Today’s elephants are under increasing pressure from habitat loss (due to explosive human population growth), poaching for ivory, and illegal trafficking.
Asian elephants are classified as endangered, and their population is declining. African elephants are considered near threatened, but a resurgence in elephant poaching is taking its toll.
To help raise awareness for these magnificent mammals, here are 12 things you didn’t know about elephants - and a compilation of beautiful photos (with baby elephants who will steal your heart)! Enjoy!
Kenyan and Ethiopian authorities have seized over 1,200 kilograms (2,600 pounds) of ivory - representing the killing of about 100 elephants.
Raids in the main airports of Kenya and Nairobi have netted two shipments of bloodstained tusks headed for Thailand. While the final destination is not known at the moment, these shipments may be part of the growing link between China and elephant poaching.
A new survey of Asians finds that they want a strong international climate agreement, and they want a few key world leaders to step up to the plate to make it happen.
A rare litter of endangered fishing cats at the Cincinnati Zoo is delighting and educating visitors with unusual aquatic feeding behavior.
Three fishing cats (Prionailurus viverrinus) born June 30 at the Cincinnati Zoo have made their debut and are showing off their unique talent for fishing. These web-footed cats are specially adapted for catching prey in the water, and are good swimmers. Unlike most other felines, they prey mainly on fish, instead of small mammals. The litter of three males is the first at the zoo since 1993.
Around 22,000 “large flying foxes” — the largest fruit bat in the world — are legally killed every year in Peninsular Malaysia by hunters. At this rate, scientists say the bat could go extinct in the near future.
Current laws in Thailand make it easy for live elephants - including infant elephants stolen from their mothers in the wild - to be traded unscrupulously for “entertainment” purposes.
For many people, thoughts of Thailand conjure up romantic notions of being transported to various tourist attractions on the back of an elephant. But tragically, many of the captive elephants used for the Thai tourist trade, and as zoo and circus exports, are the victims of an insidious, illegal market that threatens the survival of endangered Asian elephants, and is responsible for widespread exploitation and abuse of these intelligent and sensitive mammals.
Thankfully, a recent report published by TRAFFIC Southeast Asia exposes the loopholes and reporting inaccuracies that have been providing a smokescreen for Thailand’s illegal trade in endangered, wild-caught Asian elephants (Elephas maximus).
Traditional farmers in the Thai hills are still growing rice the old fashioned way, and they may be single-handedly preserving the crop’s genetic diversity in the process.
Domesticated rice varieties have been selected for their high yield, and though they are necessary in order to feed the world’s growing population, they are genetically static. But a new study demonstrates that the traditional farming methods still practiced in remote areas of Thailand are preserving ancestral varieties of rice by keeping them genetically dynamic.
Unrestricted expansion of rubber tree plantations in South East Asia could lead to “devastating environmental effects”, according to authors Ziegler, Fox and Xu writing in a May, 2009 perspective article in Science.
Throughout the “montane” (foot hill and low mountainous) mainland of South East Asia (inclusive of Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, and China), rubber plantations are expanding. So far, an estimated half million hectares have been planted, and by 2050, that land mass area could triple. This expansion will come at a cost to broad leaf, evergreen forests and “swidden” areas (with vegetation from older slash and burn efforts).
A foul stench rises from the grey-black water as I wait for the riverboat. Kids jump in and climb back out, laughing a screaming. Old tires line the floating dock to protect the boats. I look down into the water toward my reflection, but it isn’t there. The grey water swallows everything. This is Bangkok’s Khlong Saen Saeb.
Khlong, or canals as they’re more popularly called, run throughout the city of Bangkok, giving Bangkok the moniker “The Venice of the East.” These Khlong were built centuries ago for transportation and trade. Khlong Saen Saeb was constructed in 1837 as a means of transporting soldiers during times of conflict.
Slash-and-burn agriculture may be bad for the environment, but in southeast Asia, the cure may be worse than the disease. Endorsed by multiple governments, at both the local and national levels, as well as numerous business interests, everyone from individual farmers to massive corporations has been replacing the traditional slash-and-burn, more technically known as swidden, method of farming with rubber plantations managed with European techniques. In the last 20 years, over 1.2 million acres of land in China, Thailand, Vietnam, [...]
The Thai Navy arrested eight animal traffickers in possession of two tiger carcasses, both chopped in half, and 45 pangolins as they attempted to smuggle the animals across the Mekong River into Lao PDF.
