Archived

• Using simple keyword searches on Chinese social media, Mongabay found hundreds of videos promoting the sale of endangered wildlife in Laos. Two major Chinese media companies have user agreements specifically barring the posting of content related to the illegal wildlife trade; a third does not have specific terms.
• Group tours leading Chinese tourists to wildlife markets in Laos are part of a recent boom in visitors following the opening of the China-Laos Railway and the lifting in pandemic travel restrictions.
• Experts say that Chinese media companies, and their counterparts in the West, must do more to keep their platforms free of content promoting the illegal wildlife trade.
• Warning: This story contains disturbing images of animals.

[...]

“The wet markets in Laos are like wildlife parks; however, while you can only look at the animals in our zoos back in China, the wild animals in Lao markets can be eaten.”

So proclaimed a Chinese vlogger as he toured a wildlife market. As he explored, he filmed himself showing off bear paws, various birds, dried rats, monitor lizards, and a live pangolin in his hands.

[...]

With the opening of the China-Laos Railway in 2021 and the lifting of China’s pandemic lockdowns in early 2023, Laos has become a top choice for Chinese tourists traveling abroad. According to the official Lao News Agency, nearly 1.16 million Chinese tourists arrived in the country in 2025.

The booming tourism has contributed to large-scale wildlife trafficking issues in Laos. In turn, Chinese social media has become a hotbed of promotions for illegal wildlife tours in Laos.

[...]

Global social media platforms like Facebook and WhatsApp have been widely criticized for failing to effectively crack down on the use of their platforms for wildlife trafficking. In the United States, where Facebook and WhatsApp’s parent company Meta is headquartered, laws shield media companies from liability for content posted by users, largely leaving the industry to regulate itself.

Chinese media companies are well known for their ability to carry out highly efficient censorship of certain topics: politics, pornography, disinformation, among others. Censorship mechanisms vary among Chinese Internet companies, but generally rely on tight human-AI collaborations to decide what content is allowed to be published.

China’s Wildlife Protection Law prohibits publishing advertisements for the sale of wild animals or illegal wild animal products, and notes specifically that online platforms are prohibited from providing services for such sales. However, the law does not specifically address the question of social media users filming illegal wildlife content.

The two major Chinese social media companies — Tencent, which owns WeChat, and ByteDance, which owns Douyin and is the original owner of TikTok — do specifically prohibit users of their platforms from posting content promoting the illegal wildlife trade. Another social media company widely used in China, Xiaohongshu, does not have similar provisions in its community guidelines.

[...]

...

The shipment contained 165 wooden crates declared as African sawn timber, which arrived in July under the name of the Thanh Cong Trading Services and Translation Joint Stock Company, according to Gia Lai provincial police.

Investigators used specialized scanning equipment to discover hidden compartments inside 12 timber crates that were hollowed out, local media reported. Traffickers had packed the ivory and bones in wax in those compartments and sealed them with wood to make the packages appear ordinary and bypass inspections.

The Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology subsequently tested the ivory and bones and confirmed they came respectively from elephants and big cats.

...

Chris Shepherd, who campaigns against wildlife trafficking with the U.S.-based Center for Biological Diversity, noted that a shipment from Africa that includes big cat parts reflects a changing landscape as local species disappear. “As Southeast Asian cats, such as tigers and leopards, dwindle, cat parts are sought elsewhere,” he said.

...

Mongabay reported earlier this year that since the mid-2000s, China and Vietnam have emerged as global hotspots for the illegal wildlife trade, with Africa being the prominent source of the contraband.

...

Web Archive link

• Illegal wildlife trade, primarily catering to Chinese nationals, is thriving in Cambodia, according to a new undercover investigation (pdf) by Earth League International, a U.S.-based NGO fighting environmental crime.
• Investigators identified five kingpins allegedly running transnational criminal networks in Cambodia that are involved in wildlife smuggling, human and drug trafficking and operate scam centers that defraud targets of money. ELI also mapped trade networks and gathered information on what species are sold and who buys them.
• The report found many endangered animals and their parts, including tigers, elephants, rhinos and pangolins, openly sold mostly to high-ranking government officials, Chinese expats, wealthy businessmen and Chinese tourists.
• The report urges China to act against Chinese scam center owners and corrupt officials who facilitate illegal activity and wildlife trade, along with reducing demand for endangered species within its borders.

...

