A Tree Calls for Help

A new wireless device, called Invisible Tracck, can deter illegal logging by allowing authorities to track illegally cut trees in Brazil. Brazilian authorities will attach this small device onto valuable trees that might be targets for illegal loggers. If and when that tree is cut down and moved, the device will wake up and send a signal to authorities when it comes into…

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Update on the Chad elephant poaching situation

  Update on the Chad elephant situation: On August 15, Chad’s High Administrative Authority informed Stephanie Vergniault, president of the wildlife organization SOS Elephants, that the Chadian army seized 30 tusks from the recent Chari –Baguirmi poaching. With the army in pursuit, the poachers tried to cross the river with them but ultimately abandoned the…

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Sumatran rhinos survive in northern Sumatra

Another piece of good news – this time related to the Sumatran rhino and reported on Mongabay.com. Using remote camera traps, wildlife rangers confirm the Sumatran rhino (Dicerorhinus sumatrensis) still inhabits the Leuser ecosystem in northern Sumatra, making that forest the only place on the Earth where Sumatran tigers, orangutans, elephants, and rhinos survive in…

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Mongabay.com: Elephant slaughter continues in Chad, another baby rescued

Laurel Neme, special to mongabay.comAugust 07, 2012 ‘Toto’, a 3-week-old male elephant rescued by SOS Elephants. Photo courtesy of SOS Elephants Elephant poaching persists in southwestern Chad as poachers slaughtered more elephants on August 3, the second time in less than two weeks. In the first attack, the week of July 23, poachers killed 34…

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Mongabay.com: President of Chad sends troops after elephant poachers

By Laurel Neme, special to mongabay.comAugust 03, 2012 Following the July 24 massacre of dozens of elephants in southwestern Chad, President Idriss Deby Itno sent helicopters to the Mayo Lemie – Chari Baguiri area to catch the poachers, according to Stephanie Vergniault, president of SOS Elephants, a wildlife NGO. President Deby also gave orders to check all the…

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Mongabay.com: Dozens of Elephants Massacred in Chad

Laurel Neme, special to mongabay.comJuly 26, 2012 Poachers killed at least 30 elephants in southwestern Chad during the early hours of Tuesday, July 24. During the night, Stephanie Vergniault, president of the organization SOS Elephants, described on her Facebook page how a group of armed horsemen chased a herd of elephants with “war weapons near…

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Mongabay.com: The dark side of new species discovery

By Laurel Neme, special to mongabay.com December 21, 2011  This interview originally aired on March 14, 2011. It was transcribed by Kirstin Fagan. Part 1 of this interviewScientists and the public usually rejoice when a new species is discovered. But biologist Bryan Stuart has learned the hard way that the discovery of new species, especially when that…

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Mongabay.com: Seahorses Under Stress

By Laurel Neme, special to mongabay.com November 21, 2011 This interview originally aired on January 17, 2011. It was transcribed by Dustin Circe. With about 25 million seahorses sold each year, global consumption of seahorses is massive. They’re used in traditional Asian medicine and also sold as curios and aquarium pets. Over the last decade, overexploitation and habitat…

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Mongabay.com: Covert Creatures: The Clandestine Lives of Seahorses

By Laurel Neme, special to mongabay.comNovember 15, 2011  This interview originally aired on January 17, 2011. It was transcribed by Dustin Circe. Seahorses are strange looking creatures, with a horse’s head on top of a kangaroo’s pouched belly, bulging, swiveling chameleon eyes, a prehensile monkey tail, color-changing armor and a royal crown, all shrunk down to…

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