Help Stop Illegal Wildlife Trafficking

Happy Giving Tuesday! Today we have some stories to share with you about several pangolins and a baby black-shanked douc langur that were recently rescued. To help pay for more rescues like these in 2022, we hope to raise $4,800 for Wildlife Rapid Rescue Team officers’ salaries by year-end. If you plan to Help Stop Illegal Wildlife Trafficking this giving season, please donate today when GlobalGiving is matching all donations of up to $2,500 (made November 30 from 00:01AM-11:59PM EST) from their $1Million Matching Fund!

The Wildlife Rapid Rescue Team has been hitting the road a lot since restrictions were eased in September as Cambodia assumes a ‘new normal.’ Sometimes this involves in-depth investigations and seizing a large wildlife shipment. But we also get many calls to our 24-hour Wildlife Crime Hotline and Facebook page from concerned citizens who report individual wild animals that are in need of help. Following up on reports such as these led to four Critically Endangered animals being rescued in October: three Sunda pangolins and a baby black-shanked douc langur.

In early October, Cambodia celebrated the Pchum Ben Holiday, when people return to their homeland to visit family and honor their ancestors. At the start of the holiday, someone called the Hotline to say they received a Sunda pangolin from a relative in the provinces and they wanted to donate it. The Team brought the pangolin to Phnom Tamao, where it was deemed suitable for release and a few days later it went to our Wildlife Release Station (WRS) in the Cardamom Mountains. A few days later, while the supervisor for one of our ranger patrol stations was on holiday in Battambang Province someone gave him a pangolin to release. He brought it to Wildlife Alliance’s office in Phnom Penh, but when our officers performed a health check, they found the pangolin had injuries that made it unsuitable for immediate release. It was brought to Phnom Tamao Wildlife Rescue Centre for rehabilitation. Finally, at the end of the month, we got another Hotline call from a person who wanted to donate yet another pangolin! The Team collected the pangolin and brought it to WRS. These rescues are particularly important at this time because WRS staff are conducting an ongoing study to track Sunda pangolins released from the Station to learn more the behavior and survival rates of this elusive species. The results will contribute to species conservation as we refine our own protocols for rehabilitation and releases and publish the results.

Black-shanked douc langur is another Critically Endangered species that we are encountering all too often these days – a sign that their popularity in the pet trade is growing and/or that forest habitat in their limited range in Cambodia’s Northeast is disappearing. Previously, doucs were very rarely encountered in the illegal trade here. Unfortunately, since 2020 we have rescued over half a dozen baby douc langurs, many suffering from severe malnutrition and hydration because they are exceptionally sensitive and difficult to raise in captivity. In mid-October the team learned that a baby douc langur was being kept in a temple in Rattanakiri Province. We went to the temple to meet with the monks, who said the douc had been given to them after it had been rescued from hunters, about 6 months ago. We explained that doucs are extremely challenging to hand-raise and that many babies end up dead as a result. The chief monk agreed to donate the douc to Wildlife Alliance so it can receive proper care at Phnom Tamao, where hopefully it can eventually join the growing troupe of doucs there, each of which was rescued as a baby over the past two years and hand-raised.  

We hope you enjoyed these stories, and, if you can, please donate to our project today – no amount is too small and every donation will be matched from the Incentive Fund!

In the first 9 months of 2021, the Wildlife Rapid Rescue Team already:

• Conducted 487 operations
• Rescued 1,080 live animals
• Released 551 rescued animals
• Seized 2,729 dead animals and 860+ lbs. of wildlife parts 
• Apprehended 51 offenders
• Levied $4,872 in wildlife crime fines

WRRT activities and results in 2021 have been affected by the pandemic and its side-effects in a few ways. Cambodia’s illegal wildlife trade has been quieter this year than last, likely due to reduced demand as many shops/markets in tourist hotspots have closed, periodic closures of overland borders, and the pandemic itself increasing awareness of the human health risks posed by wildlife consumption. Another major factor is that government measures to stem the spread of COVID-19 prevented travel by the mobile team for much of this period. Despite these significant challenges, the WRRT conducted only 10% fewer operations in the first three quarters of 2021 versus 2020.

With restrictions finally beginning to ease in Cambodia, WRRT carried out two successful big busts (featured in our last report) during a single mission to the Southwest provinces in September, and in October the team has been back on the road investigating leads and cracking down on the illegal trade. So much of this work is based on tip-offs from our network of undercover informants, who are paid a fee for reliable information that leads to a successful bust. Your generous donations over the past year provided vital funding for informant fees and the salaries of the Royal Gendarmerie officers who give the Team its law enforcement authority – helping us to hold traders accountable for their crimes against wildlife.

Our year-end fundraising goal is to raise $4,800 for officers’ salaries. If you plan to support us during this season, please consider making a donation on GivingTuesday – all donations of up to $2,500 made November 30 (from 00:01AM-11:59PM EST) will be matched from GlobalGiving’s $1Million Matching Fund!! Thank you so much for your support.