1. South Africa: Kruger Croc Deaths to Be Investigated

SANParks is spearheading a new multi- disciplinary team of scientists to get to the bottom of the deaths of hundreds of crocodiles in the Kruger National Park's Olifants River this year. The deaths were a symptom of a "serious and growing env

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2. Dumped rubbish killing elephants in Botswana

ELEPHANTS and other animals are dying as they feed off rubbish dumped by humans encroaching on their land. Four elephants died recently after feeding at a landfill site built in Botswana's second biggest national park. The elephants are among

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3. Botswana wildlife threatened by human encroachment

GABORONE — Elephants and other animals in one of Africa's richest wildlife spots in Chobe, Botswana are dying as they feed off rubbish dumped by growing human populations encroaching on their land. Four elephants died recently after feeding

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4. Africa in biggest ever crackdown on wildlife crime

A tonne of ivory items and 57 suspects were netted in a four-month operation billed Africa's largest-ever crackdown on wildlife crime, the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) said Monday. The crackdown -- code-named Operation Baba -- also seized cheeta

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5. Guerillas threaten gorillas in Africa's oldest national park

GOMA - The new conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo has forced dozens of rangers to flee Africa's oldest national park, leaving hundreds of threatened mountain gorillas at the mercy of rebel fighters and poachers. Wildlife officers escap

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6. Gorilla warfare: Apes Face Doom as Guards flee Congo

TWO hundred rare silverback mountain gorillas are facing slaughter in the Congo after rangers protecting them fled the civil war. The endangered great apes — one of man’s closest relatives — live in the Virunga National Park.

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7. SA wildlife paradise "endangered"

A British company wants to mine coal in the heart of one of South Africa' most ecologically sensitive natural environments, the Wakkerstroom-Luneburg area of Mpumalanga province, environmentalists warn today. Conservationists said they believe the

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8. S. Africa May Cull Elephants in 2009 for First Time Since 1994

South Africa may start its first elephant culls since 1994 next year to protect other species harmed by their destruction of habitats. South Africa's elephant population has swelled to 17,000 from 200 in 1900 when hunting had slashed their numbers

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9. Cheetah Conservation Fund Reveives $50,000 From Tech Museum of Innovation

Dr. Laurie Marker, founder and Executive Director of the Cheetah Conservation Fund (CCF), was awarded $50,000 by the Tech Museum of Innovation at the Tech Awards gala, held Nov. 12. The award recognized CCF’s Bushblok program, which uses a hi

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10. Malawi welcomes African baboons, monkeys from Israel

Lilongwe - Malawi, through conservationists from the Lilongwe Wildlife Centre, has welcomed eight olive baboons and a velvet monkey from Tel Aviv in Israel, APA learnt here Thursday. Lilongwe Wildlife Centre Managing Director Lee Stewart told jour

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11. No refuge for Congo's gorillas

Virunga National Park in eastern Congo is home to 200 or more endangered mountain gorillas. But this lush parkland has become a battlefield as armed rebels loyal to Tutsi general Laurent Nkunda took over park headquarters last month, sending more tha

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12. Namibia: Govt Gets Tough On Control of Wildlife Products

A NEW draft law introduced in Parliament yesterday on controlled trade of wildlife products such as ivory and rhino horn will impose hefty fines of up to N$200 000 or 20 years imprisonment. Environment and Tourism Minister Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah s

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13. South Africa: Garden Route Activities Threaten Knysna Seahorse

INCREASING developments in South Africa's Garden Route area are having a detrimental effect on the Knysna Seahorse (Hippocampus capensis). Human activities that threaten the Knysna Seahorse are farming, property development and excavation in the e

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14. Somalia: Coastal Villagers Report of Helicopters Hunting Wildlife

Coastal villagers in Somalia are increasingly reporting incidents whereby naval forces from unknown foreign countries are actively hunting wildlife in the war-torn Horn of Africa country. A traditional elder from a village in Mudug region, central

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15. Ivory trade thriving in China but signs of decline: watchdog

The illegal trade in elephant tusks is thriving in Chinese markets and upscale hotels although there are signs the problem could be on the decline, an environmental group said Wednesday. Ivory continues to be smuggled into China despite a ban on i

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16. Ethiopia: Race to save world's rarest wolf

Scientists in the remote Bale mountains of southern Ethiopia are in a race against time to save the world's rarest wolf. Rabies passed from domestic dogs is threatening to kill up to two-thirds of all Ethiopian wolves. Scientists from the UK

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17. Uganda: Queen Elizabeth Park Lions Face Extinction

A LION is supposed to be a strong, fierce animal that defends its den and protects the cubs from any danger. But, this seems not to be the case at Hakabale in Queen Elizabeth National Park. Two weeks ago, a lioness was found lying motionless insid

