@bysammeadows.bsky.social
Journalist. Wildlife. Conservation. Environment. Editor of Wild Crime, a newsletter about environmental crime. https://wildcrime.co.uk/ Also for the Times, Guardian, BBC etc
In the 1980s and 90s a deadly fungus wiped out hundreds of species of frogs across Central America. Scientists are still battling to find out more.
I reported from Panama for @mongabay.com on a new project relocating frogs.
news.mongabay.com/2025/10/in-p...
Readers of Wild Crime can go inside the operation and learn more about this milestone in Amazonian law enforcement
wildcrime.co.uk/p/an-ocelot-...
Green Shield was an attempt to halt that tide. Across the two week operation, 94 arrests were made in Peru, Brazil, Ecuador and Colombia and $94m in assets was seized.
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The Amazon is a vital hub of biodiversity, but it has been beset by deforestation, wildlife trafficking, and a litany of other serious environmental crimes.
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The raid was part of a much larger operation across the Amazon Rainforest called Green Shield. More than 1,500 officers carried out hundreds of coordinated raids across four countries
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Peruvian police smashed a wildlife trafficking gang calling itself the Predators of the East earlier this summer. Officers raided its headquarters finding sloths and an ocelot among 1,400 live animals worth hundreds of thousands of dollars
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It's Seabird Sunday, your weekly round up of interesting links shared by users on the Seabird app (which you should join too!). First up, traveling to Thailand with @noemamag.com to explore a possible future of eating bugs:
www.noemamag.com/would-you-ea...
For updates on these stories and others like them, subscribe to Wild Crime for free here.
sammeadows.substack.com/p/south-afri...
A Florida man admitted neglect after 100 geckos were left locked in a storage unit for more than two months. Forty-one of them had died.
The unit was locked up for non-payment of bills with the animals trapped inside.
Chinese zoos and safari parks are driving demand for smuggled elephants.
The parks are accused of illegally buying the elephants from Laos. Just one of the parks involved received more than 10 million visitors between 2016 and 2022.
More charges were added in Argentina's biggest ever wildlife crime case after a defendant tried to flee the country.
Environmental officers raided the tour company Caza y Safaris last summer and its owners have been accused of organising illegal hunting trips.
Leopards are being intentionally targeted by traffickers in Sri Lanka, conservationists warned, challenging the official narrative that most killings are opportunistic.
A picture of hunters carrying a freshly-skinned carcass prompted the warning.
A Taiwanese fishing vessel was spotted illegally harpooning dolphins by the Canadian Coast Guard.
A two-month monitoring mission also caught other vessels harvesting shark fins and illegally catching salmon.
🌳 SIX OVERLOOKED WILDLIFE STORIES THIS WEEK
South Africa's 'Rhino Baron' arrested. He had bred the world's largest herd of 2,000 animals, but had intended to sell the horns in China and other Asian markets.
A bold “rewilding” initiative to reintroduce jaguars and turtles in Argentina raises tough questions about whose vision of nature is being restored, writes @bysammeadows.bsky.social for @newlinesmag.bsky.social
newlinesmag.com/reportage/re...
NEW: A bold “rewilding” initiative to reintroduce jaguars and turtles in Argentina raises tough questions about whose vision of nature is being restored, writes @bysammeadows.bsky.social for @newlinesmag.bsky.social
newlinesmag.com/reportage/re...
I've written a post on my newsletter Wild Crime explaining how everything works. With help from
@ifawglobal.bsky.social
Subscribe for more news and explainers like this, as well as exclusive investigations on the world of wildlife crime.
sammeadows.substack.com/p/how-the-wo...
But not everyone agrees that it's the best way to do things. Some argue that poachers will ignore regulations anyway, so agreements like CITES only target 'good' actors.
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This helps us to stop trade in an animal when it is critically endangered to give it a chance to recover.
But it also gives us valuable data on how frequently an animal is bought and sold. And where in the world this trade happens.
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If a species is Appendix I listed then its commercial trade is essentially banned. If it's included on Appendix II then it can only be traded with a permit.
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🧵What is CITES and how does it work?
CITES is the international treaty which regulates the commercial trade in wild animals, plants, or animal parts.
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Operation Green Shield sweeps through the Amazon + donkey penises seized and a dog fighting ring broken up
wildcrime.co.uk/p/illegal-mi...
Inside the trade for the world's most trafficked animal - and the British company apparently helping it happen
wildcrime.co.uk/p/exclusive-...
Another of the stars of the Netflix doc Tiger King has wound up in jail. This time for buying endangered animals 🐯 Story in Wild Crime
wildcrime.co.uk/p/tiger-king...
Remember Cecil the Lion? He was killed by trophy hunters 10 years ago today. Lion populations remain in crisis - but it's not trophy hunting that is their greatest threat. I spoke to @pantheracats.bsky.social about the challenges facing lion conservationists.
wildcrime.co.uk/p/cecils-leg...
Luxury handbags linked to Brazilian leather tainted by Amazon destruction, according to new
@earthsight.bsky.social investigation.
The situation for the Amazon is urgent. Brands in Europe can't shut their eyes to large-scale forest loss.
wildcrime.co.uk/p/luxury-fas...
The UN Ocean Conference in 2025 could be a pivotal moment for the planet, if world leaders are bold enough to act.
My latest post looks at why the stakes are so high, and what must change in global ocean policy.
🌍 sammeadows.substack.com/p/oceans-at-...
#UNOC2025 #OceanPolitics #GlobalGovernance
Five million dried seahorses seized in just a few years. Many headed for China and Hong Kong. Many supposedly protected.
The global trade in seahorses is booming as uncovered by @projectseahorse.bsky.social
New story on a hidden marine trafficking crisis: sammeadows.substack.com/p/millions-o...
Dom Phillips was murdered for exposing criminal networks in the Amazon. Two years on, the region is still burning, politically and literally.
I wrote about Dom’s legacy and the ongoing dangers faced everyday by environmental defenders.
📖 sammeadows.substack.com/p/dom-philli...
Danielle Kessler (@ifawglobal.bsky.social) says Trump-era aid cuts have hampered global conservation.
The pulling of key funding could have long-term consequences for wildlife protection.
Read more:
🔗 sammeadows.substack.com/p/poachers-t...
#conservation #foreignaid #wildlifetrafficking
