Dedicating 56 years of his life to animal welfare and conservation, South African vet Hymie Ebedes became world-renowned for his expertise and pioneering work across not only the African continent, but also in countries such as China, Israel, Australia and Spain. Therefore, the 24th November 2015 will not just be the day a family unite…
I’ll never forget the first time I saw an elephant in the wild. It was in Kruger National Park, north east of Johannesburg, in 2006. On a tour bus of 14, I was by far the loudest as we trundled round a corner, on sandy terrain and almost ran into it. A magnificent beast, its…
Bill Laurance, James Cook University Africa’s natural environments and spectacular wildlife are about to face their biggest challenge ever. In a paper published today in Current Biology, my colleagues and I assess the dramatic environmental changes that will be driven by an infrastructure-expansion scheme so sweeping in scope, it is dwarfing anything the Earth’s biggest…
The planned destruction of 2.6 tonnes of ivory was blocked yesterday by Tanzanian authorities who argued that the tusks were needed as evidence for prosecution of suspected poachers. The ivory in question had been seized by Malawi Revenue Authority in 2013 from two wildlife traffickers, Patrick and Chauncy Kaunda, and the High Court of…
An ancient Egyptian raptor mummy from Iziko Museums of South Africa in Cape Town has yielded a world first when researchers discovered the remains of at least two house mice and a small sparrow in its stomach. The discovery was made possible through digital 3D X-ray imaging at the CT scanner facility at Stellenbosch University….
South Africa, your electricity is already being tampered with – what would you say if your water was too? This might be a reality if the rerouting of the N3 highway from Van Reenen to De Beer’s Pass gets the go ahead. And though these are located in the Drakensberg, they have a lot more…
Last Tuesday two brothers were fined MK2.5 million ($5,500) each for trafficking 2.6 tonnes of ivory by the High Court of Malawi. Patrick and Chancy Kaunda pleaded guilty to charges of ivory trafficking and money laundering and chose to pay the fine instead of serving the 7 year jail term. ‘To say we were disappointed…
Cecil the lion is dead, killed illegally in Zimbabwe by Walter Palmer, an American dentist and recreational big-game hunter who paid about $55,000 for the privilege. The details of Cecil’s killing are disturbing — and they’re important for understanding why this has become such a controversy. The majestic lion was lured out of a national…