The yearlong investigation revealed a huge demand for wildlife products within Cambodia, fueled by wealthy Chinese and Cambodian buyers.

“It’s a trafficking enterprise, and a good example of what happens when you don’t do anything … they grow and grow and grow, and at the end, the damage is substantial,” said Andrea Crosta, executive director of ELI. “The big surprise was the incredible quantity of wildlife in the hands of these people.”

...

“I think it’s an excellent piece of work,” said Debbie Banks. She serves as the tiger and wildlife crime campaign lead at the U.K.-based Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA), which also investigates wildlife crimes in Southeast Asia. Banks was not involved in this operation, but EIA has previously uncovered illegal commerce in tiger parts in Laos and Vietnam in operations that also targeted Chinese nationals.

...

Investigators say they identified five cartel kingpins operating in Cambodia who allegedly run transnational criminal networks that smuggle wildlife from across the world.

ELI reported that all are of Chinese descent and are well connected within Cambodia. Two of them are believed to be the biggest wildlife traders in the lower Mekong region. The public report leaves them nameless; another version handed over to U.S. authorities identified all involved.

...

“Wildlife trafficking in Southeast Asia is in the hands of Chinese nationals by 90%,” Crosta said. He added that they have strong business ties in the region, with investments in real estate and a mix of legal and illegal businesses that include restaurants and clubs as well as scam centers. They are “very, very prolific” wildlife traffickers, Crosta said.

...

One individual said he raised lions, tigers and primates on his properties — and allegedly trafficked primates, birds and bear parts, according to the investigation. Another said he smuggled wildlife products and narcotics to the West. Yet another said his role was logistics, claiming he could help traffic anything because he had close connections to Cambodian customs officials as well as the country’s political, military and business elites.

...

Meanwhile, the kingpins reportedly said they could supply any species that customers wanted: tigers, elephants, rhinos, pangolins, sea turtles, coral, bears, primates and birds of prey — either alive, dead or in parts.

They said they had suppliers across the globe, in Africa, Europe, Russia and South Asia.

...

The report found a thriving trade in tigers and their parts in Cambodia. It identified the two traffickers as the major suppliers, selling bones and full skeletons to make tiger wine and offering tiger meat to exclusive restaurants in the capital, Phnom Penh, that are frequented by high-ranking Cambodian government officials and wealthy Chinese businessmen.

However, these elite dining establishments didn’t just serve tiger meat and wine, the investigation found. They offered pangolin, cobra, red panda and golden pheasant, among other wildlife dishes, with pictures of these animals displayed on the menu.

Tiger cubs, too, were offered as a delicacy. A promotional video for a holiday menu advertised cubs alongside other wildlife. The cubs were also used to make wine.

...

ELI reported that pangolin meat sold for about $120 per kilogram ($54.50 per pound) — and the customer could keep the scales, which are prized in traditional medicine as a purported treatment for numerous illnesses.

Tiger bones sold for up to $1,975 per kg ($897 per lb) and tiger penis went for about $2,633 per kg ($1,197 per lb). The report stated that Chinese embassy officials in Cambodia were major consumers of tiger penis wine, which sold for $1,200 a bottle in 2025.

...

Report casts shadow on Cambodia’s plan to reintroduce wild tigers

Cambodia is also in talks with India to bring Bengal tigers for a proposed plan to reintroduce them in the Cardamom Mountains. The last official sighting of a wild tiger in Cambodia was in 2007, and they were declared “functionally extinct” there a decade ago. Banks said she’s worried how those tigers, if they were brought into the country, would fare.

“I would urge everyone to take a beat and really review the prospects for success in that endeavor,” Banks said. “The lack of enforcement, the reported corruption and complicity — that is not a good environment to put tigers back into the country. They’ll be at extreme risk, and I think all those involved in seeking the return of tigers into the wild in Cambodia should be holding the government to account to respond and demonstrate effective enforcement.”

...

China is a top destination for most wildlife products in Cambodia

Traffickers often smuggle wildlife contraband along circuitous routes. “These products originate in the range states of species such as rhinos. They may then be smuggled through countries with weaker governance or enforcement; moved by air or sea transport companies that may or may not know what they are carrying; passed through additional criminal or commercial nodes; and eventually sold to end users in consumer markets,” said Gray with the Global Initiative against Transnational Organized Crime.

...

