwindling fish stocks.
- Failure to address unsustainable exploitation of small cetaceans exacerbates ecological imbalance and heavy metal toxicity risks to humans who eat them, according to the report.
- Insufficient legislation and enforcement remain critical issues, according to the report, which calls for international collaboration and stronger protection measures.

Iceland’s whaling paradox (commentary)
- As Iceland’s latest whaling season comes to a close, a heated debate continues over the ethics and sustainability of the country’s policy on these marine mammals.
- Filmmaker and activist Micah Garen — who co-directed the documentary “The Last Whaling Station” — shares his thoughts on what may be the nation’s last whaling season.
- “The paradox of whaling is the inherent contradiction between a utilitarian and Kantian world view. If you believe your choices matter, then ending whaling now is the only ethical, moral and philosophical choice we can make,” he argues.
- This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily of Mongabay.

Conservationists urge caution as Nepal to gift more rhinos to China
- Nepal has committed to providing a pair of one-horned rhinos to China, as one gifted in 2018 died due to stomach ailments.
- Conservationists say orphaned rhino calves raised in human contact are best for this purpose.
- Separating rhino calves from their mothers should be the last option, conservationists say.

International outcry as Iceland lifts ban on what could be last whale hunt
- The Icelandic government has announced that commercial whaling will recommence following a two-month suspension of the activity, albeit with increased monitoring and stricter hunting regulations.
- The government temporarily banned whaling in June due to animal welfare concerns, but the ban expired on Aug. 31.
- The decision to restart whaling has drawn criticism from environmentalists and animal rights advocates.
- Only one company in Iceland currently has a whaling license, and it’s set to expire this year, with no guarantee the government will renew it for the coming years.

When “cute” is cruel: Social media videos stoke loris pet trade, study says
- Conservationists are concerned that the popularity of social media videos depicting lorises as pets is stoking the illegal and often abusive pet trade, placing pressure on already flagging numbers in the wild.
- A study of the top 100 most-viewed loris videos on social media platforms found the vast majority depicted lorises far removed from their natural forest habitat, behaviors and ecology.
- Online videos of pet lorises consistently violated basic animal welfare guidelines, according to the study, with the most popular clips depicting stressed and ill animals.
- The authors say the online content could make it socially acceptable and desirable to own a pet loris, and by engaging with content showing trafficked animals in poor health, viewers are unwittingly complicit in abuse and illegalities.

‘No future’: Iceland cancels whale hunt over animal welfare concerns
- Citing animal welfare concerns, Iceland has suspended its whale hunting season until Aug. 31.
- This decision follows the release of a government-commissioned independent report that found that many whales suffer immensely after being harpooned.
- Iceland had been set to kill around 200 fin whales, up from the 148 it killed in 2022.

Conservation must acknowledge animal sentience (commentary)
- “A conservation ethic that fails to account for animal sentience runs the risk of causing serious harms to those that are undeniably capable of experiencing them,” a new op-ed argues.
- But philosophical training and tools can help conservationists navigate the diverse values represented in their work.
- “Regardless of whether you view pigs as pests, pets, or pork, their lives as individuals are morally relevant to our conservation discussions.”
- This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily of Mongabay.

In Sri Lanka, activists push for ban on using human contraceptive jabs on animals
- Sri Lankan authorities are considering banning the use of a human contraceptive injection for animals.
- A proposed pilot project to inject a human contraceptive on 50,000 dogs sparked outrage, prompting its immediate suspension.
- The contraceptive injection can lead to the accumulation of pus in a dog’s uterus, eventually causing its death, experts say.

Himalayan community takes initiative to help dogs, wildlife and itself
- Feral dogs have long proved problematic to people, livestock and wildlife in Nepal’s Annnapurna region.
- Studies have shown a high prevalence of canine distemper among the dogs, which are also suspected of carrying other diseases that could be passed on to domestic animals, wildlife or even people.
- A project to vaccinate and neuter the dogs helped slow their population growth, but was halted by the COVID-19 pandemic.
- Since then, however, locals have revived the initiative on their own, and the success of their efforts have drawn requests for assistance from other Himalayan communities dogged by dogs.

Probe finds Vietnam faltering in bid to curb wildlife trade, animal suffering
- In recent years, authorities in Vietnam have made a series of pledges to curb illegal wildlife trade and the sale and consumption of dog meat.
- However, a new investigation by animal rights groups reveals that protected wildlife species are still being sold at wet markets, where animal suffering and public health risks are rife.
- The findings also indicate the dog meat industry shows few signs of abating, with slaughterhouses and restaurants still doing business despite calls to phase out the industry in major cities.
- Experts say sustained and coordinated efforts from provincial authorities, enforcement agencies and the public will be needed to fully curb the practices throughout the country.

Alleged macaque-smuggling ring exposed as U.S. indicts Cambodian officials
- U.S. federal prosecutors have charged eight people, including two Cambodian forestry officials, for their alleged involvement in an international ring smuggling endangered long-tailed macaques.
- The indictment alleges forestry officials colluded with Hong Kong-based biomedical firm Vanny Bio Research to procure macaques from the wild and create export permits falsely listing them as captive-bred animals.
- One of the officials charged was arrested in New York City on Nov. 16, en route to Panama for an international summit focused on regulating the global trade in wildlife.
- This story was supported by the Pulitzer Center’s Rainforest Investigations Network where Gerald Flynn is a fellow.

