Growing evidence suggests that most leopard populations across southern Africa are threatened by exploitation.
GettyImages
If left unregulated, the unsustainable exploitation of leopards will have severe ecological and evolutionary costs.
Shutterstock
If wildlife trade is forced underground it could become an even bigger threat to public health, fuel black market prices, and accelerate exploitation and extinction of species in the wild.
Government officers seize civets in a wildlife market in Guangzhou, China to prevent the spread of SARS in 2004.
Dustin Shum/South China Morning Post via Getty Images
Wild animals and animal parts are bought and sold worldwide, often illegally. This multibillion-dollar industry is pushing species to extinction, fueling crime and spreading disease.
A civet cat awaits its fate in an animal meat market.
Paul Hilton / EPA
Once a purely conservation issue, it is now also considered a threat to biosecurity, public health and the economy.
Barbary macaque and its trainer in Marrakesh square (Jemaa El Fnaa), Morocco.
Ilias Kouroudis/Shutterstock
Wildlife crime is difficult to track but of deep concern since about 60% of primate species are now threatened with extinction.
Chimpanzees forced to interact with humans can develop stress and other health problems.
EPA
Shareable online images of chimpanzees, elephants and other animals are threatening their conservation and welfare.
Until its rediscovery, the silver-backed chevrotain was among Global Wildlife Conservation’s 25 “most wanted lost” species.
SIE/GWC/Leibniz-IZW/NCNP
This diminutive deer isn’t the only fantastical life form discovered in Vietnam. But hunting and habitat destruction threaten many with extinction.
Around 1,000 tigers are kept at this facility in China.
World Animal Protection
New report reveals big cats are kept in awful conditions. But the link to poaching in the wild is not clear cut.
Seizures of pangolins and their scales and skins from Africa, destined for Asia, are increasing.
2630ben/Shutterstock
Pangolins are one of the most trafficked wild mammals in the world.
A red-listed skylark.
Gallingao_media/Shutterstock
One gram of songbird meat is estimated to sell for the equivalent of one gram of marijuana.
Marktucan/Shutterstock.com
Stories of substitution and surrogates are all too common in the wildlife trade, especially when it comes to medicines derived from animal parts.
Simon_g / shutterstock
Saving the rhino means tackling demand for its horn.
Oophaga andresii is one of the newly described species of Harlequin poison frog.
Jose Andrés
With their jewel-like colours, Colombia’s poison frogs are coveted by collectors. Does naming their species help protect them or make them a target for trophy hunters?
Aleksandr Kurganov / shutterstock
Beluga sturgeon found their migration route blocked by Europe’s largest hydroelectric dam.
Shutterstock
Should trade in ivory be banned or not? There may be a solution.
Police officers mark and register bundles of seized python skins in Linyi, Shandong province, China.
Reuters
This multi-billion pound industry increasingly involves organised crime groups, who see wildlife as a low risk route to profit.
Danny Lawson/PA
An ivory ban in the US had a series of unintended consequences.
Local communities across Africa need to be drawn into conservation decisions to fight wildlife crime.
Siegfried Modola/Reuters
Local and indigenous communities remain mostly excluded from real benefits, and conservation often comes at a huge cost to them.
The tusks in these ornamental elephants are real ivory.
William Warby
Ivory from illegally-poached elephants can easily be mistaken for antique.
Part of a shipment of 33 rhino horns seized by Hong Kong customs, originated from Cape Town, South Africa.
Bobby Yip /Reuters
Rhino horn trade continues to be a highly lucrative business across the world.