China is one of the world’s largest consumers of wildlife products, and Asia is a growing hub of trade.

...

Most tourists coming from China to Cambodia are government officials and state-owned company employees, the current report found.

...

Web Archived link

The independent Russian data project “To Be Precise” has published an article explaining how Russia’s “Red Book” is compiled, why it exists, and why it periodically touches off scandals.

...

How the rules on Red Book animals, plants, and fungi change in 2026

”Rules allowing the taking of Red Book species in exceptional cases, including for monitoring population status, had been in force since 1997,” the authors of “To Be Precise” write. “But the 2009 law on hunting directly prohibited this, creating a legal contradiction.” Amendments passed at the end of 2020 lifted that ban. New rules on the taking of Red Book species were issued in 2026 and take effect on September 1.

The list of justifications for killing Red Book animals or destroying Red Book plants and fungi has grown considerably. It now covers not only “monitoring population status” but also, for example, “the construction and reconstruction of facilities of federal and regional significance, … as well as facilities provided for under the investment agreements of Russian regions” — provided there is nowhere else to put the project. The change opens major opportunities for developers and mining companies.

“Instead of preserving Red Book species in their natural habitat, the state is proposing a procedure for removing them from the land slated for development,” the Russian environmental outlet Kedr writes. “This is especially dangerous for plants and fungi. They cannot be protected simply by ‘collecting’ or ‘transplanting’ them: many species depend on specific soil, hydrological conditions, mycorrhizal fungi, neighboring species, and the wider ecosystem. Destroying a habitat often means destroying the species itself in that area.”

...

Archived

Cases of Cruelty Galvanize Country’s Young People.

Archived

In late June, videos of four boys cruelly mistreating and burning a dog and her puppies in Jieyang, Guangdong province, circulated widely online. Public outrage was swift and overwhelming: paid billboards and other advertisements appeared in over 100 cities across the country called for an end to animal abuse. More than 70,000 people signed an online petitiondemanding accountability and a national animal protection law.

Animal protection supporters abroad crowdfunded a billboard in Hong Kong’s Mong Kok district and purchased screen advertisements in Taipei and New York’s Times Square.

On June 30, the government, while acknowledging that the abuse occurred and explaining the consequences for those responsible, also urged "netizens not to spread related information."

Suppression followed. Social media platforms removed posts about “Wang Wang,” a generic and endearing term supporters used for the puppies’ mother. The Chinese social media site Weibo also reportedly blocked a celebrity’s statement and a related trending topic. Online, people have reported that police ordered memorial advertisements taken down from public screens in several cities. An organizer told the BBC that police had questioned and threatened dozens of others, telling them to stop their activism.

[...]

The Jieyang response follows a pattern. Earlier in June, police in the municipality of Chongqing forcibly dispersed hundreds of residents who had gathered for days to protest another reported case of dog abuse. They injured several people and briefly took dozens away before detaining—under public pressure—the alleged abuser.

Animal abuse has clearly touched a nerve in China, especially among young people for whom pets have become an important source of companionship. Peaceful expressions of public outrage should never be considered a threat to state security. Chinese authorities should stop suppressing public discussion of animal abuse, free any protesters still detained, and investigate police violence in Chongqing. They should also listen to what people are saying, whether it’s about personal freedom, the rights of the public, or the protection of Wang Wangs.

[...]

Archived

The Center for Biological Diversity has submitted a petition to NOAA [National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in the U.S.] Fisheries, urging the agency to identify and impose sanctions on China for extensive shark finning conducted by commercial fishing vessels. According to the environmental group, Chinese-flagged ships have caught and finned thousands of sharks in offshore waters, yet China has failed to take sufficient measures to stop the practice.

[...]

The group notes that in 2024, China and Japan blocked an attempt by the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas to adopt a fins-naturally-attached policy, despite support from about 80 percent of member parties.

An investigation by the Environmental Justice Foundation released earlier this year reported widespread shark finning among China's distant-water fleet. The nonprofit interviewed 81 fishers from 60 Chinese-flagged vessels and found that 60 percent of those vessels allegedly engaged in finning sharks and disposing of their bodies. The report also noted that China's regulation on controlling shark finning does not apply to squid vessels operating in the Southeast Pacific.

[...]