Dog shooting highlights Sri Lanka’s need for stricter animal cruelty laws
- Sri Lanka’s outdated laws on animal welfare are 115 years old and were introduced when the country was under the British yoke.
- With violence toward animals reported on more frequently, animal rights groups are calling for tougher laws to combat cases of animal cruelty.
- The current punishment for mistreating an animal is $0.27 and is among the lowest in South Asia.
- A proposed animal welfare law has not been adopted despite being placed on the parliamentary agenda on 44 occasions.

Thai zoos come under scrutiny again as tourism rebounds from COVID-19
- The welfare of rare and often threatened species in Thailand’s tourism and pet trades has long been a concern for animal rights activists.
- The conditions in which many of the animals are kept became even direr during the COVID-19 pandemic, when border shutdowns meant no visitor revenue to care for the animals.
- NGOs are working to rescue and rehabilitate some of the animals from zoos and private owners, but acknowledge that few, if any, of the animals can ever be released back into the wild.
- They add that rescue and rehabilitation is only part of the solution, and that more focus should go on protecting the natural environment and habitats of these animals over the long term.

Trafficked: Kidnapped chimps, jailed rhino horn traffickers, and seized donkey parts
- Armed intruders who kidnapped three young chimpanzees from a sanctuary in the DRC have threatened to kill them unless a ransom is paid for the apes’ return.
- Calls for renewed focus on organized crime in wildlife trafficking, as specialized courts in Uganda and the DRC are delivering convictions for wildlife crimes that in the past would likely have gone unpunished.
- A seizure in Nigeria has sounded the latest alarm over growing exports of donkey parts for traditional Chinese medicine.
- Trafficked is Mongabay’s bi-weekly bulletin rounding up brief stories from the illegal wildlife trade in Africa.

U.S. charts course for adopting ropeless fishing to reduce whale deaths
- The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has published a report laying out a strategy to allow the use of “ropeless” or “on-demand” fishing gear off the U.S. East Coast with the goal of reducing entanglements of the critically endangered North Atlantic right whale.
- The gear uses acoustic signals to locate and retrieve gear, reducing the amount of time that vertical lines are present in the water column, where they can ensnare right whales and other types of marine life.
- Right whale numbers in the North Atlantic have declined precipitously in the past decade, as collisions with ships and entanglements have killed individuals and hampered the species’ ability to reproduce.
- NOAA’s Ropeless Roadmap estimates that on-demand fishing gear can substantially diminish the risk to right whales, while allowing economically and culturally important fisheries of the northeastern U.S. to continue.

Fish-farming practices come under scrutiny amid surge in aquaculture
- A recent investigative report claims to reveal for the first time the poor conditions, including mistreatment of fish, in some Indonesian fish farms.
- While activists and industry figures are at odds over the magnitude of the problem, both agree that aquaculture throughout Asia needs to be better managed while supporting small-scale farmers to address the issue of fish welfare.
- Production of farmed fish grew by 527% worldwide from 1990-2018; production of wild-caught fish during the same period rose by just 14%.

Zoo animals not immune to Sri Lanka’s economic rout as food prices surge
- Skyrocketing food prices that have plunged Sri Lankans into hardship look set to affect the 4,500 animals at the country’s main zoo.
- Dehiwala Zoo in Colombo has been hit by both runaway inflation and a plunge in visitor revenue, leaving it scrambling for options to keep its animals fed.
- One measure under consideration is to release some of its deer, while a more immediate plan is to replace increasingly expensive imported fruit with local produce, and to grow more food on site.
- With its charismatic species — elephants and big cats — accounting for the lion’s share of the food cost, the zoo also plans a foster parent program where members of the public can “adopt” these animals by contributing to their upkeep.

Year of the Tiger: Illegal trade thrives amid efforts to save wild tigers
- As the world celebrates the Year of the Tiger in 2022, humans continue to threaten the cat’s long-term survival in the wild: killing, buying and selling tigers and their prey, and encroaching into their last shreds of habitat. That’s why they are Earth’s most endangered big cat.
- Undercover video footage has revealed an enlarged tiger farm run by an organized criminal organization in Laos. It’s one of many captive-breeding facilities implicated in the black market trade — blatantly violating an international treaty on trade in endangered species.
- Under a 2007 CITES decision, tigers should be bred only for conservation purposes. Evidence shows that this decision is being disregarded by some Asian nations, including China, Laos, Vietnam and Thailand. But CITES has done little to enforce it, which could be done through sanctions, say critics.
- With the world’s second Global Tiger Summit and important international meetings on biodiversity and endangered species looming, it’s a crucial year for tigers. In the wild, some populations are increasing, some stable, and others shrinking: Bengal tigers in India are faring best, while Malayan tigers hover on extinction’s edge.

Lessons from panda conservation could help Asia’s other, overlooked, bears
- Asia is home to five bear species: giant pandas, Asian black bears, sun bears, sloth bears and brown bears.
- Giant pandas garner far more attention than the four other species, and this has paid off for the former: Millions of dollars are spent on its conservation every year, leading to an improvement in its conservation status in 2016.
- By contrast, the other species receive little funding, and conservation and monitoring efforts are limited even as populations dwindle.
- Experts say successful panda conservation efforts indicate that the other Asian bear species could also rebound — but that being charismatic helps.

