Page 56 - BBC Wildlife Volume 36 #12

WILDNEWS

WILDLIFE CRIME The pangolin is
thought to be
G b l adersjoinforcestohelp the world’s
most traicked
eradicateillegalwildlife trade mammal.

ignificant progress was made at the
SUK Government’s Illegal Wildlife
Trade Conference in London this October,
according to campaigners.
The high-profile event attracted
representatives from more than 80
countries, who agreed to a number of
new initiatives, which included reducing
demand for illegal products, tackling
online crime and launching a financial
task force to disrupt international money
flows linked to animal trafficking.
“We warmly welcome the outcomes
of the conference and the specific
actions identified to achieve a significant
reduction in wildlife criminal activities,”
said Steven Broad, the executive director
of TRAFFIC, an NGO working towards
sustainable wildlife trading.
However, some campaigners were left
disappointed with the final conference
declaration. “The lack of tangible, clear,
time-bound, measurable commitments
by attending governments within
the declaration leaves a feeling of an FIND OUT MORE
opportunity missed,” said Dr Mark London Conference on the
Jones of the Born Free Foundation. IllegalWildlifeTrade 2018
Simon Birch actions and commitments:
https://bit.ly/2qcciZy

NEW SPECIES DISCOVERY The ‘Japan pig’ IN NUMBERS
pygmy seahorse
can be found
Japan pig in coral and 50%
algae reefs.
of macroinvertebrate samples
from SouthWales rivers
WHAT IS IT? The
contained microplastics
colloquial name of this
according to research from
gorgeous new species was coined
Cardif University.
by divers who thought it looked
a little porcine. But it’s no more a
pig than it is a horse. It’s a pygmy 21
seahorse. And there’s no doubt
successful ultrasounds have been
it’s small – no bigger than 16mm –
carried out on 16 female whale
which may help explain why it
sharks in the Galápagos Islands.
has been missed until now.
WHERE IS IT? Hippocampus japapigu
is the fifth species of pygmy seahorse 35
to have been recorded in Japanese
police warnings were issued to Pangolin: Jen Guyton/naturepl.com; seahorse: Richard Smith
waters. The blotches of colour provide
wild food foragers in London’s
camouflage among algae-encrusted
Royal Parks in autumn 2017,
rocks in shallow water. It seems to live in
which is a 600 per cent
pairs, because whenever one individual SOURCE Read the ZooKeys
increase on 2016.
was spotted, another was often found article: https://zookeys.pensoft.
lurking nearby. Stuart Blackman net/articles.php?id=24799

56 BBC Wildlife December 2018