In its petition, the Center for Biological Diversity asserts that China's distant-water longline fishing fleet regularly targets sharks and also harvests them as bycatch within regional fishery management organization convention areas globally. The group claims that in 2023, Chinese-flagged vessels discarded more than 10,000 blue sharks and nearly 1,700 shortfin mako sharks in the Western and Central Pacific.

[...]

Charlotte, a young female orangutan, was released into the Busang forest in Borneo after a long rehabilitation journey at the Jungle School, the jungle school for orangutans rescued from captivity. Found as a baby chained under a house terrace in Sumatra, her life seemed doomed: deprived of freedom and separated from her mother, she was destined to suffer physically and mentally.

But that didn’t happen. Her name is no accident: Charlotte means “free woman” in French, and every day of training brought her closer to the life she deserved. The Borneo Orangutan Rescue Alliance (BORA), in collaboration with Indonesia’s Ministry of Forestry and Environment and the Orangutan Project, oversaw every phase of her recovery.

Learning from jungle school

Orangutans have one of the longest childhoods of any species: they’re born without knowledge and learn everything from their mothers, from safe foods to techniques for avoiding predators, building nests, and moving through trees. Deprived of these lessons, orphaned orangutans risk death if left alone.

At Jungle School, Charlotte learned to climb trees, forage for natural food, build safe nests, and use simple tools, under the guidance of human caregivers who replaced the maternal figure. Where before she had been fed inadequately—bread, sweets, and chips—now Charlotte knows fruits, leaves, and insects, essential for her survival in the wild. Emotional and mental healing

The period of captivity had left deep scars: Charlotte was afraid of almost everyone, withdrew from new stimuli, and slept on the ground instead of in nests. Jungle School doesn’t just teach physical skills: it promotes mental and emotional healing, transforming a fearful orangutan into a brave and joyful one.

Assistants teach digging into logs to find termites, folding leaves to form soft nests, and swinging safely between branches. Each gesture, repeated multiple times daily, helps make Charlotte independent and ready to live in her natural habitat.

...

After four years, Charlotte was transferred to a pre-release island, where she could practice all the skills she’d learned, spending most of her time in the tree canopy. Today, Charlotte finally lives free in the Busang ecosystem, alongside other previously rescued orangutans like Mary, Jojo, Bonti, and Popi.

...

Web archive link

Cows are not usually credited with thinking on the hoof. They eat, they chew, they stand in fields performing an activity that may look like contemplation but is generally written off as digestion.

They are not typically thought to plan, let alone solve problems. A new study suggests we may have underestimated them.

The research describes what experts claim is the first documented case of flexible, multi-purpose tool use in cattle, observed in a cow named Veronika.

...

Veronika is a Swiss brown cow kept not for milk or meat but as a pet by Witgar Wiegele, an organic farmer and baker in Austria. More than a decade ago he noticed her using a long-handled brush, holding it in her mouth to scratch awkward parts of her body.

When video footage of this behaviour reached Alice Auersperg, a cognitive biologist at the University of Veterinary Medicine, Vienna, it struck her as unusual, largely because Veronika used the brush in different ways to scratch different parts of her body.

“It was immediately clear that this was not accidental,” Auersperg said. “This was a meaningful example of tool use in a species that is rarely considered from a cognitive perspective.”

Auersperg and her colleague Antonio Osuna-Mascaró conducted a series of trials. They placed a long-handled brush on the ground and recorded how Veronika used it.

...

When scratching broad, thick-skinned regions such as her back or rump, Veronika tended to use the bristled end, applying it with sweeping, forceful movements. When targeting softer, more sensitive areas of her lower body, she switched to using the handle to scratch herself, moving more slowly.

Because Veronika directs tools at her own body, researchers describe this as egocentric tool use, which is usually regarded as less complex than tool use aimed at external objects. Even so, flexible, multi-purpose use of a single tool is rare. Outside humans, it has previously been demonstrated convincingly only in chimpanzees, the researchers say in their paper.

They wrote in a study published in the journal Current Biology that the findings “invite a reassessment of livestock cognition”.

...

The researchers suspect that Veronika’s life circumstances have played a role in the emergence of this behaviour. Most cows do not reach her age and they are rarely given the opportunity to interact with a variety of potentially useful objects.

Her long lifespan, daily contact with humans, and access to a rich physical landscape probably created favorable conditions, they said. If that is true, there may be nothing very exceptional about Veronika, other than the opportunities she has been given to exercise her brain.

...

Archive link