How many orangutans does $1 billion save? Depends how you spend it, study finds
- A recent study evaluating spending on orangutan conservation, calculated to amount to more than $1 billion over the past 20 years, found wide variations in the cost-effectiveness of various conservation activities.
- The study found habitat protection to be by far the most effective measure, followed by patrolling.
- By contrast, habitat restoration; orangutan rescue, rehabilitation, and translocation; and public outreach were found to be less cost-effective.
- The study relied on building a model that correctly accommodated numerous factors, something both the researchers and outside experts highlight as a challenge.

Campaigners against dog meat trade take on one Indonesian city at a time
- An estimated 7% of Indonesia’s 270 million people eat dog meat, a practice the World Health Organization has linked to the spread of rabies.
- Dog Meat Free Indonesia, an advocacy group, is campaigning city by city to get authorities to crack down on the trade, appealing to animal welfare, public health, and religious sensibilities.
- Authorities at the national and subnational levels have in recent years responded by issuing regulations effectively banning the sale of dog meat for human consumption.

Call for COVID rules that reduced infections in gorilla parks to remain
- Respiratory infections recorded among mountain gorillas in Rwanda’s Volcanoes National Park dropped from a pre-pandemic average of 5.4 outbreaks among family groups to just 1.6 per year since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020.
- Conservation group Gorilla Doctors, whose Rwanda team recorded the decrease in infections, says the decline correlates with lower visitor numbers to the park as well as masking requirements and an increase in the distance tourists must stay from habituated apes.
- In a recent letter in the journal Nature, Gorilla Doctors and the park’s chief warden called for these stricter measures to be kept in place permanently.

Meet Magali, the conservation warrior rescuing Peru’s rainforest animals: Video
- A new, award-winning short film by Nick Werber follows wildlife rehabilitator and founder of Amazon Shelter, Magali Salinas, as she discusses her work in the Madre de Dios region of the Peruvian Amazon.
- Magali has dedicated the past 16 years of her life to rescuing animals in a region rife with illegal logging, mining, and wildlife trade. Her center cares for up to 80 animals at once (including sloths, tortoises, parrots, monkeys and more) and releases dozens back into the wild each year.
- Amazon shelter specializes in howler monkeys and Magali releases troops of rehabilitated howlers into protected reserves away from other howler troops’ territories. Finding these places can take days to weeks of searching.
- The film builds to the release of 14 howler monkeys into the wild. “It just goes to show the difference that one person can make,” Werber said. “That was what inspired me to make the film.”

Think that GIF of the smoking chimp is funny? The chimp wasn’t laughing
- While a GIF of an ape engaging in “human” behavior may seem cute, the animals used to create such images were often subjected to abuse.
- Experts also say such images can perpetuate the myth that apes make good pets, fueling the international trade in these endangered animals.
- Campaigners have successfully convinced major stock photography agencies to stop providing images of apes in unnatural situations, but popular GIF agencies still do not have specific policies against such images.

‘The images are confronting’: Q&A with animal photojournalist Jo-Anne McArthur
- Hidden: Animals in the Anthropocene, published in December 2020, is a photojournalism book that documents the lives and deaths of animals in a human-dominated world.
- The “hidden” animals of the title are those that we humans use for food, fashion, research and cultural purposes.
- The book showcases the work of more than 40 photographers, including co-editor Jo-Anne McArthur, working in the burgeoning field of animal photojournalism.
- Mongabay interviewed McArthur about the creation of the book, the importance of engaging with images of animal suffering, the intersection between animal advocacy and environmentalism, and the growth of animal photojournalism.

Faroe Islands to evaluate traditional hunt after slaughter of 1,400 dolphins
- The killing of 1,428 Atlantic white-sided dolphins in the Faroe Islands has sparked outrage among local people and attracted international criticism over the legitimacy of such hunts.
- The hunt was reportedly unauthorized and in violation of local Faroese law.
- In response, the Faroese prime minister announced that the government will evaluate the recent dolphin hunt as well as the tradition’s place in society.

Fashions to die for: The fur trade’s role in spreading zoonotic disease
- It has long been known that zoonotic diseases, which originate in animals and can jump to humans and back again, have been a prime source and vector for pandemics, with COVID-19 the most recent example. What is less known is the role the global fur-for-fashion industry plays in the spread of zoonotic disease.
- In 2020, COVID-19 spread to minks on EU fur-to-fashion farms; the virus also spread from the animals to a farm worker. Denmark ordered the culling of 17 million farm-raised minks. Mink farms in 10 countries have since been hit by outbreaks, including the U.S., Canada, France, Greece, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Spain and Sweden.
- China is the largest producer and consumer of fur for fashion, with the U.S. and EU both major players as well. In China, government support, producer lobbying, weak regulation and popularity with Chinese consumers has kept that nation’s fur market strong. It is very well supplied by Chinese farms and EU fur farm joint ventures.
- The fashion trend today is not for full-length fur coats, but for fur trim on sports coats, caps, shoes and accessories. Animals killed for their fur include minks, sables, rabbits, chinchillas, foxes and raccoon dogs. All have the potential to serve as zoonotic disease sources and spreaders. Globally, an estimated 95% of fur comes from farms.

