In Florida’s Everglades, the Burmese Python population has spread rapidly over the past two decades, thanks to the warm climate and variety of local wildlife that snakes can eat. The Burmese Python is not native to Florida but has spread after many pet owners (illegally) released their snakes in the wild. According to the National Park Service, more than 2,000 pythons have been removed since 2002, but that is likely a very small portion of the total population. The snakes feed on local groups of mammals and birds, and compete with native predators for food, so they could have a big impact on the ecosystem. After trying several different methods of dealing with the problem, authorities have now turned to singing snake catchers from India to try to catch the big reptiles.

Last year, the University of Florida, Everglades National Park, and the Department of Environmental Protection organized the second edition of Florida’s Python Challenge–a competition that urged residents to capture as many big snakes as they could. The month-long challenge, with a thousand participants, resulted in 106 caught pythons. That may sound like a lot, considering that the pythons are huge and well camouflaged. But in only two weeks, the two Indian men, Masi Sadaiyan and Vadivel Gopal, caught 14 snakes—and one was 16 feet long. They are members of the Irula tribe, from South India. The group is famous for hunting snakes.

Irula tribesmen & detector dogs help @UF @usfwsvero & @MyFWC battle #pythons in #Florida https://t.co/VdFicBd73H #snake pic.twitter.com/ZFN0LDNmJ2

— South Florida FWS (@USFWSVero) January 23, 2017

Sadaiyan and Gopal have headed out to the Everglades almost every day since arriving in the U.S., armed only with tire irons and accompanied by some biologists. They move slowly and head straight into the deep bushes. These experts know how to trace snakes from subtle signs like a specific pattern in the sand or a tunnel through the grass. From traces that the snakes leave, Sadayian and Gopal can determine the animal’s sex, size, and how long ago it was there. Though many people opposed the idea at first, and didn’t think that the methods that work in India would transfer easily to Florida, biologist Frank Mazotti and herpetologists Romulus Whitaker and Joe Wasilewski have been working on the plan for years.

“This is very big and probably the biggest invasive reptile problem that has ever existed on the planet,” said Whitaker, and added that they had to do something. Importing and transporting Burmese Pythons has been banned by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service since April 2015. The species is harmful to wildlife, agriculture, and humans. And the snakes reproduce quickly; the females lay between 30 and 100 eggs each spring.

Until now, the problem has been that local snake catchers haven’t been able to find the pythons quickly enough to halt their spread. Their pattern is extremely difficult to spot in the wild. The pythons have spread to more areas and were found in Key Largo for the first time last year. Sadaiyan and Gopal caught four snakes in Key Largo alone during their first eight days. “It is outstanding that they have been able to remove pythons from Key Largo,” said Mazzotti. “And to get four pythons, including a 16-foot female, is just incredible.”

According to the National Geographic, the Burmese Python is behind the decline in common mammals such as the cottontail rabbit, but also bigger ones like raccoons, deer, foxes, opossums, and bobcats. And the Fish and Wildlife Conservaton Commission hopes that local workers could learn some of the skills the Indian men possess, to keep up the work after they go home. “Since the Irula have been so successful in their homeland at removing pythons, we are hoping they can teach people in Florida some of these skills,” said Kristen Sommers, chief of the FWC’s Wildlife Impact Management.

Emma Von Zeipel

Emma Von Zeipel is a staff writer at Law Street Media. She is originally from one of the islands of Stockholm, Sweden. After working for Democratic Voice of Burma in Thailand, she ended up in New York City. She has a BA in journalism from Stockholm University and is passionate about human rights, good books, horses, and European chocolate. Contact Emma at EVonZeipel@LawStreetMedia.com.

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Apparently everyone uses social media these days–even poachers. A string of wildlife traffickers based out of Vietnam have been discovered using Facebook to sell large amounts of ivory, rhino horn, and tiger parts. On Monday and Tuesday the results from a yearlong investigation by the Wildlife Justice Commission WJC, will be presented at the Peace Palace in The Hague.

