Help Stop Illegal Wildlife Trafficking

The sounds of the city were quiet when the Wildlife Crime Hotline rang at 3:15am one early morning in March. On the line was one of the Wildlife Rapid Rescue Team’s (WRRT) trusted informants with a tip about a Vietnamese wildlife trader transporting wildlife through Phnom Penh. By 4:00am, the WRRT was already staked out near the Chrouy Changva bridge, looking for the offender’s car and license plate. When the target was spotted, the team followed the car to the Olympic Bus Station, where the trader began quickly transferring wildlife from his car to a bus routed from Phnom Penh to Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam. When the bus drove off, the WRRT pulled it over.

The WRRT rescued a total of 86 animals including 1 African grey parrot, 2 geckos, 1 iguana, 1 star tortoise, 37 Squirrels, 5 chinchillas, 3 snakes, 2 blue lizards and 34 common water monitors. A hefty fine was implemented and the wildlife was immediately transported to the Phnom Tamao Wildlife Rescue Center. The native wildlife will be released back into protected forest, but many of the animals were destined for the exotic pet trade and are not native to Southeast Asia. They will find a permanent home at the rescue center, where no animals are turned away.

Thank you for your support of the Wildlife Rapid Rescue Team and helping us crack down on the international illegal wildlife trade.

The WRRT is a Forestry Administration law enforcement unit led by the Forestry Administration, in cooperation with the Military Police, with technical and financial support from Wildlife Alliance.

The Wildlife Rapid Rescue Team arrested the owner of a traditional medicine shop in Kampong Speu, Cambodia for selling 16 species of wildlife, including rare and endangered species. One of the team’s informants tipped them off to the shop, leading them to investigat3 and raid the shop. The team rescued live Critically Endangered pangolins, civets, rare tortoises, and water monitors. They also confiscated 41 Vulnerable sun and moon bear claws, 23 Endangered dhole teeth, Vulnerable sambar deer antlers, 11 boar tusks, and several liters of loris and red muntjac blood mixed with rice wine. 

The shop owner openly sold plenty of traditional medicines but secretly sold wildlife illegally. He admitted that some of the wildlife was taken from the Phnom Aural Wildlife Sanctuary in the Cardamom Mountains as well as from other countries, including star tortoises which are native to India and Sri Lanka. The wildlife was all taken Phnom Tamao Wildlife Rescue Center where they will be assessed, rehabilitated, and hopefully released back into protected habitat. The wildlife products were all confiscated and destroyed.

Traditional medicine poses a serious threat to many wildlife species and is driving some species, such as pangolins, to the brink of extinction. Thank you for supporting Wildlife Alliance’s Wildlife Rapid Rescue Team and for helping them stomp out wildlife trafficking.