‘What’s your real footprint on the animal world?’: Q&A with author Henry Mance
- Henry Mance’s debut book, “How to Love Animals: In a Human-Shaped World,” considers humanity’s complex relationship with animals in terms of the food we put on our plates and the activities we partake in that directly affects animals’ lives.
- Much of the book explores the troubled relationship between humans and animals, but it also looks at the positive aspects of the human-animal relationship that manifests in our treatment of pets.
- The author grapples with some difficult questions, such as whether hunting can actually be an ethical activity and whether zoos have conservation value.
- He concludes that animals should be treated with more respect and kindness than we currently give them, and that we should look for ways to redefine our relationship with animalkind, not only for ethical reasons but for environmental reasons as well.

‘Animal rights will be part of our DNA’: Q&A with Bogotá councilor Andrea Padilla
- After nearly two decades on the front lines of animal rights advocacy, Bogotá native Andrea Padilla won a seat on the Colombian capital’s City Council.
- Padilla was propelled to victory last October thanks to thousands of votes from Bogota’s animal rights activists, many of them also pet-owning vegetarians.
- Less than a year in office, Padilla has tallied a series of legislative victories, yet remains a lightning rod for criticism, including from conservationists.
- In a one-on-one interview with Mongabay, Padilla spoke about her origins as an activist, the moment she stopped eating meat, her journey to the City Council, what to do about Pablo Escobar’s hippos, and how she plans to deploy her political power.

‘Mismanaged to death’: Mexico opens up sole vaquita habitat to fishing
- The Mexican government has eradicated a “no tolerance” zone in the Upper Gulf of California meant to protect the critically endangered vaquita porpoise.
- The former refuge will now be open for fishing and there will be minimal monitoring and enforcement of illegal activity, experts say.
- Conservationists say this move will certainly lead to the extinction of the vaquita, whose numbers have recently dwindled down to about nine.

NRA Video: Conquering nature will never be the silver bullet (commentary)
- Last week, The New Yorker released footage of National Rifle Association CEO Wayne LaPierre struggling to kill an elephant in Botswana.
- Kate Dylewsky, senior policy advisor for the Animal Welfare Institute, says the video is an opportunity to assess claims that the trophy hunting promotes conservation.
- “Killing imperiled species to save them will never be a silver bullet,” writes Dylewsky. “We should not seek to ‘conquer’ nature; instead, we should preserve, respect and appreciate the incredible species that share the Earth with us. No species that faces extinction should be further victimized by someone looking to hang a head on a wall.”
- This article is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the authors, not necessarily Mongabay.

South Africa pulls the plug on controversial captive lion industry
- The South African government has made a critical decision to ban captive lion facilities in South Africa, and to halt the commercial use of captive lions and their derivatives, according to a new report.
- This move is being hailed by conservationists and animal welfare advocates who have worked for years to expose the myriad of welfare issues associated with this industry.
- The recommendations in the report still need to go through a legal ratification process, but experts are hopeful that things will move forward in a positive way.
- There are between 8,000 and 12,000 lions being held in captive facilities, many of which have historically offered canned hunting, lion petting and lion walking experiences.

South African dehorning initiative aims for ‘zero poached’ white rhinos
- Conservationists recently dehorned the entire white rhino population of Spioenkop Nature Reserve in South Africa’s KwaZulu-Natal province to decrease poaching incidents.
- Rhino poaching in South Africa has been steadily declining over the past several years, with dehorning efforts likely playing a part in protecting local populations.
- However, experts say there are still grave concerns for this near-threatened species, especially as wildlife reserves struggle to maintain security during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Skin in the game? Reptile leather trade embroils conservation authority
- The reptile skin trade is a controversial issue, with some experts saying that harvesting programs help conserve species and provide livelihood benefits, while others say that the trade is fraught with issues and animal welfare concerns.
- From a conservation standpoint, there is evidence that the reptile skin trade is sustainable for some species and in some contexts, but other research suggests that the trade could be decimating wild populations and doing more harm than good.
- Exotic leather is falling out of favor in the fashion industry: Numerous companies and brands have banned products made from reptile skin as well as fur, replacing them with products made from materials such as apple, grape or mushroom leather.
- Experts connected with the IUCN have written open letters and op-eds to lament the decisions of companies to ban exotic leather, arguing that these bans have damaged conservation efforts, but other experts question the IUCN’s unfailing support of an imperfect trade.

Captive lions kept in ‘stressful conditions’ create perfect recipe for disease, experts say
- Researchers have identified that captive and wild lions carry 63 pathogens that could result in about 83 diseases and clinical symptoms.
- Drawing on this research, conservationists have named five diseases that have the potential to spill over into the human population and impact public health: human ehrlichiosis, human babesiosis, toxocariasis, trichinosis, and African sleeping sickness.
- Animal welfare advocates say that captive lion facilities in South Africa tend to keep lions in unsanitary, stressful conditions that provide the perfect environment for disease.
- With this in mind, conservationists are advocating for the South African government to shut down the captive lion industry.

