Tibet: the wild yak

The wild Tibetan yak (野牦牛) was once widespread across the Qinghai-Tibetan plateau, with an historical range stretching from northern India and Nepal, and throughout the Chinese provinces of Gansu, Sichuan, Qinghai and Xinjiang. It was even found in Kazakhstan, Mongolia and parts of southern Russia until the 18th century, though any real trace of it […]

Laos: Rough Ways

Coming hot on the heels of the July 30th U.N anti-trafficking resolution, the culmination of 3 years of negotiation amongst 80 members, is an article in The New York Times which emphasises the difficulties of enforcing wildlife laws – even amongst the willing – and shows, once again, that Southeast Asia will remain the front line […]

China: Leizhou, where they butcher tigers

Something I recall having seen on Xinhua (新华网) last year (2014) was a report of tigers being butchered on the street in the southern Chinese province of Guangdong, in a town called Leizhou (雷州市). The pictures you can find if you search 雷州市宰杀老虎 (Leizhou City slaughter tigers) are particularly shocking, with the corpses of tigers […]

China: Shahtoosh, king of wools

Living on the high, sparse steppe of the Tibetan plateau, the Tibetan antelope – or chiru – has found itself squeezed between the lines of the economic development that brought railways and roads to Tibet, stabbing in from the rest of China. The Beijing-Lhasa railway threatened to split the chiru’s habit in two, creating a […]

UK: A thin blue line

The global illegal wildlife trade is valued in excess of $20 billion a year, according to a study commissioned by the WWF and Traffic, and whilst stopping animal trafficking was for long not a priority for governments, things have started to change. Governments are recognising that the illegal trade in animals is indeed a massive […]

Spilled Water

覆水难收

Poaching