A long, thin, pearly white tusk found while walking in Bedfordshire was identified (with the help of a warden from the local country park) as having fallen from the jaw of a Chinese water deer (Hydropotes inermis). The deer is a shy Asian species that is firmly established in the east of England. Like the slightly smaller muntjac, it escaped almost a century ago from the Duke of Bedford’s collection at Woburn Abbey, Bedfordshire. The species does not have antlers but long canine teeth that males use for seeing off…
Tag: Wildlife
Wildlife traffickers plead guilty to illegally importing sea cucumbers
Wildlife traffickers pleaded guilty this week in federal court in California to illegally importing endangered sea cucumbers – which are prized in China for food and medicine and as a reputed aphrodisiac – from Mexico. Zunyu Zhao and Xionwei Xiao were charged with conspiracy and illegal importing of brown sea cucumbers worth over $10,000 from 2017 to 2019 and are scheduled to be sentenced in September and November, respectively. Prosecutors haven’t said where in the ocean the sea cucumbers were obtained. But the defendants were allegedly found with the smuggled…
China’s moratoriums on fishing do ‘nothing to protect squid’
Annual short-term moratoriums on squid fishing imposed by Chinese authorities are probably meaningless as there appeared to be little fishing activity in the areas before the bans were announced, analysis has claimed. In 2020, China’s ministry of agriculture and rural affairs announced a pilot program banning fishing in parts of the south-west Atlantic Ocean from July to October, and parts of the eastern Pacific Ocean from September to December. “During the period, all Chinese fishing boats in the area will suspend operations,” the ministry said. However, an analysis by the…
‘It’s not like chicken farming’: why manta rays are chopped up in Sri Lanka
Every morning, starting at 3am, Lakshan hacks up manta rays. A wholesale buyer who plies his trade at Sri Lanka’s largest fish market, in the city of Negombo, just north of Colombo, he jostles with fishers offloading their catches. His business is primarily to find fresh tuna but he also buys 700kg (1,540lb) of manta and devil rays every day. He doesn’t want the ray’s meat, which most Sri Lankans don’t eat. Instead, he’s after the gill plates: cartilage that helps manta and devil rays filter out microorganisms in ocean…
New data links Covid-19’s origins to raccoon dogs at Wuhan market
Newly released genetic data gathered from a live food market in Wuhan has linked Covid-19 with raccoon dogs, adding weight to the theory that infected animals sold at the site started the coronavirus pandemic, researchers involved in the work say. Swabs collected from stalls at the Huanan seafood market in the two months after it was shut down on 1 January 2020 were previously found to contain both Covid and human DNA. When the findings were published last year, Chinese researchers stated that the samples contained no animal DNA. That…
Objection by DRC sours ‘paradigm-changing’ Cop15 biodiversity deal
It was almost a special moment in the early hours of Monday morning in the Palais des congrès in Montreal. China and Canada, two squabbling adversaries, had united for the good of the planet to help the world at Cop15 forge a once-in-a-decade deal to halt the destruction of Earth’s ecosystems. From the emphasis on indigenous rights to conserving 30% of Earth for nature, there is good reason to believe the Kunming-Montreal agreement could be a truly historic, hopeful turning point in humanity’s relationship with nature after decades of destruction…
‘We didn’t accept it’: DRC minister laments forcing through of Cop15 deal
The Democratic Republic of the Congo’s environment minister has said her country has not agreed to a deal to halt the destruction of the Earth’s ecosystems, prompting behind-the-scenes diplomatic efforts to keep the agreement alive just hours after it was adopted. Ève Bazaiba, the DRC’s environment minister, said her country would be writing to the UN secretary general, António Guterres, and the Convention on Biological Diversity to express the DRC’s position on the final text. It comes after the Chinese Cop15 president, Huang Runqiu, appeared to force through the agreement…
Cop15 negotiators close to agreeing nature deal as talks draw to end
A potentially transformational agreement for nature is close to being reached at Cop15 in Montreal, which could bring better protection for Earth’s vital ecosystems such as the Amazon and Congo basin rainforests, big reforms to agriculture and better protection of indigenous territories and rights. After four years of negotiations and 12 years since the last biodiversity targets were agreed in Japan, the Chinese president of Cop15 put forward its recommendations for a final agreement after two weeks of intense negotiations at the UN biodiversity summit in Canada. Over the last…
China’s return to wildlife farming ‘a risk to global health and biodiversity’
China appears to be weakening its post-Covid restrictions on the farming of wildlife such as porcupines, civets and bamboo rats, which raises a new risk to public health and biodiversity, warn NGOs and experts. Before the pandemic, wildlife farming was promoted by government agencies as an easy way for rural Chinese people to get rich. But China issued an outright ban on hunting, trading and transporting wildlife, as well as the consumption as food, after public health experts suggested the virus could have originated from the supply chain. Around 14…
Walkouts and tensions as row over finance threatens to derail Cop15 talks
Divisions between developed and developing nations over who should pay to protect Earth’s ecosystems are threatening to derail a UN biodiversity summit after a group of developing countries walked out of discussions overnight. In echoes of last month’s Cop27 climate summit in Egypt – where countries agreed to create a new fund to compensate loss and damage from global heating in vulnerable nations – countries from the global south left Cop15 talks on Wednesday due to disagreements over finance. The Cop15 host, China, was organising crisis talks with heads of…