Life and new limbs: Creative thinking, 3D printers save injured wildlife
- Prosthetics for injured animals are becoming increasingly possible and accessible thanks to 3D printing. Historically, artificial devices for wildlife have been expensive and very time-consuming to produce. 3D printing is changing that calculus by making it easier to design and build better-fitting prosthetics.
- A team of dedicated caregivers with vision, creativity and persistence is often the common thread that is key to helping injured animals.
- While 3D printing of animal prosthetics allows for multiple iterations that helps improve the device so that the animal can function more normally, size and materials can limit their use.
- Today, the use of 3D printers to aid animals is expanding beyond prosthetics, with veterinary anesthesia masks for small primates and other experimental uses being tried.

Pet trade relies on ‘disposable’ wild chameleons from Madagascar
- Despite being difficult to keep alive and healthy, chameleons are among the most popular reptiles in the exotic pet trade.
- Each year hundreds of thousands of these slow-moving reptiles are taken from the wild, both legally and illegally, many of them from threatened species living in the forests of Madagascar.
- Observers say the international trade in chameleons must be changed to avoid harming wild populations and improve the well-being of animals during transit and captivity.
- They also point to the need to make the trade fairer and more transparent, so local people can benefit from it.

Video: Vets hail ‘victory’ as jaguar burned in Pantanal fires returns to wild
- This year, fires in the Pantanal, the world’s largest wetland region, burned through about 4.1 million hectares (10.1 million acres), which constitutes about 28% of the region.
- A 3-year-old jaguar caught in the fires suffered third-degree burns on all four of his paws as he ran across burning peat.
- In September, the jaguar was rescued by a group of veterinarians and delivered to a clinic that helped treat his wounds.
- A month later, rains had extinguished most of the fires, and the jaguar was released in the same spot from which he was rescued.

Armed and dangerous, ‘murder lorises’ use their venom against each other
- A study released Oct. 19 in the journal Current Biology reveals that slow lorises use their venom not only against other species, but also against each other — a behavior that is extremely rare among animals.
- Over eight years and hundreds of capture events, 20% of all Javan lorises surveyed had fresh wounds from other lorises. Both males and females having and using weapons within the same species is also rare.
- Although it is illegal to capture, sell or own lorises in all of their range countries, they are still caught for their use in traditional Asian medicine and for the pet trade.
- The trade of lorises involves pulling their teeth and subjecting them to situations that violate animal welfare criteria. Lorises lead rich and complex lives in the forest and because they are primates, isolation from their kin can be psychologically distressing. Also, they can kill you.

Wildlife emergency in Bolivia as fires threaten animal sanctuaries
- More than 120 major fires have been detected in Bolivia’s Amazon rainforest and dry forests of Chiquitano since March, according to the nonprofit Monitoring of the Andean Amazon Project (MAAP).
- One of these fires is now threatening an animal sanctuary in Guarayos, Bolivia outside the city of Santa Cruz de la Sierra.
- The Ambue Ari Sanctuary of Comunidad Inti Wara Yassi (CIWY) is being choked by haze as it is flooded with animals in need of rescue from fast-moving fires in the region.

In the Horn of Africa, conflict and illegal trade create a ‘cheetah hell’
- Wild cheetahs are under intense pressure in the Horn of Africa due to human-wildlife conflicts and illegal trade, which takes about 300 cubs from the region each year, conservationists say.
- In Somaliland, a country ravaged by climate change-induced drought, nomadic farmers will often kill or chase away cheetahs threatening their livestock, and either keep their cubs as pets or attempt to sell them to traders.
- While the international trade of cheetahs is banned under CITES, animals continue to be smuggled from the Horn of Africa to the Middle East, via a well-established trade route between Somaliland and Yemen.
- In addition to rescuing and providing long-term care for wild cheetahs, the Cheetah Conservation Fund and Somaliland’s Ministry of Environment and Rural Development are working to develop an education program that promotes coexistence between farmers and cheetahs.

For the Pantanal’s jaguars, fires bring ‘death by a thousand needle wounds’
- The Pantanal, the world’s largest wetland region, is experiencing catastrophic fires, with current estimates stating that approximately 3.3 million hectares (8.1 million acres), or 22% of the region, have gone up in flames.
- There are approximately 2,000 jaguars living in the Pantanal’s jaguar corridor, and conservationists estimate that about 600 jaguars have had their habitat impacted by the fires, as well as many injured or killed.
- Jaguars are having trouble escaping the situation due to the fires burning underground, which makes them difficult to visually detect.
- While it’s not entirely clear how the fires will affect jaguar populations into the future, the fires could lead to food insecurity issues and genetic instability, according to experts.

The other Corona: Rescued pangolin is a rehabilitation success story
- In February, a 2-year-old female pangolin named Cory was rescued in a sting operation led by the African Pangolin Working Group.
- Cory was in poor condition immediately after her rescue, but she responded well to rehabilitation, likely due to her young age.
- She was released on Manyoni Reserve in KwaZulu-Natal province, South Africa, where pangolins have been ecologically extinct for the past 30 to 40 years.

