Updated October 4, 2008
An interview with sun bear expert Siew Te Wong: habitat destruction, logging, wildlife trade drive sun bears toward extinction
MALAYSIA, Sep 25, 2008 (Mongabay.com) - Industrial logging, large-scale forest conversion for oil palm plantations, and the illegal wildlife trade have left sun bears the rarest species of bear on the planet. Recognizing their dire status, Siew Te Wong, a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Montana, is working in Malaysia to save the species from extinction. Known as "Sun Bear Man" in some circles, Siew Te Wong is setting up the Bornean Sun Bear Conservation Centre (BSBCC) in Sabah, a Malaysian state on the island of Borneo. The project aims to save sun bears, which have largely overlooked by conservationists, through research, education, rehabilitation, and habitat conservation.
Pangolin smuggling on the rise
KUALA LUMPUR, Sep 20, 2008, (New Strait Times) - Malaysia and Indonesia are hotspots in the illegal wildlife trade in pangolin, with China as the end market. According to conservation group Traffic Southeast Asia, pangolins make up the largest number of mammals found in confiscated illegal wildlife cargoes in the region. The pangolin species that is traded the most is believed to be the Malayan Pangolin (Manis javanica). It is sourced from Malaysia and Indonesia, as their populations elsewhere, including in Thailand, Myanmar and China, have been decimated.
Double trouble for Nepal’s tigers
NEPAL, Sep 15, 2008 (BBC News) - Conservationists in Nepal say efforts to save the nation's dwindling tiger populations are facing a twin attack. They have recorded a significant decrease in the number of the endangered species in some of the protected areas of the country. The bad news comes just as concern is growing over the immigration of traditional hunting and poaching communities from neighbouring India.
Photos reveal Myanmar’s large and small predators
MYANMAR, Sep 14, 2008 (Science Daily
Using remote camera traps to lift the veil on Myanmar's dense northern wild lands, researchers from the Wildlife Conservation Society have painstakingly gathered a bank of valuable data on the country's populations of tigers and other smaller, lesser known carnivores (see photo attachments). These findings will help in the formulation of conservation strategies for the country's wildlife.
A first, cyber threat to wildlife
NEW DELHI, Sep 8,2008 (NDTF) - International Fund for Animal Welfare has begun a new hunt to detect the extent of illegal wildlife trade that may exist on the Internet. What the world wide web throws up in just a week is shocking - Over 9,000 live wild animals, stuffed specimen and animal products, illegally up for sale. Thousands of rare animals are being killed for artifacts, rare collections, jewellery and medicines. And so many live animals are being sold outside their natural habitat. The trade in illegal wildlife has become the third largest black market surpassed only by drugs and arms.
After Tigers, Poachers Now Target Leopards
NEW DELHI, India, Sep 7, 2008 (Times of India) - With increased vigilance on the illegal trade of tiger parts, the poaching mafia has shifted its focus on leopards, whose bones fetch the same price as that of tigers in the international market, and are easier to kill because of their "peculiar habitat". "Tiger bones are used in traditional Chinese medicines as an aphrodisiac but increased vigilance of enforcement agencies on this trade has dwindled its supply. Although tiger parts fetch 20 times higher price than that of leopard but their bones are considered on par," Program Manager of Wildlife Protection Society of India (WPSI) Tito Joseph said. According to WPSI, about 124 leopards were killed by poachers last year but till August this year, more than 112 leopards have already been slaughtered across the country.
Nigeria, Cameroon Cooperate to Save Most Endangered Ape
NEW YORK, New York, Sep 5, 2008 (ENS) - With just 300 individuals left in the wild, Cross River gorillas have found new conservation support from the governments of Cameroon and Nigeria, the only two countries where these great apes live. Representatives from the two nations agreed last week to improve trans-boundary cooperation to protect the critically endangered species, as well as other endangered wildlife.
Foreign Poachers Cost Philippines Another 100 Turtles
Philippines, Sep 4, 2008 (WWF) - Foreign poaching of Philippine marine life has flared up as an issue again following the discovery of more than 100 dead Hawksbill turtles aboard a Vietnamese fishing vessel apprehended near Malampaya. The fishing boat’s 13-man crew flooded their vessel as a Filipino gunboat approached them near the country’s main gas field, around 80km off the coast of Palawan Island in the South China Sea. A total of 101 Hawksbill turtles were found drowned in the vessel’s cargo hold. The Hawksbill turtle is protected under Appendix I of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), which prohibits all international trade. It is also now classified by the IUCN as Critically Endangered, the highest risk rating for a living animal. Under Philippine and international law it is illegal to capture and kill sea turtles and to trade in turtle by-products.