Spoorthy Raman

Toronto

Science and Environment journalist | ✍️ in @hakaimagazine @mongabay @audubonsociety @DeccanHerald ++ | Mostly active on Blue Sky @spoorthyraman.bsky.social

Articles

‘Trophies’ shared on social media reveal scale of mass bird slaughter in Lebanon

1 week ago | news.mongabay.com | Spoorthy Raman

Millions of migratory birds fly over Lebanon, which is on the African-Eurasian flyway, where hunters indiscriminately shoot them, often illegally, despite some of the species being threatened and/or protected. A first-of-its-kind study uses social media photos and posts to assess the level of illegal hunting in Lebanon, where studies show an estimated 2.5 million birds are killed each year.
Plastic-eating seabird chicks show signs of organ failure and cognitive decline

1 week ago | news.mongabay.com | Spoorthy Raman

Seabirds and other marine wildlife are ingesting an increasing amount of plastics as pollution in the ocean rises. A recent study finds that sable shearwater chicks that consume high levels of plastics have abnormal levels of certain proteins in their blood, including some that suggest tissue damage, multiple organ failure and cognitive decline, despite showing no signs of obvious ill health.
What do CITES data tell us about the legal wildcat trade?

2 weeks ago | news.mongabay.com | Spoorthy Raman

All 40 species of wildcats are traded globally, both legally and illegally, posing conservation concerns for big and small cats. Wildcats are listed on CITES, the global international wildlife trade agreement, and analysis of data on wildcats for the last 25 years shows that most trade permits are issued for lions, followed by leopards, bobcats, Canada lynx and tigers.
Amid fuzzy data, scientists urge monitoring of Hong Kong’s tokay gecko trade

3 weeks ago | news.mongabay.com | Spoorthy Raman

Thousands of tokay geckos (Gekko gecko), native to South and Southeast Asia, are sold each year in Hong Kong’s traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) pharmacies. Recent studies have raised questions on the sustainability of this trade and the origins of the geckos, as vendors’ claims don’t agree with data in the CITES database, exposing data discrepancies in legal trade.
An oil-rich West African island offers decades of insight into the wild meat trade

3 weeks ago | news.mongabay.com | Spoorthy Raman

Bioko Island, a biodiversity hotspot and part of Equatorial Guinea, is home to seven primate species and others like duikers, which are sold in local markets catering to the urban rich. A recent study, part of the longest wild meat market study in the world, investigates the drivers of the trade on the island and tracks how it has changed over the last 30 years amid economic downturns, conservation actions and public health concerns.
Regulation loopholes fuel illegal wildlife trade from Latin America to Europe

1 month ago | openlegalblogarchive.org | Spoorthy Raman

Between 2017 and 2023, nearly 2,500 animals from 69 species were seized from illegal trade shipments from Latin America into Europe, a recent IFAW report shows. More than 90% of the seized wildlife were live animals, mostly amphibians, reptiles and birds destined primarily for the exotic pet trade. Nearly 75% of the seized species were not CITES-listed despite many of them being rare and endemic and protected in their native range.
Regulation loopholes fuel illegal wildlife trade from Latin America to Europe

1 month ago | news.mongabay.com | Spoorthy Raman

Between 2017 and 2023, nearly 2,500 animals from 69 species were seized from illegal trade shipments from Latin America into Europe, a recent IFAW report shows. More than 90% of the seized wildlife were live animals, mostly amphibians, reptiles and birds destined primarily for the exotic pet trade. Nearly 75% of the seized species were not CITES-listed despite many of them being rare and endemic and protected in their native range.
Both legal and illegal wildlife trade ‘need better monitoring’: Interview with Alice Hughes

1 month ago | news.mongabay.com | Spoorthy Raman

The legal wildlife trade is worth $220 billion annually and involves at least 70,000 species, yet data on its sustainability is scarce, especially for species not listed under CITES, the global wildlife trade convention. CITES only covers a fraction of traded species, and most countries lack standardized, publicly available trade data, making it difficult to assess threats to biodiversity.
Seal ‘oceanographers’ reveal fish abundance in Pacific Ocean’s twilight zone

1 month ago | news.mongabay.com | Spoorthy Raman

The open ocean’s twilight zone, a vast deep ecosystem rich in fish biomass, is poorly understood because it is expensive and challenging for humans to reach its depths 200–1000 meters (660–3,280 feet) below the surface. A new study used northern elephant seals (Mirounga angustirostris) — marine predators that forage in the twilight zone — to help understand fish abundance deep down, both five decades into the past and two years into the future.
Des pièges photographiques capturent des images rares de la faune congolaise

1 month ago | fr.mongabay.com | Spoorthy Raman

Le photographe Will Burrard-Lucas a installé des appareils haute définition sur quatre sites dans le Parc national de Nouabalé-Ndoki, au Congo, en 2023. Les appareils ont capturé de magnifiques images de spécimens rares de la faune sauvage. Le Parc national de Nouabalé-Ndoki abrite une population importante d’espèces de mammifères menacés, dont des gorilles, des chimpanzés et des éléphants de forêt.