481 and counting: Norway’s whaling catch hits four-year high
- New data show that Norway has killed 481 minke whales so far this year, a number that surpasses the toll from the past three years.
- Norway continues its commercial whaling operation despite the International Whaling Commission placing a global moratorium on commercial whaling in 1982.
- While some whale meat and whale products are sold within Norway, the country also exports it to countries like Japan, Iceland and Denmark’s Faroe Islands.
- Whaling industry representatives say that whale meat sales have gone up in Norway during the COVID-19 pandemic, while conservationists and animal welfare advocates say that most Norwegians are not interested in consuming whale meat.

World Bank-funded factory farms dogged by alleged environmental abuses
- The World Bank’s International Finance Corporation (IFC) has provided funding totaling $120 million to Ecuadoran pork and chicken producer Pronaca, despite widespread and evidence-backed concerns about the effects of industrial-scale livestock farming on water sources, air quality and the climate.
- IFC investments are intended to boost the economies of developing countries.
- But the Pronaca case and others described in a series by Mongabay in cooperation with The Guardian newspaper and the Bureau of Investigative Journalism raise questions about the impacts of these investments on local communities and the environment.
- Mongabay spoke with residents of the province of Santo Domingo de los Tsáchilas, where Pronaca has more than 30 farms, who said that complaints to the IFC’s Compliance Adviser/Ombudsman over the past decade have done little to improve the situation.

Podcast: Five years after the death of Cecil the Lion, trophy hunting debate rages on
- On this episode of the Mongabay Newscast, we take a look at the state of the debate over trophy hunting five years after the killing of Cecil the Lion sparked widespread outrage.
- How has the debate over trophy hunting evolved since Cecil’s death? We’re joined by three guests to discuss the issue: Iris Ho of Humane Society International; Amy Dickman, founder of the Ruaha Carnivore Project; and Maxi Pia Louis, director of a Namibian organization that works with local communities to support conservation.
- We also revisit a conversation with Jane Goodall that we featured here on the Mongabay Newscast in 2017, in which she discusses her take on trophy hunting.

Myanmar ponders what to do with its out-of-work elephants
- As the Myanmar government moves to rein in deforestation, thousands of captive elephants trained to haul logs in Myanmar may lose the care and protection they received when working.
- A government body that owns more than 2,900 captive elephants has turned to ecotourism to raise funds to care for the elephants, but it’s not enough.
- Releasing the elephants into the wild presents its own difficulties, including increased risks of human-wildlife conflict and poaching.
- Private owners, strapped for cash, may be forced to kill their elephant and sell its parts, or sell it alive to another country.

Prized as pets, are ball pythons being traded out of wild existence?
- The ball python is the most commonly traded African species under CITES, with more than 3 million of these reptiles exported since 1975, mainly from Togo, Ghana and Benin.
- Listed under CITES Appendix II, ball pythons can be legally traded, but exporters require special permits and need to meet certain welfare requirements.
- Some experts say that wild ball python populations are in rapid decline, and that the trade needs to be better regulated or completely stopped; others say that ball pythons are not currently threatened, and that the trade can be maintained with the proper management and captive breeding programs.
- There is a growing body of evidence purporting that reptiles are sentient beings capable of emotions, and animal welfare advocates believe this is more reason to stop the trade.

China offers buyouts to wildlife farmers in response to pandemic
- Wildlife farmers in several Chinese provinces, including Hunan and Jiangxi, are being offered a government buyout for at least 14 species, including bamboo rats, palm civets and ratsnakes.
- The Chinese government will also help farmers transition to other agricultural practices, such as growing vegetables, fruits and herbs for Chinese medicine, or to start farming domesticated animals like pigs and chickens.
- Farmers will no longer be able to breed and raise certain wild animals for consumption, but they may be able to farm them for traditional Chinese medicine, fur, and entertainment purposes.
- Conservationists see this buyout as an important step in China’s move to phase out wildlife consumption following the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Thailand’s captive elephants face starvation amid COVID-19 tourism freeze
- The COVID-19 crisis has brought tourism in Thailand to a halt, forcing at least 85 elephant camps in northern Thailand to close and lay off more than 5,000 staff.
- Captive elephants used in the tourism industry are at high risk of starvation and neglect, animal advocates say.
- Organizations like Save Elephant Foundation and World Animal Protection are working to bring food and other resources to as many needy elephants as possible.
- Sanctuaries are also facing difficult times without revenue from paying volunteers and day guests.

‘Titanic challenge’ for an Italian hospital rescuing sea turtles from plastic
- A sea turtle hospital in Brancaleone, Italy saves around 50 sea turtles every year.
- One out of every two of the turtles they save has ingested plastic, the team says.
- Every year, an estimated 5 million to 13 million tons of plastic end up in the oceans.

China’s wénwan drives a deadly mix-and-match of endangered wildlife
- A wide range of illegal wildlife products, from tiger claws to hornbill casques, are used to make baubles known as wénwan that are prized as status symbols among China’s burgeoning middle class.
- Domestic bans on the trade in elephant ivory and rhino horn have not slowed the growing and underregulated online market for wénwan products, with traders increasingly targeting other species to meet demand for exotic materials.
- Without understanding the dynamics of the wénwan trade, including the cultural aspect, government and NGO efforts to combat the illegal wildlife trade risk remaining ineffective.