Investigators combed through a small Vietnamese village, Nhi Khe and found illegal goods worth $53.1 million, sold by 51 villagers both online and in person. Sadly, these products come from what are believed to be 907 elephants, 579 rhinos, 225 tigers, and other endangered species such as pangolins, bears, hawksbill turtles, and helmeted hornbills.

WJC tweeted early Monday morning the upsetting insight that people in the village didn’t even know what the animals used to make their products look like.

#WJCVietnam: @ossendryver on visit to VN found people didn’t really know what rhinos or elephants were ‘as animals’ just as products

— WJC (@WJCommission) November 14, 2016

The rise of social media has made it easier to sell products from the safety of your home. These sales happen through auctions in closed Facebook groups, where new visitors need to get approved by an admin before becoming members. Smugglers mainly sell processed products made from ivory or rhino, but there are also whole tusks and horns on the market. Payment is made via WeChat Wallet. They seem to be selling locally in Southeast Asia through Facebook, and use WeChat itself to sell to China.

Olivia Swaak-Goldman, Executive Director at WJC, said in a statement: “Our evidence shows that an amount of rhino horn equivalent to nearly half the rhinos poached annually in South Africa transits this village. Stopping this illegal trade requires urgent action.”

Tune into the #WJCVietnam Hearing by visiting: https://t.co/6QkP25KvfC pic.twitter.com/ymHayrIofW

— Born Free Foundation (@BFFoundation) November 14, 2016

But despite all the evidence, the statement said, in combination with diplomatic efforts, the Vietnamese government has not taken any action to stop the illegal smuggling. The government seems to have taken steps to prevent open trade, but behind closed doors, secret trading is still going on. This inaction is likely due to corruption.

#WJCVietnam: Milliken: we believe corruption is major issue at both ends of #illegaltrade supply chain. VN syndicates at both ends of chain.

— WJC (@WJCommission) November 14, 2016

However, on Monday morning, during the first part of the hearing, environmental reporting agency IISD tweeted that Vietnamese officials had made an arrest in connection to the wildlife traffickers.

#WJCVietnam: Viet Nam has made first arrest based on @WJCommission evidence last weekend. “An important first step.” https://t.co/xffQMd8JJD pic.twitter.com/0Mre9phfn3

— IISDRS (@IISDRS) November 14, 2016

Emma Von Zeipel

Emma Von Zeipel is a staff writer at Law Street Media. She is originally from one of the islands of Stockholm, Sweden. After working for Democratic Voice of Burma in Thailand, she ended up in New York City. She has a BA in journalism from Stockholm University and is passionate about human rights, good books, horses, and European chocolate. Contact Emma at EVonZeipel@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post Vietnamese Wildlife Traffickers Sell Ivory and Rhino Horn On Facebook appeared first on Law Street.

At the Wat Pha Luang Ta Bua temple near Thailand’s western border with Myanmar, Theravada Buddhist monks live with and take care of full grown tigers. They cuddle. They smooch. And for $140, tourists can buy a day of playing with the cats as well, hand feeding and bathing them. But on Wednesday, as a government-led campaign to end the temple’s tiger tourism was underway, a large freezer was found. Inside: 40 tiger cub carcasses, some preserved in jars, others frozen, many dead for years.

The Tiger Temple–as it’s commonly called–was buzzing with Thai officials and police officers, as 64 live adult tigers were hauled away, and the grisly freezer uncovered and unpacked. The seizure was the beginning of Thailand’s Wildlife Conservation Office’s efforts to put an end to the temple’s tiger tourism activities, which have come under increased scrutiny from animal rights groups over the years for mistreating the animals and engaging in black market trafficking.

“The monks have the attitude, ‘I am over the law,'” Teunchai Noochdumrong, the director of the Wildlife Conservation Office told The New York Times a few weeks ago. “They say because they are monks, they have the right to take care of all the animals in that area.”

For years, the temple has faced allegations of trafficking in tiger parts–an illegal offense–and breeding the beasts to sell throughout Asia and especially China, where tiger bone liquor is a highly prized tonic. Trafficking accusations began when a former veterinarian discovered that three adult tigers had gone missing.

