China: Bear Bile《熊胆》

Bile is a digestive fluid produced by the liver and stored in the gall bladder, and it is harvested from the Asiatic black bear, brown bear, and sun bear across China, the Korean peninsular, Myanmar, Laos, and Vietnam. In the body, bile aids digestion in the small intestine, but in traditional Chinese medicine, where it […]

China: Eaten into oblivion

Pangolins, a scaly anteater long prized in China and Vietnam for their meat and scales, are being ‘eaten to extinction’, according to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), who compile the Red List of endangered and threatened species. There are eight species of pangolin, with the Chinese, Sunda, Philippine, and Indian being […]

Africa: How drones can save wildlife

Drones, which are essentially remote controlled aircraft fitted with cameras, sensors, and other technology, are increasingly being deployed by environmental groups and governments to aid conservation efforts. In Belize, for example, drones are used to monitor illegal fishing activities over a wide stretch of ocean and shoreline, which would be too resource intensive for boats […]

South Africa: poaching means murder

A South African rhino poacher has been sentenced to 77 years in prison. Madla Chauke was arrested in 2011 in Kruger National Park, for the killing of three rhino calves. Chauke was also convicted of the murder of an accomplice, who was shot by park rangers. Chauke argued that he was coerced into poaching by his […]

Mong-La: the worst place you’ve never heard of

Mong-La, known as 勐拉 Meng3la1 or 小勐拉 (xiao3meng3la1) as it is known in Chinese, is a town on the Myanmar border with China, in Mongla Township in Shan State, Myanmar. It sits at something of a crossroads, as it is also close to the Myanmar border with Thailand, and was featured recently in the New York Times […]

Spilled Water

覆水难收

Month: July 2014