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18. Tanzania: Local Trust Wins 'Equator Prize 2008'

The Equator Initiative, a United Nations-led partnership that supports grassroots efforts in biodiversity conservation and poverty alleviation, has selected 25 winners of the Equator Prize 2008. Chosen from 310 nominations, the winners made innova

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19. Tanzania: Activists Point Out Weaknesses of Wildlife Bill

The Director of Pastoralists Indigenous Non Governmental Organizations Forum (PINGO's Forum), Edward Porokwa has said the proposed wildlife legislation (Wildlife Bill 2008) had serious weaknesses. Addressing wildlife conservation activists in Dar

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20. South Africa: The Elephant in the Room

South African National Parks (SANParks) controversially auctioned off 47 metric tonnes (mt) of stockpiled ivory on 6 November, earning the government conservation agency US$6.7 million. The auction concluded a "once-off" sale of ivory ap

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21. GHANA: Locals hail EU pact to end illegal logging

ACCRA - A long queue of trucks loaded with timber, freshly sawed from Ghana's fast-depleting forests, lines up at Accra's Tema Harbour to offload to ships bound for Europe. No one at the port in the Ghanaian capital knows if the timber delivered

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22. Zim barters 3.5 tonnes of ivory for guns

HARARE - The 3.5 tonnes of ivory sold for over US$450,000 by the bankrupt Zimbabwe regime of Robert Mugabe to Chinese buyers in Harare on Monday is thought to have been part payment for military hardware set to be flown into the Zimbabwean capital so

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23. South Africa: Smoothound Sharks to be Tagged in Langebaan Lagoon

As part of efforts to research the population of smoothhound sharks in the Langebaan Lagoon, the Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism (DEAT) is hosting a tagging derby on Saturday. According to the department, their marine and coastal m

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24. South Africa Auctions Ivory, Wildlife Group Protests

JOHANNESBURG - South Africa on Thursday sold 47 tonnes of elephant ivory for $6.7 million, under the first series of UN-approved auctions in almost a decade. The International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) criticised the sales as irresponsible,

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25. Mozambique: Conservation of Turtles Should Be Everybody's Task

Organizations dedicated to the conservation of turtles in Mozambique are challenging all strata of society to adopt an attitude to protect and preserve these reptiles. The challenge was launched in Maputo on Thursday by the Task Group for the Sea

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26. Sierra Leone: Ecotourism a Gateway to Sierra Leone Tourism

Executive director of the conservation society of Sierra Leone yesterday told a symposium marking the celebration of world tourism day at the national stadium in Freetown that ecotourism and conservation could improve tourism in the country. Danie

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27. Nigeria: Nigeria, Niger Seek Support for Integrated Ecosystem Management

Nigeria and Niger Republic yesterday, agreed to, as a matter of urgent importance, source for funds and technical support for the accelerated implementation of an integrated ecosystem management (IEM) to sustain trans-boundary environmental projects

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28. Leakey speaks about ivory auctions and their disservice to conservation

I am deeply concerned about the ongoing one-off ivory auction that started on 28 October in Namibia and ended on Wednesday, 6 November 2008 in South Africa. I have spent many years looking at issues of elephant conservation and ivory trade and p

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29. CITES ivory sale will increase poaching and illegal trade

Renowned Kenyan conservationist, Dr Richard Leakey, founding Chairman or WildlifeDirect, denounces the ongoing CITES-sanctioned one-off auctions of ivory stockpiles. He says the auction will open up the market for illegal ivory and result in poach

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30. Ivory auction won't prevent poaching

The sale of 51 tons of stockpiled ivory would not make a dent in combating ivory poaching or elephant conservation, the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) said on Wednesday. Speaking ahead of Thursday's auction to be held in Pretoria, IF

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31. Rwanda: 40 million trees to be planted in National Tree Week

Over 40 million trees are projected to be planted during the forthcoming National Tree Week -- slated for mid November. This was disclosed during a conference on forest conservation and protection of the Ecosystem in the Great Lakes Region, which

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32. Landmark Foundation: Leopards no 27 and 28 are dead!

