Born Free has just heard that the 2008 IUCN Red List status for the African Elephant has been corrected from 'Near Threatened' to 'Vulnerable' as of midnight 10 March 2010.  Other corrections made are to the status of the Central African sub-population, now 'Endangered' (previously 'Data Deficient') and that of West Africa now 'Vulnerable' (previously 'Near Threatened').

Indian NGOs¹ in the Born Free-supported Satpuda Landscape Tiger Programme (SLTP) network have successfully fought off plans for coal mines to be established in ecologically sensitive areas. Born Free established the Programme in 2004 to help save the tiger in central India’s vast forests. Proposals threatened to destroy 2,500 hectares of forest surrounding the Tadoba-Andhari Tiger Reserve, Maharashtra. Tigers are wide-ranging animals, reliant on extensive forest habitat, and frequently roaming into ‘buffer zones’. These areas outside core protected habitat act as critical habitat ‘corridors’ to other protected areas.

With support from the Maharastra State Forestry Department and the central National Tiger Conservation Authority, the success of the SLTP partners’ lobbying efforts underlines the power of coordinated and sustained campaigns.

Born Fre

Warnings ignored. Wild animals not suitable for captivity

24/02/10, According to eye witnesses, as spectators watched, an orca (the largest member of the dolphin family) named Tillikum at SeaWorld in Orlando, grabbed his trainer and pulled her under the water. In a statement issued by SeaWorld, the trainer, who has had 14 years experience training captive orca and dolphins, “drowned”.

This is the third time that Tillikum, whose stage name is Shamu at SeaWorld, has caused a fatality after nearly three decades in captivity.

Breaking news 25/02/10…Thai customs officials have seized two tonnes of elephant tusks hidden in pallets in Bangkok yesterday. Further evidence as CITES* approaches that the prospect of additional legal trade in ivory is fuelling an increase in illegal trafficking.

The consignment of 239 tusks originated in South Africa and was labeled as ‘mobile phone parts’ destined for Loas. Officials, acting on a tip off, arrested a Thai national when he attempted to pick up the cargo at Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Airport.

Your final chance to bring the curtain down?

Many of you will be concerned about the ongoing use of wild animals in circuses in this country, and the problems with these welfare of these animals; and many of you will also have voiced your opinions on this matter to the Minister for Animal Welfare and/or Defra in the past.

After a long wait and a lot of deliberation, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) have launched a public consultation on plans for regulation of the use of wild animals in travelling circuses in England. The consultation outlines three options:

As a devastating wave of elephant poaching sweeps across Africa, the Born Free Foundation is today calling upon the UK Government to lead its EU counterparts in strongly denouncing any measures that could lead to further trade in ivory and any more elephant deaths.

Some experts are warning that Africa is losing as much as 8% (36,000) of its elephants each year due to poaching for ivory.  Zakouma National Park in Chad, Central Africa, is a prime example.  In 2006, Zakouma’s elephant population stood at 3,880.  Today, just four years later, that number has been reduced to 617 and falling.