Latest Ivory Stories

Surveys find Chinese public highly supportive of wildlife protection but unaware of African poaching crises BEIJING, April 16, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, former NBA star and Chinese icon, Yao Ming, launched a major public awareness campaign targeting consumption of ivory and rhino horn in China in partnership with WildAid, Save the Elephants, African Wildlife Foundation, and the Yao Ming Foundation. (Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20130416/SF95498) In August 2012, Yao...

April Flowers for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online African forest elephants live in the forests of Central and Western Africa. They are a smaller cousin to the African savannah elephant, with straighter tusks and smoother skin, which many consider to be a separate species. They are also being poached into extinction. A new study led by the San Diego Zoo Global Wildlife Conservancy reveals that over the past decade, a stunning 62 percent of all forest elephants have been killed for their...

YARMOUTH PORT, Mass., March 18, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Poachers in Chad have slaughtered 86 elephants, including 33 pregnant females, in less than a week. The elephants were killed close to the Chad border with Cameroon and their ivory hacked out. It is the worst killing spree of elephants since early 2012 when poachers from Chad and Sudan killed as many as many as 650 elephants in a matter of weeks in Cameroon's Bouba Ndjida National Park. "This is completely shocking,"...

BANGKOK, March 13, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The following is being released by the Environmental Investigation Agency: (Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20130313/DC76214) Amazon.com has thousands of ads for elephant ivory on its Japanese website despite such sales being banned under Amazon's policies designed to protect endangered species. This follows last week's revelation that Google was allowing similar illicit sale of ivory products by its Google Japan Shopping...

- NBA All-Star Tyson Chandler to Star in Public Service Announcement Debuting March 7 - NEW YORK and SAN FRANCISCO, March 7, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- WildAid and NBA Cares, the NBA's global social responsibility program, announced today another step in their partnership promoting wildlife conservation in the United States and aimed at reducing the illegal trade of wildlife products in China. To support this effort, a public service announcement featuring New York Knicks star center...

YARMOUTH PORT, Mass., March 6, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- A report released today by INTERPOL with support from The International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) revealed hundreds of ivory items conservatively valued at approximately EUR 1,450,000 for sale during a two-week period on Internet auction sites in nine European countries. The survey of Internet sites was conducted by agencies responsible for wildlife crime enforcement in participating countries including...

Brett Smith for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online A new study from a large group of international researchers shows African forest elephants are being rapidly pushed toward extinction by illegal poaching and the ivory trade. An extensive meta-analysis of surveys and fieldwork data has shown that 62 percent of forest elephants have been killed for their ivory, according to the study, which appeared in the latest edition of PLOS ONE. "The analysis confirms what conservationists have...

WASHINGTON, March 4, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The following is being released by the Environmental Investigation Agency: Environmentalists today appealed to internet giant Google to remove thousands of ads from its Japanese Shopping site that promote products for sale from endangered whale and elephant species. (Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20130304/DC70154) The Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA), a non profit group based in Washington, DC and London, UK...

redOrbit Staff & Wire Reports - Your Universe Online The prime minister of Thailand has pledged to take steps to change the country’s currently legal domestic ivory trade in order to help protect endangered elephants, various media outlets reported Sunday. Speaking during the opening day of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), Yingluck Shinawatra announced that she would be amending Thai law with the intention of putting an end to a market which...

Lee Rannals for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online New statistics show that the elephant population in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has declined by 37 percent in the last five years. According to wildlife surveys by the Wildlife Conservation Society and DRC officials, only 1,700 elephants now remain in the DRC, which holds the largest remaining forest elephant population. Scientists at WCS warn that if people continue to poach forest elephants in DRC, then the species...