Tag Archives: animal

Tafi Atome, Ghana | AFP | The villagers of Tafi Atome, in Ghana’s Volta Region, grew up listening to tales of their spiritual links to the 1,000 or so mona monkeys that inhabit the surrounding lush forest. But they have also turned that reverence into revenue, by making the cheeky primates …

Gaborone, Botswana | AFP | Nine elephants were electrocuted in a freak accident in Botswana after one of them knocked into an electricity pole and the high-voltage power line fell on them, a local official said Tuesday. The herd is believed to have broken out of the northeastern Makgadikgadi Pans Game …

Montreal, Canada | AFP | Half of the vertebrate populations in Canada are in staggering decline, despite the country’s vast outback, according to a WWF report Thursday that highlighted threats to beluga whales and caribou. The World Wildlife Fund in its Living Planet Report pointed to 451 shrinking animal populations out …

Johannesburg, South Africa | AFP | South Africa’s first online auction of rhino horn — held his week amid outrage from conservationists — attracted fewer buyers than anticipated, lawyers for the organiser said Saturday. John Hume, owner of the world’s largest rhino farm, organised the controversial three-day selloff which ended on …

Lusaka, Zambia | AFP | Zambian authorities on Sunday said they had arrested three Chinese nationals and two locals found carrying pieces of rhino horn at the border with Mozambique. Parks and wildlife ministry spokesman Sakabilo Kalembwe said the five were arrested at the Chanida border post. They were held …

Abidjan, Ivory Coast | AFP |  Authorities in Ivory Coast have seized a record haul of three tonnes of pangolin scales worth an estimated $82,000, in what officials on Thursday called a “massacre”. Eight men of various African nationalities were apprehended overnight on Tuesday as they prepared to sell their …

Quito, Ecuador | AFP | Poachers in Ecuador have long known the hefty prices their country’s rare frogs can fetch. But now environmentally conscious firms are starting to sell the amphibians too — to try to save them from the black market and threatened extinction. In San Rafael, just outside the …

Gaborone, Botswana | AFP |  Botswana’s government has moved to crack down on the multi-billion dollar trade in donkey skins following a spate of killings of the animals across the country fuelled by soaring demand from China. Export licences for donkeys and their products have been suspended indefinitely, the Ministry …

Yulin, China | AFP |  A notorious Chinese dog meat festival opened on Wednesday with butchers hacking slabs of canines and cooks frying the flesh despite rumours that authorities would impose a ban this year. After initial reports that authorities would prohibit the meat at the summer solstice event in …

New Delhi, India | AFP |  A southern Indian state announced Sunday it would go to the supreme court to challenge a federal ban on the sale of cows for slaughter, stepping up a showdown with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Cows are considered sacred by Hindus and the Hindu nationalist …