News & Updates

The rare Ethiopian wolves are beginning to recover from three tough years in their stronghold in the Bale Mountains. This is Africa’s most threatened carnivore and the world’s rarest canid (dog family). Latest reports from the field have revealed that wolf packs in the Web Valley, Sanetti Plateau and Morebawa in the Bale Mountains of southern Ethiopia are thriving, with 28, 22 and 10 pups recorded respectively. The news is particularly welcomed because the last three years have been incredibly hard for these packs, following deadly outbreaks of rabies and canine distemper virus, as well as a serious drought.

Animals face many threats in the wild - some ‘natural’ and many that are ‘man-made’. But are animals kept in zoos really safe from danger? Over the years there have been numerous reports of animals in zoos around the world being injured or killed by visitors or intruders. Shockingly, this week alone has seen two such tragic incidents.

Meet Chipazuwa, an infant baboon who has just been rescued by Born Free’s long term partner the Zambia Primate Project (ZPP). After apparently escaping from a rope tethering her, she was found wandering alone, dehydrated and hungry by a compassionate farmer on the outskirts of Lusaka. ZPP swung into action and earlier this week she was flown to the Luangwa Valley where Anna Tolan from Chipembele Wildlife Education Trust and one of ZPPs ex-volunteers Ruth were waiting at the airstrip to meet her.

Born Free Founder and Trustee, Virginia McKenna OBE, congratulated newly qualified Metropolitan Police Dog handlers and their dogs, as they graduated from the Training Establishment in Keston, Kent. In a week where the future of the UK’s domestic ivory market was debated in Parliament, Virginia was keen to see first-hand how the Metropolitan Police is piloting new training techniques to crack down on the illegal wildlife trade.

Recent reports in the Daily Mail have yet again highlighted the risks of close interactions with captive elephants.The short video appears to show an unnamed female tourist, thrown into the air by a large captive elephant whilst taking part in a ‘bathing’ activity at an elephant facility in Thailand (believed to be the Patara Elephant Farm in Chiang Mai). Thankfully, serious injury, in this instance, was apparently avoided, but it could have been a lot worse. There have been many incidents of tourist injury and fatalities caused by captive elephants. Last year, a Scottish tourist was killed in Thailand when the elephant he was riding went berserk, trampling and goring him to death.

On the 2nd February, UK Government department Defra released its plans for new regulations relating to the licensing of animal establishments such as boarding kennels, horse-riding schools and pet shops.

The Born Free Foundation is supporting efforts by South African organisations to persuade the authorities in South Africa to rethink their proposal to permit the annual export of 800 skeletons from captive-bred lions.

Kenya has reportedly banned the export of several species of snake, including the African rock python, to zoos and pet shops around the world, after research has shown that the ecology of the snakes, especially pythons, has been negatively affected by wildlife trafficking.

Madrid, January 31, 2017.- The Municipal Plenary of the City of Madrid has voted in favour of banning circuses with wild animals from entering the capital of Spain. The decision is a result of the perseverance of the NGO coalition InfoCircos, which was founded by the Born Free Foundation and the Spanish NGOs, ANDA and FAADA.

Concerning reports indicate that a man has been killed by a tiger at the Youngor Wildlife Park in Ningbo, China. It is unclear how the man entered the enclosure on Sunday, with local reports suggesting he was visiting the zoo with his wife and child.