Tanzanian President John Magufuli has ordered the sprawling Selous Game Reserve, a UNESCO World Heritage site, to be split in two to restrict the access of big game hunters. Covering 50,000 sq km (19,000 sq miles), the Selous reserve is one of the largest protected areas in Africa, and is famed for its elephants, lions, […]

The director of a film festival in Mexico has asked the Mexican government for permission to screen a South African film in the coastal town of Tulum’s main plaza… because he believes it’s that important! Tulum World Environment Film Festival director Cesar di Parra said at an awards ceremony on Sunday: “We believe the message […]

South African conservationists have welcomed news that Vietnam authorities have seized more than 125 kg of rhino horn in its crackdown on wildlife trafficking in Southeast Asia, although it is tragic that this is a reactive rather than proactive response to the demand for rhino horn. It’s too late for any rhino who were killed. […]

A new facility that rehabilitates wild animals that have been injured or abandoned, with a view to returning them to the wild, has been opened at Shamwari Private Game Reserve, outside Port Elizabeth. At the R5 million (or $350,000) facility, the animals are treated before being released back to the wild, Shamwari said in a […]

SINGAPORE – Singapore said this week it had seized 8.8 tonnes of elephant ivory, a record haul by authorities in the city-state, which conservation groups say is a transit point for the illegal wildlife trade. The elephant ivory, estimated to be worth $12.9 million, came from nearly 300 African elephants, and was heading to Vietnam […]

South Africa has lost yet another 16 endangered black rhino… but this time they fortunately weren’t poached. They were dehorned, and moved for their own protection across SA’s borders to eSwatini (formerly Swaziland) – to a habitat that is “ideal” – and safer, according to the eSwatini national wildlife authority. As South Africa has tragically […]

Prince Albert II of Monaco was in South Africa this weekend to present the Rhino Conservation Awards (RCA) 2019 to all those heroes who dedicate their lives to conserving Africa’s iconic rhino. The Prince – who is married to South Africa’s former Olympic swimmer Charlene Wittstock – said he admires all those honoured as well […]

A wild fire that burned across parts of iSimangaliso Wetland Park in uMkhuze, KwaZulu-Natal, last night – threatening the world heritage site – is now “back under control” thanks to brave firefighters, officials in South Africa confirmed this morning. Last night iSimangaliso posted frightening photos of the “unplanned bush fire”, asking its followers to “spare […]

A baby elephant born in an Austrian zoo five days ago has a wild elephant in South Africa to thank for its life! The young female calf, whose name will be announced on 23 July, was conceived through artificial insemination. It’s the second such birth at Vienna’s Schoenbrunn zoo. The baby’s 27-year-old mother Numbi was […]

DAR ES SALAAM – Elephant and rhino populations in Tanzania have begun to rebound after a government crackdown dismantled organised criminal networks involved in industrial-scale poaching, the country’s presidency said this week. A prominent Chinese businesswoman dubbed the “Ivory Queen” was sentenced to 15 years in prison by a Tanzanian court in February for smuggling […]

A French couple has been forced to resign from their jobs at a supermarket in France after their trophy pictures – of hunts in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa and Tanzania – went viral. The photos, which had been taken back in 2015, show the couple with dead animals, including a leopard (which would’ve cost over $7,000 […]

The miraculous rescue of South Africa’s famous flamingos, which were left starving and dehydrated when Kamfers Dam in Kimberley in the Northern Cape dried up, was featured Wednesday on CBS This Morning in the USA. Watch the video below. Presenter (and best friend to Oprah Winfrey) Gayle King said: “Severe drought has cost South Africa […]

In South Africa we like to go BIG… and here’s the proof. Watch this footage of a garden in Reservoir Hills, Durban, KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) where they were visited not by one extremely venomous Black Mamba snake… but by FIVE in a week! Nick Evans – superman Snake Rescuer at KZN Amphibian and Reptile Conservation Centre […]

An iconic desert-dwelling elephant named Voortrekker, beloved by many in southern Africa, has been killed by a trophy hunter in Namibia, it was confirmed by Elephant Human Relations Aid (EHRA) on Sunday evening. There has been an outpouring of absolute heartbreak and outrage at the news by conservationists. Johannes Haasbroek who worked at EHRA for […]

Following the deaths of two whales which got entangled in fishing gear off of Cape Town, the South African government has temporarily banned exploratory fishing for octopus in False Bay until further studies have been done and ways found to avoid such incidents in future. The lobbying group AfriOceans called the announcement a victory. “Our […]

Seeing one leopard is highly unusual, especially in a small game park like Pilanesberg, but Gametrackers field guide Tarryn Rae and her client saw not only one but two, who battled it out over a warthog the one had caught – only for the warthog to escape. “This was a first for me!” Rae told […]

More than half a thousand vultures, almost all of them endangered species, died from feeding on the poisoned carcasses of three poached elephants in central Botswana, it was reported last week, in what was one of the biggest wildlife poisoning incidents of its kind since 2013. Among the 537 vultures found dead at the site […]

A South Africa without lions is unimaginable – an iconic species of the Big Five. But we could face a world without these magnificent African ambassadors… as the breeding of lions for commercial purposes continues to flourish, warns Four Paws, one of the largest welfare organisation in South Africa, fighting for the protection of our […]

The Australian Rhino Project has today announced the achievement of a major milestone in the organisation’s mission to build an insurance population of rhinos outside of Africa.  The Australian Rhino Project has signed an agreement with Thaba Manzi Wildlife Sanctuary in South Africa to manage the selection and quarantining of rhinos for the project, it […]

Volunteers in South Africa are urgently needed to help ready at least 300 rescued flamingos in Kimberley for their final journey to freedom, back in the wild. There is unfortunately a waxy build-up on the birds’ plumage from the artificial food they have been fed in the past few months, since the flamingos dramatic rescue […]

A message of gratitude from a visitor to the Kruger National Park for a couple, who quite literally may have saved her and her partner’s life, has gone viral on social media in South Africa and abroad. It was only Mbali Zitha’s second visit to the Kruger when the unthinkable happened – a flat tyre. […]

One hears so many different reasons why rhino horn is used in Asia, so travelling there to get to the bottom of it all was an important step for me when I was researching for my film, ‘STROOP’… writes Bonné de Bod. I spoke to many locals and eventually had a breakthrough when we got […]

The Endangered Wildlife Trust’s Drylands Conservation Programme is thrilled to confirm the presence of a population of Riverine Rabbits on the western side of the Baviaanskloof in late May 2019. This population represents a completely new distribution of the species not anticipated by any previous population modelling. According to Bonnie Schumann, EWT Nama Karoo Coordinator, […]

Wildlife near cities face many dangers. Some are easy to detect, such as when new developments destroy natural habitat. Others are less obvious. For example, rat poisons are a useful tool for controlling a common household problem. But many who use them don’t realise that they have dangerous side effects for wildlife. Rat poisons are […]

KUALA LUMPUR – Malaysia’s last male Sumatran rhinoceros has died, an official said on Monday, dashing efforts to save the critically endangered species in the country. The rhino, named Tam, was about 30 years old and lived at a wildlife reserve in Sabah state on Borneo island since his capture in 2008, Christina Liew, state […]