From the depths of the Borneo jungle through the dark web to private ménageries, this paper reflects on the expansion of contemporary wildlife trafficking and maps an early 21st century trade in living organisms, dead animal parts and metempsychic imaginaries. Involving, among many other emerging relational entanglements, life and death issues, big money, commercial routes […]
The greatly valued delicacy called the “edible-nest”, found in a number of Asian countries comes from few specific types of birds, and is picked from the habitat of only certain species of Swiftlets. Those special swiftlets all belong to the Collocaliini tribe of the Apodidae (Swift) family. What makes this particular […]
The tropical heavens of South Asia attract people for their paradisiac sand beaches, crystal clear waters, palm trees and fresh exotic fruits. Others are drawn to South Asia’s alternativism to Western Culture, which includes the local cuisines and traditional medicines. Various renowned local foods may be perceived as ‘bizarre’ […]
Photographs by Christian Ziegler WHAT IS HAL? HAL is short for HumAnimaLab or Human-Animal-Laboratory. And it’s a research group that aims to identify both legal and illegal wildlife trading networks at local and global scales. At the moment, HAL is curious about many things, such as the identity and relationships between network actors, the nature […]
Photographs by Brent Stirton WHAT IS WILDLIFE? The term “wildlife” refers to all fauna and flora. “Fauna” comprises all animals such as mammals, reptiles, birds and fish, while “flora” includes plants such as orchids and trees. WHAT IS THE WILDLIFE TRADE? For centuries, animal and plant life has been the object of trade by humans. […]
” For decades, horse and camel caravans have gathered in Sudan at the beginning of the dry season, when the rivers can be forded, and then crossed into the Central African Republic. Traditionally, poachers carried only swords and lances, but beginning in the early nineteen-seventies, as Sudan and Chad were consumed by civil wars, they […]
“Based on interviews and investigative cases, this paper shows the possibilities offered by a crime script approach for understanding what kind of criminal opportunities the Internet offers for conducting wildlife trafficking and how these opportunities affect the organization of this transit crime, as concerns both the carrying out of the criminal activity and the patterns […]
“En janvier 2014, le Dallas Safari Club avait été vivement condamné pour la vente d’un permis de tirer sur un rhinocéros noir de Namibie, qui avait été remportée par Corey Knowlton, chasseur texan et “personnalité” de télé-réalité, à raison d’une enchère s’élevant à 350 000 dollars.” Source +
Elephants being captured in Zimbabwe for Chinese zoos: “First, a viable herd is identified. Then operatives in a helicopter pick off the younger elephants with a sedative fired from a rifle. As the elephant collapses, the pilot dive-bombs the immediate vicinity so the rest of the herd, attempting to come to the aid of the fallen animal, are kept at bay. When things quieten down, a ground-team approaches the sedated elephants on foot, bundles them up, and drags them on to trailers.”
From a Guardian article on the impact of climate change on parasite species: “Tapeworms, roundworms, ticks, lice and fleas are feared for the diseases they cause or carry, but scientists warn that they also play a vital role in ecosystems. Major extinctions among parasites could lead to unpredictable invasions of surviving parasites into new areas, affecting wildlife and humans and making a “significant contribution” to the sixth mass extinction already under way on Earth.”
