Poaching

New technology detects the shockwave of a supersonic bullet traveling through space, which cannot be muffled, to track poachers shooting at elephants and rhinos.

• By Marianne Messina

Specially trained canines, with their outsized capacity to sniff out even well-hidden people and objects, are helping rangers at several major reserves to do their jobs better.

• By Sue Palminteri

The animal is considered sacred in certain regions of the country, and that belief is being used to prevent locals from killing the endangered creature for profit.

• By Andrew Mambondiyani

A collection of some of our most important and timely stories, from a conversation with John Holdren on President Donald Trump's approach to science to a feature on innovative tracking devices and technological solutions to prevent the trafficking of polar bear pelts in Canada.

• By Pacific Standard Staff
• Member Exclusive

Over the last 10 years, the poaching and trafficking of animal products has become the fourth-highest-grossing crime in the world. But because wildlife crime is not bound by national borders and each country has its own rules and ideas, its management and policing has become unwieldy at best.

• By Katherine Laidlaw

A new study shows how technology developed to study earthquakes could help conservationists monitor elephant populations from afar.

• By Kate Wheeling

A round-up of images from Viewfinder, Pacific Standard's daily photo feature.

• By Pacific Standard Staff

The iconic Kruger National Park is an easy target for the poaching of large animals, especially rhinos and elephants. Those fighting the slaughter say that community education and poverty alleviation yield the best results.

• By Justin Catanoso

The Chinese government has said it will rein in the smuggling and illegal sale of ivory, but those enforcement efforts do not appear to have reached the town of Shuidong.

• By Mike Gaworecki

In 2005, conservationists launched a plan to establish rhino populations in seven parks in Assam state. It proved to be an even bigger challenge than expected.

• By Shreya Dasgupta

Scientists have discovered an expansive network of tortoise poachers in Asia.

• By Jason Bittel

As poaching pushes the rhino toward extinction, South Africa considers a radical solution: Legalize the very thing that is killing them. It'd make some people very rich. But would it doom the species?

• By Austin Merrill

If online outrage is having any effect, it's unclear.

• By Jared Keller

To try and curb demand for black-market rhino horn, a bioengineering start-up is making 3-D substitutes.

• By Alisa Opar

At least knowing where the slaughter is happening means officials know where to try to stop it.

• By Francie Diep

Social media and e-commerce sites are the new battlegrounds for the illegal wildlife trade.

• By Jason Bittel

You'll need two Ph.D.s and a J.D. to buy ivory legally in the United States. So don’t even try it.

• By Brian Palmer

Until his illegal hunting business was shut down by authorities, you could have paid Christopher Loncarich $7,000 to bag a mountain lion.

• By Lauren Kirchner

As beluga sturgeon populations dwindle, poachers have descended on the waters of Oklahoma, searching for the source of next-best caviar: the paddlefish. But conservation officials might have found a way to save the prehistoric-looking creatures from a steady decline—they're selling the caviar themselves.

• By Ben Goldfarb

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service says destroying ivory can reduce supply and demand at same time.

• By Lauren Kirchner

Restoring Africa's peace could be helped by restoring its fabled—and endangered—fauna.

• By Michael Todd

Fifty years ago 180,000 whales disappeared from the oceans without a trace, and researchers are still trying to make sense of why. Inside the most irrational environmental crime of the century.

• By Charles Homans

South Africa debates legalization of the rhino-horn trade to stem smuggling.

• By Lauren Kirchner