The Baviaanskloof Mega Reserve is proudly displayed as an icon on the conservation landscape in which three global biodiversity hotspots of conservation landscape priorities converge, and 6 of Southern Africa’s 7 biomes are represented. Such st

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33. Okavango Buffalo Research: Quarterly Report, October 2008

Over the last three months, I have continued to collect data for my project. The four collars that are on buffalo herds have been functioning well, sending me information regularly. The GPS systems have been timing out (failing to obtain a fix) an

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34. Botswana: Country Sells 43.3 Tonnes of Ivory

Botswana sold 43.3 tonnes of its ivory stockpile to Chinese and Japanese bidders last Friday, Business Today is informed. The desk officer of Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) in the Ministry of Environment, Wildlife

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35. South Africa: Rabbit Culling to Start on Thursday

The Robben Island rabbit cull could start in earnest on Thursday evening. This is when the first full capture attempt is likely to be made, after trial runs to see how the rabbits react to baited traps. This was explained on Tuesday by Shaun Da

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36. Cameroon Court Jails Elephant Poacher For 5 Years

YAOUNDE - A Cameroon court sentenced a poacher to five years in jail and a hefty fine for killing eight elephants, a government official said on Tuesday. After a tip-off from villagers, a 23-strong search party of paramilitary gendarmes, governm

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37. Botswana: Ministry to Reveal Ivory Sale Secrets Today

The Ministry of Wildlife, Environment and Tourism has said it will release details of what transpired at the one-off auction of 44 tonnes of ivory stockpile at the prestigious Phakalane Golf Estate Resort today. "It was a long process that to

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38. Namibia: Leopard Hunt Condemned in SA

THE killing of what was probably the biggest leopard in Namibia in September has also been condemned in South Africa. Reports say e-mails have been circulating in South Africa, condemning the killing of the leopard. Giel de Kock, a former game

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39. International sale of elephant ivory begins in southern Africa, amid controversy

Cape Town - An elephant ivory auction totaling over 19,800 lb (9,000 kg) will begin tomorrow in Namibia. This is the first time in nearly 10 years that international trade in elephant ivory has been sanctioned by the UN-backed Convention on Interna

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40. Tanzania: Giant bat thought extinct makes comeback

A GIANT bat with a wingspan up to 5.5 feet has made a comeback from the brink of extinction in Tanzania in a rare conservation success, an environmental group said yesterday. Numbers of the Pemba flying fox, a type of fruit bat, have risen to 22,

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41. Zimbabwe auctions four tonnes of ivory to China, Japan

HARARE (AFP) – Zimbabwe on Monday sold nearly four tonnes of ivory for almost half a million dollars, the third in a set of four auctions approved under an international agreement, an animal welfare body said. The auction, open only to buyer

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42. Zimbabwe holds CITES-approved ivory auction

APA-Harare (Zimbabwe) Zimbabwe auctioned four tonnes of ivory on Monday as part of a specially approved Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) auction authorising the elephant products’ sales in four southern African co

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43. Cameroon: Notorious Elephant Hunter Gets 5-Year Term

A notorious hunter, Job Akah, 33, was recently sentenced to a five-year jail term after he pleaded guilty of poaching eight elephants around the Korup National Park.The Mundemba Magistrate Court that sentenced him, asked him to pay a fine of FCFA 3.8

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44. Rwanda: Secondary students in conservation campaign

MUSANZE — Students from five secondary schools neighbouring the Volcano National Park have called upon residents to conserve the environment. They made the appeal this week during competitions staged to raise conservation awareness. The c

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45. LEWA: Ian Craig Appointed to the Board of the Kenya Wildlife Service

Ian On September 15, 2008, Lewa's founder and Strategic Director, Ian Craig, was appointed to the board of the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) by the Ministry for Forestry and Wildlife. The Kenya Wildlife Service is the government agency charged with

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46. Dolphin Care: letter of request to regulate marine mammal activities in Mocambique

As a concerned operator, educator and researcher we feel it necessary to bring to your attention the level of harmful, human interactions and unsustainable marine mammal tourism taking place in the southern most reachers of Moçambique. The a

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47. Botswana: Ministry to Reveal Ivory Sale Secrets Today

The Ministry of Wildlife, Environment and Tourism has said it will release details of what transpired at the one-off auction of 44 tonnes of ivory stockpile at the prestigious Phakalane Golf Estate Resort today. "It was a long process that to

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48. ZCTF Report: Tatenda meets Shanu

In our September report, we mentioned that Tatenda was soon to be released into the main Imire Game Park where he was going to be introduced to Shanu, the 4 year old female rhino. We are delighted to report now that the meeting was successful. Tatend

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49. Jane Goodall branches out

Jane Goodall's research has changed the definition of what it means to be a human. When she went to what is now Tanzania in 1960 to study the chimpanzees of Gombe, humans were thought to be the only animals capable of making and using tools. Goodall

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50. SanWild: Help Saving Starving Animals

Earlier this year we sent out an urgent appeal asking you for your help to save SanWild’s animals from starvation. To read the full appeal kindly please visit our main website at www.sanwild.org Go to the How you can Help page to find Special

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