Australian science is catching up with illegal traffickers of precious wildlife.
More than a million pangolins were estimated to have been illegally tracked around the world during the 10 years to 2017, leading to an enormous decline in their wild population. Australian scientists are helping to put an end to the trade in these endearing anteating mammals.
CHRIS SHEPHERD FELT frustrated and furious when he heard of yet another attempt to launder wild-caught echidnas through Indonesia. Transporting native Australian fauna overseas is tightly regulated but traders in Indonesia exploit loopholes in the legislation and these echidnas came with paperwork that described them as captive-bred. As director of the South-East Asian branch of wildlife trade monitoring network TRAFFIC, Chris suspected the paperwork was fake. He knew successful breeding of echidnas in captivity was almost unheard of and shared his concerns with conservation biologist Dr Phoebe Meagher and her Taronga Zoo colleagues.
“One of Chris’s biggest frustrations was that his team knew a lot of the poachers were forging documentation for echidnas that had been caught in the wild and putting them down as captive-bred,” Phoebe says. “I knew this couldn’t be right. Taronga, as a leading Australian wildlife and conservation group, has only been able to breed a handful of short-beaked echidnas, despite concerted effort and expertise.”
Since 1900, fewer than 50 captive-bred echidnas are known to have survived infancy. It was unlikely any private group had managed to breed the monotremes. Phoebe began searching for a scientific way to prove Chris’s suspicions that these animals had been unlawfully snatched from the wild.
هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة July-August 2018 من Australian Geographic Magazine.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.
بالفعل مشترك ? تسجيل الدخول
هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة July-August 2018 من Australian Geographic Magazine.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.
بالفعل مشترك? تسجيل الدخول
Loveday Internment Camp, SA A
DURING WORLD WAR II, civilians n Australia deemed \"enemy aliens\" - mostly those of German, Italian and Japanese descent were housed in internment camps.
THE STORYTELLERS OF THE GREAT BARRIER REEF
More than 100 dedicated Master Reef Guides are sharing the GBR's most important stories with visitors in a bid to inspire its greater protection.
A BEAUTIFUL DISASTER
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AROUND AUSTRALIA IN 44 DAYS
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MORE THAN QUOKKAS
Sure, you can't avoid those cute little marsupials that made Rottnest Island world-famous, but there's so much more to life on this ocean-ringed jewel off the Western Australian coast.
A WILD POLO TUSSLE
It's an event reminiscent of a Banjo Paterson poem. For 35 years, in the High Country 200km east of Melbourne, city polo players have gathered annually at Cobungra, Victoria's largest cattle station, to vie with a rural team for the Dinner Plain Polo Cup.
Ancient know-how meets a modern challenge
Contemporary marine park management is infused with traditional knowledge to tackle new threats on the Great Barrier Reef.
LOOKING FOR TJAKURA
The search is on across Australia's deserts for a culturally important vulnerable lizard.
RESCUING THE CHUDITCH
After intensive planning, recovery for this endangered marsupial species is being stepped up to secure its future.