Audio: Damian Aspinall on why he’s calling for zoos to be phased out within the next three decades
- On today’s episode, we speak with Damian Aspinall, chairman of the Aspinall Foundation, a UK charity that works to conserve endangered animals and return them to the wild.
- Back in June of this year we welcomed Jim Breheny onto the Mongabay Newscast. Breheny is director of the Bronx Zoo in New York City, and he told me that zoos not only preserve species for the future but support field work to protect species in the wild, as well, and for that reason are vital to wildlife conservation today.
- Aspinall does not agree that zoos are important for conservation of wild species. In fact, he argues that keeping animals in captivity in zoos is cruel, inhumane — and unnecessary. He appears on this episode of the Mongabay Newscast to discuss why he is calling for all zoos around the world to be closed down within the next 30 years, and how he says the work of preserving rare and endangered species could be better accomplished by in situ conservation interventions.

Big cat trade driven by demand for traditional Asian medicine, according to report
- Bones, blood, and other body parts of big cats are made into products such as balms, capsules, gels, and wines that practitioners of traditional Asian medicine believe to be able to cure ailments ranging from arthritis to meningitis, though in fact they’ve been found to have no provable health benefits.
- Even before farmed big cats are killed to feed the demand for traditional Asian medicine, however, they’re treated more like products than living, breathing creatures, according to a report released last month by the London-based NGO World Animal Protection.
- China and South Africa are the world’s biggest breeders of captive cats. China alone is estimated to have between 5,000 and 6,000 tigers in captive breeding facilities, while South African facilities are holding between 6,000 and 8,000 lions and another 300 tigers.

Thousands of sharks and rays are likely entangled in plastic polluting Earth’s oceans
- Scientists at the UK’s University of Exeter examined existing scientific literature and took to Twitter to find documented instances of shark and ray entanglements.
- They ended up finding reports of more than 1,000 entangled animals — and they say the actual number of sharks and rays snarled in plastic is likely to be far higher, as few studies have focused specifically on the issue.
- “Entanglement in marine debris is symptomatic of a degraded marine environment and is a clear animal welfare issue,” the authors write in the study. But they add that entanglement is “likely a far lesser threat” to shark and ray populations than the threat posed by commercial fishing.

Asiatic black bear cubs rescued from illegal wildlife trade in Vietnam
- Vietnamese authorities confiscated the two female bear cubs from wildlife smugglers in Hai Phong province on January 9, according to Vienna, Austria-based animal welfare NGO Four Paws.
- After spending a night in a hotel, the cubs were taken to a Four Paws bear sanctuary in Ninh Binh on January 10, where they are receiving intensive medical care.
- Authorities do not know who was meant to buy the bear cubs or where their ultimate destination was. It’s likely that the bears were imported from Laos, though they could also have come from a bear farm in Vietnam.

Graphic video reveals brutality of pangolin poaching in northeast India
- Hunters in India are helping supply the illegal pangolin trade, and new research that probes their motivations might point to measures that can reduce the poaching and sale of the species known as “the world’s most trafficked mammal.”
- An undercover video shot during the course of the research could prove to be a deterrent in and of itself, as it shows just how vicious and inhumane the pangolin trade can be.
- Interventions to reduce poverty and promote alternative livelihoods are certainly necessary, the researchers write in the study, but they argue that these measures alone would likely be ineffective in reducing pangolin hunting.

How a better understanding of psychopathology in captive primates can aid in conservation efforts
- Maya Kummrow, a doctor of veterinary medicine, writes in a paper recently published in the Journal of Zoo and Wildlife Medicine that non-human primates have been used as models of human psychopathology — the study of mental illness — for decades. But, she notes, “the acquired knowledge has only hesitantly been applied to primates themselves.”
- In the paper, Kummrow states that she is seeking to raise awareness among her fellow veterinarians about the wealth of information on NHP psychopathology that is available in human medicine and anthropology literature and calls for “mental health assessments and professionally structured treatment approaches” in NHP medicine, as well.
- In this Q&A, Mongabay spoke with Kummrow about how her review of the literature on NHP psychopathology and treatment might apply to primate conservation efforts.

Facebook video shows orangutan defending forest against bulldozer
- Dramatic footage released last week by an animal welfare group shows a wild orangutan trying in vain to fight off destruction of its rainforest home in Borneo.
- The video, filmed in 2013 but posted on Facebook on June 5th for World Environment Day by International Animal Rescue (IAR), was shot in Sungai Putri, a tract of forest in Indonesia’s West Kalimantan province.
- Sungai Putri is one of the most important refuges for orangutans left in Indonesian Borneo. According to orangutan expert Erik Meijaard, Sungai Putri may be home to over 1,000 orangutans.

Activists eye bigger roles for local officials, businesses in Indonesia’s orangutan protection plan
- The Indonesian government is drafting another 10-year guideline for orangutan conservation that aims to staunch the decline in the population of the critically endangered great ape.
- This time around, orangutan experts want the federal government to lay out clearer guidelines for conservation roles to be played by local authorities and companies working in orangutan habitats.
- Local authorities and companies are seen as key to protecting the animals’ increasingly fragmented habitat, but tend to favor short-term development and business plans that don’t serve long-term conservation goals.