Animal rights groups have pressured Thai authorities to end what they saw as the temple’s rough treatment of the tigers. After months of legal battles between the temple and the Wildlife Conservation Office, the campaign to remove the estimated 137 tigers at the temple kicked into high gear this week. Officials say Tiger Temple will be emptied of its tigers by Saturday. 

For its part, the temple claims to be a bastion of harmony between humans and tigers, an endangered species with an estimated 3,000 to 3,600 animals left on the planet. The temple earns $6 million a year from tourism. Tiger Temple addressed the allegations in a Facebook post in March, when trafficking suspicions first arose:

We can only surmise why the rumours of selling tiger cubs started, and it could be that some volunteers have jumped to conclusions after seeing cubs carried out of the general area where our tigers are kept,” the post said, adding they put off responding to the trafficking rumors because “the Buddhist way is to keep silent.”

Journalists from London and Thailand commented on the post, asking why the cub carcasses were kept frozen instead of cremated, “as per Buddhist customs.” The temple responded: “The previous vet Dr. Somchai started this policy. Probably in order to combat the allegations of the temple selling the cubs.” Essentially, the Temple is claiming that it kept the cubs to prove that they weren’t sold, but rather died of natural causes.

The tigers will be moved to government facilities around the country. But on its Facebook page over the weekend, Tiger Temple posted a video of one of its former tigers, Dawie, in a cage at its new home at the Khao Pratap Chang Research Facility; the cat’s face was bloodied and cut.

“Our tigers are used to huge open spaces and freedom, not used to being confined in small bare cages,” the post said.

Alec Siegel

Alec Siegel is a staff writer at Law Street Media. When he’s not working at Law Street he’s either cooking a mediocre tofu dish or enjoying a run in the woods. His passions include: gooey chocolate chips, black coffee, mountains, the Animal Kingdom in general, and John Lennon. Baklava is his achilles heel. Contact Alec at ASiegel@LawStreetMedia.com.

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It’s an interesting case that refuses to die. Described by NPR as “the legal saga of the monkey selfie,” U.S. District Judge William Orrick just issued a provisional opinion that a macaque named Naruto can’t legally copyright some selfies he snapped in a nature reserve in 2011.

The pictures in question do have all the attributes of a selfie.

Judge rules on whether monkey owns rights to famous “monkey selfie” photographs https://t.co/b6vY3jDLiupic.twitter.com/bSNKXtdivi

— CBS News (@CBSNews) January 7, 2016

They were taken with wildlife photographer David Slater’s camera, in a wildlife reservation on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi. However, Slater wasn’t the one who “took” the pictures, Naruto did. PETA, who filed the lawsuit on Naruto’s behalf, claimed that the monkey knew what he was doing. The lawsuit argues that Naruto had seen guests to the reserve taking photos, and that his actions included “purposely pushing the shutter release multiple times (and) understanding the cause-and-effect relationship between pressing the shutter release, the noise of the shutter, and the change to his reflection in the camera lens.”

But Slater claims that he has the rights to the pictures, and that he was holding onto the tripod while Naruto took the photos. He used it in a 2014 book of wildlife photography, and has a British copyright license for it. But some media sites, including Wikipedia, have argued that the photos are public domain because no one owns the copyright.

But despite all that confusion, one thing is clear: Orrick wasn’t going to let PETA get away with filing a copyright on behalf of a monkey. Although a formal opinion will be issued by the judge later, he did issue a provisional opinion Wednesday. Orrick stated: “while Congress and the President can extend the protection of law to animals as well as humans, there is no indication that they did so in the Copyright Act.” On that note, the U.S. Copyright Office has actually officially started listing “a photograph taken by a monkey” as something that specifically cannot be copyrighted. 

So, it doesn’t seem like we’ll be seeing an influx of monkey (or for that matter, other animal) copyrights anytime soon. But since monkeys can apparently take selfies, maybe this is a law that Congress will need to consider changing.

Anneliese Mahoney

Anneliese Mahoney is Managing Editor at Law Street and a Connecticut transplant to Washington D.C. She has a Bachelor’s degree in International Affairs from the George Washington University, and a passion for law, politics, and social issues. Contact Anneliese at amahoney@LawStreetMedia.com.

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