If people had been doing this to other people, we’d call it genocide. Yet that’s what people have been doing to Borneo’s orangutans: perpetrating a form of eco-genocide against them. To wit: in this new century as many as 100,000 of the critically endangered primates have died off on the…
Lots of Malaysians love to have pets. Many of these Malaysians prefer “exotic” pets: monkeys, slow lorises, binturongs, snakes, turtles and a whole host of other illegally kept wild animals. Much attention, including on this site, has been focused on the rampant illegal wildlife trade that facilities the exotic pet…
We’ve all been there, have we not? In search of that perfect selfie, we may have placed ourselves at risk, such as by leaning over the edge of a cliff. Or we may have placed others at risk, such as by using endangered animals as props for selfies. Sadly, using…
Three more down, plenty more to go. Two Thais and a Malaysian man have been arrested for trying to smuggle eight rare sulcata tortoises, also known as African spurred tortoises (Centrochelys sulcata), through Malaysia’s border with Thailand. The trio of smugglers, who were between 24 and 28, tried to cross…
Another day, another seizure of exotic animals smuggled surreptitiously into Malaysia. This time alert customs officials seized 330 tortoises flown into Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA), which has been serving as a favored destination for international smuggling syndicates. Acting on a tip-off, Malaysian officials discovered 325 Indian radiated tortoises and five ploughshare tortoises packed into…
Recently the international anti-wildlife trafficking organization TRAFFIC revealed that Facebook, the hugely popular social media platform, has become a hot bed in Malaysia for the illegal trade of protected species as part of a booming exotic pet trade conducted online. After a five-month investigation, TRAFFIC’s researchers discovered that more than…
No animal large or small, strange or beautiful, it seems, escapes the attention of wildlife traffickers. One of the latest species being poached relentlessly for the exotic pet trade is what at first glance might seem like an unlikely candidate as a pet: the Bornean earless monitor lizard. Yet that…
They were selling slow lorises, binturongs, barred eagle owls, leopard cats and dusky leaf monkeys. On Facebook, no less. The protected animals were being peddled on the Facebook group Peminat Haiwan Exotic Malaysia (“Exotic Animal Fans in Malaysia”), which had nearly 8,000 members who could freely post pictures of exotic…
People often do the wrong things for the right reasons. They may seek the companionship of pets, yet rather than settle for domesticated animals like cats and dogs, they may decide to own members of more exotic species –especially “cute” creatures like slow lorises and binturongs. Wishing to have pets…