IFaw // Current

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

(Cape Town, South Africa) - An elephant ivory auction totaling over 19,800 lb (9,000 kg) will begin tomorrow in Namibia. This is... more

julesrs007
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1 month ago

Want a Chimp? Endangered Animals for Sale Online

Maybe there really isn't anything that you can't buy online.

Endangered animals, including chimps, marmosets and leopard cubs, are being bought and sold online, according to a new report.

Over six one-week observation periods earlier this year, the International Fund for Animal Welfare found more than 1,400 live, exotic animals being traded online. IFAW data released to Wired.com revealed that most of the advertisements were for birds, but in the United States alone, 13 primates, five big cats and two rhinos were offered.

Barbara Cartwright, who heads up the IFAW's efforts to restrict wildlife trade on the internet, said her organization believes that many online advertisements lead to offline transactions beyond the reach of their tracking.

"If I put up an ad for a chimpanzee, you call me, and then we can talk about what I really have," Cartwright said, describing a possible offline networking scenario between illegal animal traders.

While many animals are legal to trade, endangered species are not. The IFAW's Killing with Keystrokes report found that the internet's global reach has enabled buyers and sellers of rare species — and the products derived from them — to find each other more easily. As is often the case, regulators have been a step behind the marketplace in their efforts to stop illegal activities.

Last night, ahead of the release of the report, eBay instituted a complete ban on the sale of elephant ivory through the auction service. EBay did not cite the report in announcing the ban and did not return solicitations for comment. Nonetheless, the IFAW hailed the action as a victory.

Stamping out the live animal trade could prove more difficult, however, as the number and nature of websites involved in the trade is different. Whereas most of the ivory trade could be directly traced to eBay, live animal trafficking takes place across dozens of American, British and Russian websites, largely forums and classified ad sites.

While the United States had the largest number (1,034) of live animal advertisements, Russia had the most varied list of species including two types of tigers, a crocodile, an ocelot and a bonobo.

Cartwright said that extensive efforts were undertaken to ensure the animals advertised in the IFAW were not hoaxes or scams, but represented an actual animal being sold.

Image: flickr/Lukas Vermeer
http://flickr.com/photos/lukasvermeer/2722311546/sizes/l/Maybe there really isn't anything that you can't buy online. Endangered animals, including chimps, marmosets and... more

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1 month ago

TAIPING FOUR GORILLA ADOPTS INFANT GORILLA AS HER OWN

Abbey, one of the ‘Taiping Four’ gorillas, has found new meaning to life as she became surrogate mother to a newly arrived orphan gorilla at the Limbe Wildlife Centre in Cameroon.

The following update is provided by The Pan-African Sanctuary Alliance (PASA) and IFAW’s partner the Limbe Wildlife Centre in Cameroon.

Abbey recently became the surrogate mother to Bolo, a one-year old orphan, at the Limbe Wildlife Center in Cameroon.

Bolo arrived after being confiscated from poachers in December, and it was feared she might be too young to ever integrate safely into Limbe’s 14-member gorilla social group.

But another adult female, Brighter, showed interest and seemed willing to take on the role of caring for Bolo.

Abbey had other ideas, however.

“Very surprisingly, Abbey, who is not a dominant female, went up to Brighter and gently took Bolo off her and placed her on her chest,” said Felix Lankester, manager of the Limbe Wildlife Center. “What was surprising was that Brighter didn’t try to take Bolo back. It was obvious to everyone that Abbey was much more protective than Brighter ever was, and that was the kind of protection we were looking for.”

The Limbe staff had spent months patiently developing the relationship between Brighter and Bolo, and even separated the pair temporarily from the other gorillas in order to foster the bonds of care. But Abbey’s willingness to take responsibility for Bolo proved irresistible.
Snatched from their mothers when they were just babies, the ‘Taiping Four’ gorillas were smuggled from the forests of the Cameroon and taken to a zoo in neighboring Nigeria. From there they became pawns in the murky world of the illegal trade in endangered species. As wild-caught animals they could not be traded legally, so forged documentation described them as “captive bred” allowing them to be sold to a zoo in Malaysia.
But the sudden arrival of four young gorillas on the international zoo scene was bound to raise suspicion, and it didn’t take long for animal welfare investigators to uncover and make public the illegality of their capture and export.

CITES regulations clearly state that, wherever possible, confiscated animals are to be returned to their native land, and so they did, thanks to IFAW’s supporters, the Taiping Four Gorillas arrived to their new home in Limbe, Cameroon on November 30, 2007.

Abbey, one of the ‘Taiping Four’ gorillas, has found new meaning to life as she became surrogate mother to a newly... more