On land and at sea, large animals are in 'double jeopardy'

Date: June 9, 2016

Source: Cell Press

Large animals hunted for their parts -- such as elephant ivory and shark fins--are in double jeopardy of extinction due to their large body size and high value, according to a new analysis reported in the Cell Press journal Current Biologyon June 9. The study reveals underappreciated risk to marine species similar to that of iconic terrestrial species, but elevated by key differences in the sea.

"We typically assume that if a species is reduced to low numbers, individuals will be hard to find, hunters will stop hunting, and populations will be given a chance to recover," says Loren McClenachan of Colby College in Waterville, Maine. "But the extreme values of these species mean that without significant conservation intervention, they will be hunted to extinction."

In the new study, McClenachan, along with Andrew Cooper and Nicholas Dulvy of Simon Fraser University in Canada, identified a taxonomically diverse group of more than 100 large marine and terrestrial species that are targeted for international luxury markets. They estimated the value of these species across three points of sale and explored the relationships among extinction risk, value, and body size. They also quantified the effects of two mitigating factors: poaching fines and geographic range size.

The analysis showed a threshold above which economic value is the key driver of extinction risk. Although lower-value species are influenced primarily by their biology, the most valuable species are at high risk of extinction no matter their size. Once mean product values are greater than US$12,557 per kilogram, body size no longer drives risk, the report shows.

The researchers also uncovered important differences between marine and terrestrial species that point to elevated risk in the sea: although marine products are generally less valuable on a per kilogram basis, individual animals are still just as valuable as the most valuable terrestrial species. An individual whale shark, for example, is about as valuable as the most valuable terrestrial species: rhinoceroses and tigers.

"Hunters don't kill kilograms, they kill individuals, so we need to pay attention to these high values of individual animals," McClenachan says.

The risk to marine species isn't reduced for species with larger ranges as it is on land, either.

Read on … 

Young bear killed in California may have been mutilated for its body parts

Black bear ‘yearling’ was mutilated by the side of the road in California, possibly for his paws and gall bladder, which could sell for upwards of a thousand dollars

Nicky Woolf in San Francisco

Friday 3 June 201620.04 BSTLast modified on Friday 3 June 201621.55 BST

A young bear killed by a vehicle on a California road this week was found by highway maintenance workers to have been mutilated, possibly so that parts of it could be sold on the black market, according to officials.

The bear had injuries consistent with being hit by a car in the early hours of Thursday morning, not shot or poisoned, according to Andrew Hughan, an information officer for the California department of fish and wildlife, who said the black bear, the only species in California, was a “yearling” at two years old and 150 pounds – “something like a teenager”.

However, Hughan said that when the game warden arrived on the scene to retrieve the carcass he discovered that “the paws had been cut off and the gall bladder had been removed, which is pretty disheartening”.

The gall bladders of bears especially can sell for upwards of a thousand dollars on the black market, Hughan said, as many “in the Asian community” think it has medical or aphrodisiac powers, while the paws are often cooked and eaten.

In East Asia, bears are often kept in captivity and farmed for their gall bladders and bile inside, often in battery-farm conditions. It has been estimated that as many as 12,000 bears are farmed this way across the region, despite there being no medically recognised effects of the bile whatsoever.

Continued … 

Vietnamese man arrested in Russia with body of Siberian tiger

Posted on May 16, 2015 by Leya Musa

Russian police have raided premises in Moscow and arrested a Vietnamese citizen with the head and skin of a critically endangered Siberian tiger.

Following a search of the property they also found 59 big cat teeth and four bones. They are currently awaiting expert identification on these body parts to determine if they came from a tiger or from the critically endangered amur leopard.

If suspicions that the teeth have come from an amur leopard this would be devastating for conservation plans as less than 50 are thought to remain in the wild.

Vietnam is a major consumer country that is leading to large losses of wildlife across the world.

CITES 2016 should not be a time for discussion of a legal rhino horn trade but for the CITES community to pull together and issue an immediate trade ban against Vietnam until it is able to control the demand of illegal wildlife products and body parts of endangered wildlife in it’s borders.

Source

Chinese delegate to elephant conference asks about buying trunk and penis

Posted on April 27, 2015 by Kevin Heath

As we start to build up profiles of organisations and people involved in the Tanzania ivory storage project that is being funded by the UK taxpayer I came across an interesting story about a happening at the Kisane Elephant Summit in Botswana last month concerning the Chinese delegation.

One of the trustees of Stop Ivory, a UK charity behind the Elephant Protection Initiative, is Dr Ali Kaka, as well as being a trustee of the Stop Ivory charity he is also Regional Director for Eastern and Southern Africa at the IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature).

Apart from his trustee status and position at the IUCN Dr Kaka is also a member of hunting organisation CIC International Council for Game and Wildlife Conservation, he’s also an editor of their newsletter and an important lobbyist for hunting. The IUCN and CIC works closely together in partnerships to promote the role of hunting as part of conservation and sustainability.

In his role as a member and lobbyist for the CIC he was instrumental in reversing the hunting ban that was introduced by Zambia as an emergency measure to protect its wildlife.

There is still lots to do in forming the network of contacts and we wait for supplier and contractor details on the ivory stockpile project.

Meanwhile onto the story that grabbed my attention.

Dr Kara attended the Kinsane conference as the official representative of CIC. The CIC was the only hunting organisation invited to attend the elephant conference probably because of its close ties with the IUCN. Dr Kara wrote up an article about the meeting for the African Indaba newsletter.

Read on ...