Sudden death of juvenile zoo elephant raises anew issues of life in captivity
- Warren, a young male elephant, died recently during a dental procedure at Omaha’s Henry Doorly Zoo.
- Warren was one of 18 wild elephants captured from Swaziland 18 months ago and brought to three U.S. zoos in a controversial move.
- Shortly after Warren’s arrival in March 2016, he lost a piece of one of his tusks. He died during one of the subsequent procedures aiming to fix it.

China sends first pandas to Indonesia under captive-breeding agreement
- Two giant pandas from China arrived in Indonesia on a mission to increase the species’ population.
- The couple, a male and a female, will live in a special enclosure at a zoo outside Jakarta for the next decade.
- Zoo officials are open to trying every possible breeding technique to help the bears reproduce.

Apply Animal Welfare Act rules to recreational hunting, says advocacy group
- The Animal Legal Defense Fund (ALDF) says captive hunt ranches are operating in a legal loophole, and need a stricter standard over treatment of their animals.
- Ranches should abide by the Animal Welfare Act (AWA), the organization’s senior staff attorney, Anthony Eliseuson, argues in a letter to the USDA’s animal care unit.
- Ranchers keep certain breeds of animals and allow them to be culled via hunting for a price.

TripAdvisor bans ticket sales to wild animal attractions
- Travel website TripAdvisor, and its booking service Viator, will no longer sell tickets to tourism experiences that allow petting or touching of wild animals, the company announced on October 12.
- In addition to the booking ban, TripAdvisor also plans to develop and launch an education portal that will provide links and information on animal welfare practices involved at the various attractions.
- TripAdvisor’s new policy comes after more than a year of campaigning by animal welfare groups, which claim that the internet giant has been profiting from selling tickets to attractions that involve wildlife abuse and cruelty.

World’s most expensive coffee often produced from caged, abused civets, study finds
- Kopi luwak or civet coffee is made from partially digested coffee beans excreted by a shy, forest-dwelling, cat-like animal called the common palm civet.
- The rising popularity of kopi luwak has meant that civets are increasingly being removed from the wild and held in captivity on kopi luwak plantations to mass produce civet coffee.
- Caged civets on these plantations, however, tend to live in very poor conditions that fail to meet the basic animal welfare requirements, according to a new study.

‘Status symbols’: Japan emerging as major hub for illegal trade in slow lorises due to their popularity as pets
- A new study has found that slow lorises were being openly traded in pet shops, fairs and on the Internet in Japan, illegally and at exuberant prices.
- The team’s investigation into Japan’s slow loris pet trade seems to have prompted the Japanese government into taking some action.
- A second study found that all slow lorises that feature in YouTube or other online videos are either unhealthy or abused.

The week in environmental news – Feb 26, 2016
- A report sponsored by the U.N. pulled from approximately 3,000 scientific papers and revealed that 40 percent of invertebrate pollinator species are facing extinction.
- The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) is working toward improving the treatment of the animals that are caught and sold around the globe.
- In order to protect biodiversity from salt pollution of freshwater, scientists are calling for a global change in the way we regulate the salinity of freshwater sources.

Click to like this: Is Instagram a hub for illegal ape deals?
- A search on the photo-sharing site Instagram reveals a booming population of baby chimpanzees and orangutans in wealthy Arab Gulf nations.
- Sellers offer endangered apes for sale on the site, apparently in violation of international law.
- At press time, Instagram and its parent company Facebook had not responded to requests for comment on the discovery of this apparent market for endangered animals. Past crackdowns by online retailers eBay and Amazon appear to have effectively shut down illegal wildlife trade on those sites.

Crab fishermen train as first responders for entangled whales
- Whales regularly get caught by fishing gear or marine debris, which can wound or kill them. So far this year, 46 entangled whales have been reported off California shores, four times the annual average for the entire continental west coast between 2000 and 2012.
- On the U.S. west coast, crab gear was involved in nearly half of the whale entanglements reported during the past decade.
- This October, around 100 San Francisco-area crab fishermen learned how to identify, report, and monitor whales trapped by fishing gear. The training is part of a larger effort to better understand how and where whales become entangled and what can be done to minimize the harm to these animals.

South African ranchers propose controversial plan to save our rhinos
- The IUCN has reported that there is a “high probability” that the polar bear population will suffer a 30% decrease by 2050.
- Officials have stated that genetically modified salmon would not have to be labeled as such.
- On Tuesday, the Senate voted to block President Obama’s climate change regulations.

It looks like we may be headed for a more ‘pro-animal’ future
- After more than six years of review, President Obama announced on Friday that his administration has rejected the Keystone XL pipeline.
- Experts say the Exxon Mobil investigation may spur legal inquiries into other oil companies.
- Through a new collection of studies, scientists have examined extreme weather events looking for signs of climate change.

Mauritius to kill 18,000 threatened native bats in ‘disgraceful’ cull
- The Mauritian government hopes that fewer bats on the island will help reduce damages to mango and litchi fruits in orchards, and boost revenue for fruit farmers.
- Conservationists say this decision to cull is not backed by scientific evidence, may drive the species to Endangered status, and is “unacceptable.”
- Culling bats when they are pregnant or suckling babies is also unethical and inhumane, conservationists say.

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