Manta parts worth $615 million to Indonesian tourism industry intercepted

Leya Musa / 3 mins ago

The Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries of the Republic of Indonesia and the WCS (Wildlife Conservation Society’s) Wildlife Crimes Unit have made their largest seizure of manta ray gills and arrested one person. The 103kg of gill plates represented 85 manta rays and each was worth $7.8 million to the Indonesian dive industry over its lifetime.

The raid took place on 7th November when officials, working on part of a larger investigation, at a house near to the Pengambengan Negara fisheries landing area in Bali.

The latest raid follows on from follows three arrests earlier this month and in October involving illegal trade of manta ray meat and gill plates, sawfish snouts, and sea turtle meat.

While the financial loss of the 85 rays to the fisheries industry has been put at $20,000 by the Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries it is the loss to the tourism industry that really shows the devastation that poachers and illegal fisheries are having on the country.

The 103 kg of gill plates is thought to have come from about 85 individual manta rays. Each manta ray would normally live for 40 years in the wild and are a major tourist draw bringing in divers from across the world to swim with these amazing fish.

Continued ...

Deadly poison threat to tigers

By David Shukman, Science editor, BBC News

Poison is emerging as the latest and most dangerous threat to the survival of the last remaining wild tigers in Thailand.

Poachers targeting tigers for their valuable skins and body parts are turning to insecticide as an easy way to kill the iconic animals.

In what's regarded as Thailand's most important tiger sanctuary, wildlife rangers report mounting evidence of gangs setting traps with fresh meat, laced with poison, as bait.

In one particularly shocking incident, two tiger cubs were found close to death after eating the bait. By the time they had been discovered, it was too late to save them.

Rangers described the frustration of finding the cubs and seeing them in extreme pain but too far gone to be revived.

The two tiny animals had crawled into the bush to die so the poachers had failed to notice them. But they had evidently located the cubs' mother and made off with her body because no trace was seen of her.

 “If we relax our patrols even a little bit, we would lose many tigers to poachers”  Anak Pattanavibool, Wildlife Conservation Society in Thailand

The poachers had shot and butchered an elephant to create a supply of fresh meat for their trap. Before the tigers found it, some of the bait had been eaten by wild dogs, civet cats and even a monitor lizard - and all had died.

Continued:  http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-21618346

Parts of 1400 tigers seized in Asia in 13 years including 123 live tigers

New study reveals scale of persistent illegal Tiger trade

March 2013. Parts of more than 1400 Tigers have been seized across Asia in the past 13 years, according to TRAFFIC's latest analysis of confiscations, which includes new data for 2010-2012.  Reduced to Skin and Bones Revisited finds that parts of at least 1425 Tigers had been seized across all but one of the 13 Tiger range countries between 2000 and 2012. For Cambodia alone, no seizures were recorded at all during the period. Although it is not yet possible to show a definite trend, the analysis provides clear evidence that illegal trade in Tigers, their parts and products, persists as a major conservation concern, says TRAFFIC.

654 seizures
A total of 654 seizures of Tiger parts ranging from skin to bones, to teeth, claws and skulls took place during this period, an average of 110 Tigers killed for trade per year or just over two per week. 89% of seizures occur outside protected areas, emphasizing the importance of anti-trafficking actions to disrupt trade chains and prevent incursions into Tiger habitat. The benefits of such analysis to enhance law enforcement efforts to protect Tigers are obvious.

"If more robust information was routinely collected, analysed and shared between countries, real inroads could be made into targeting the smuggling syndicates behind Tiger trafficking," said Natalia Pervushina, Tiger Trade Programme Leader for TRAFFIC and WWF.

The report, a joint effort by TRAFFIC and the WWF Tigers Alive Initiative, was launched at the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) meeting currently underway in Bangkok, Thailand. Later this week governments will debate efforts underway to protect Tigers and other Asian big cats.

Photo courtesy of WWF.

Live tiger seizures
Perhaps the most significant findings in the updated analysis was increased recording of seizures involving live Tigers - 61 individuals were seized in the three-year period since the last full CITES meeting took place in 2010, representing 50% of overall numbers (123) recorded since 2000. Thailand was the most significant location for interdiction of live Tiger trade (30 Tigers), followed by Lao PDR (11) and Indonesia (9) and Viet Nam (4).

"Given the low population estimates for wild tigers in Thailand, Lao PDR and Viet Nam, combined with the presence of captive Tiger facilities within these three countries, questions have to be raised with respect to the source of these live Tigers in trade," said Nick Cox, Species Programme Manager for WWF-Greater Mekong.

Continued:  http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/tigers-seized.html

China defends record on tiger protection

China defended its record on protecting endangered species Tuesday after an environmental group accused it of allowing the sale of captive-bred tiger skins and body parts.

The London-based NGO The Environmental Investigation Agency said in a report Tuesday that China had a legalised domestic trade in captive-bred tiger products which stimulated the poaching of wild cats.

In Beijing a foreign ministry spokeswoman insisted China had enacted laws and taken other steps to protect endangered species.

"The Chinese government attaches great importance to the protection of endangered wildlife, including tigers," Hua Chunying told a news conference.

The Ministry of Public Security, which is responsible for law enforcement, was not immediately available to comment on the report.

The EIA presented evidence that suggests traders are using "secret" government notifications to legitimise the manufacture of "tonic" wines made using captive-bred tiger bones, contravening a 1993 Chinese State Council order.

China is a signatory to the UN Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) which forbids international commercial trade in tiger parts and derivatives.

Continued:  http://uk.news.yahoo.com/china-defends-record-tiger-protection-104628226.html