NEWSPOACHING

Update: On January 24, Boca Tacos y Tequila announced on their Facebook page that they will not be serving lion tacos on February 16th and will refund any money already collected from pre-orders. While the restaurant cited "concern for safety of our families, customers, vendors, and friends," it is the right decision not to serve lion meat, which would have supported cruel exotic animal farms and put endangered animals in jeopardy.

An Arizona taco restaurant is using lion meat to garner a bunch of free publicity. Boca Tacos y Tequila is accepting pre-orders for tacos made out of ground up African lion.

This might sound a little familiar. Last year, another Arizona restaurant, Il Vinaio (not affiliated with Boca Tacos y Tequila), made headlines when it offered lion burgers on its menu. When the news broke, over 1,000 members of the Change.org community joined the effort to convince Il Vinaio to stop serving lion, and Il Vinaio's owners saw the light.

Apparently Bryan Mazon, who owns Boca Tacos y Tequila, didn't learn from Il Vinaio's mistakes. Worse, he makes no bones about the fact that this is nothing more than a crass publicity stunt, telling the Arizona Daily Star, "I'm doing the African lion to get my name out ... In all reality, what I want is just people to know that I'm here. That's the way to do it."

Among other things, bear bile is used to treat hangovers. You may not be recovering from your New Year's Eve party with a wine-bile concoction — and, according to recent survey by Animals Asia, 76 percent of traditional healers said their patients aren't using it either — but enough people do use this traditional Chinese remedy that thousands of bears across Asia endure extreme confinement, mutilation and painful procedures as they're farmed for their bile.

Even for those who practice traditional healing, bear bile isn't necessary. Animals Asia also learned of cases where bear bile poisoning resulted in the death of the patient. Jill Robinson, founder of Animals Asia, said, "No one will die from the lack of bear bile. Ironically, though, it seems people are now becoming sick and even dying from taking it."

Obviously, it's killing bears, too, and not just in Asia.

In the U.S., black bear poaching has been on the rise. In November, a young bear in Virginia's Prince William Park was found dumped, with his gallbladder missing. As bear populations in Asia dwindle, bears the U.S. become increasingly vulnerable to the black market demand for bile. Wildlife officials are investigating the crime, but there may not be much they can do about it.

Elephants are extremely intelligent, sensitive animals, so it's only appropriate that some of the best strategies to protect them are a combination of community and creativity.

For instance, conservationists and farmers have found ways to play off elephants' fears, using chili-infused string and beehives on poles, to create low-impact, low-cost fences that reduce human-elephant conflicts.

In the southern part of Sumatra, about 22 of 37 villages in the area have a history of elephant problems. Donny Gunaryadi, the Wildlife Conservation Society-Indonesia Elephant Conservation Coordinator, says that the rice and maize grown in the area is "like eating candy" for the elephants. But that treat comes at a high cost; when there's a raid, elephants are poisoned or shot. Insects do more damage to crops, Gunaryadi says, but "psychologically, elephant is big. It's an easy target."

So, WCS created the Crop Protection Unit. It's the safari version of a classic neighborhood watch. Everyone keeps an eye out for trouble; if a potential crop raid is spotted, the unit is called and the team heads out to block the elephants. Though the team uses cellphones to stay in touch, the elephant deterrents are remarkably simple, like banging bamboo and using spotlights. Since the WCS Crop Protection Unit started in 2003, no humans or elephants have died.

Over 20 years ago, the international community tried to regulate the ivory trade. It failed miserably — an estimated 90 percent of ivory on the market was from poached elephants. To save elephants from extinction, an international ivory trade ban went into effect.

So, what's that smooth, tusk-colored jewelry that Michelle Obama has been sporting lately? Woolly mammoth ivory, being dug up in Russia and sold around the world as an "ethical, guilt-free" alternative.

As warmer temperatures melt the Russian tundra and expose more and more mammoths, the debate over their ivory is heating up. In a research paper published in Pachyderm, the journal by experts from the International Union for the Conservation, it was acknowledged that woolly mammoth ivory could reduce demand for elephant ivory. But they also raised the concern that the two types of ivory could be used to fool the market and wildlife trade officials; with mammoth ivory bringing in more cash than elephant tusks, it's a pretty good incentive for poachers to disguise their product to get a piece of the market.

In late August, a suitcase busted open on a luggage conveyor belt at Malaysia's Kuala Lumpur International Airport, revealing 95 endangered boa constrictors, a couple of rhinoceros vipers and a mata-mata turtle. The bag belonged to Anson Wong, aptly nicknamed the Lizard King, a wildlife trafficker on the Most Wanted list of pretty much every wildlife department and anti-smuggling group in the world.

Wong has an anaconda-sized rap sheet for prior smuggling busts, including one that landed him in U.S. federal prison for 71 months nearly a decade ago. Ninety-five endangered snakes could yield fines of up to $32,000 per animal and as many as 7 years in prison. So what was this flagrant repeat offender sentenced to? A whopping six months in prison and $60,000 total fine.

That's a little more than the black market price one could fetch for a tiger (of which Wong had two) or about the average value on the internet for 90 boa constrictors (or just under a suitcase-full). Doesn't put much of a squeeze on someone like Wong. Way to take a stand against wildlife trafficking and make an example out of him, Malaysia.

When comes to fighting poachers, mankind has developed a lot of sophisticated technology to keep people from killing endangered animals to sell their horns, ivory, or other products. But, the newest weapon on the scene isn't new at all, nor is it technology in any sense.

In fact, the key word is "sense." As in, a keen sense of smell, standard equipment on dogs. Dogs, who can learn to smell out explosives, drugs, and a variety of other materials, can also be useful in stopping poachers.

The idea isn't necessarily a new one; we've known for awhile that dogs could

Times are tough for chimpanzees. We humans are eating our close cousins into extinction. The U.K. Guardian recently reported on an 18-month study conducted in the Democratic Republic of Congo which found that chimps are facing a "wave of killing" by bushmeat hunters.

One of the researchers, Dr. Cleve Hicks of the University of Amsterdam, said he "was actually astonished to see the sheer quantities of bushmeat being taken out of the forest ... It was really shocking." Dr. Hicks believes about 440 chimpanzees are slaughtered in the region every year. "The increasing level of the bushmeat trade in this region is truly alarming," said Alice Macharia of the Jane Goodall Institute.

Some chimps, fortunately, are learning to outwit the human hunters intent on consuming their flesh.

Straight out of the “what were they thinking” file comes the most recent account of people being arrested for sharing evidence of illegal activities on Facebook. Two people in Florida were arrested after posting photos of themselves with a poached deer on the popular social networking site.

After receiving a tip about the photos, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) investigated the information, leading to the arrest of William Buchanan and Tara Carver. While both accept responsibility for skinning the deer, neither one will admit to killing the animal. Buchanan denies being present for the killing and Carver blames Buchanan.

Until FWC officers can determine responsibility for shooting the deer, Buchanan and Carver will be charged with possessing illegally harvested wildlife, a second-degree misdemeanor.

For sea turtles that live in the Pacific Ocean near Mexico, it’s not spilled oil that’s hastening their extinction — it’s poachers.

Although the Mexican government began imposing $16,000 fines 20 years ago for killing turtles or trafficking their eggs, the country has one of the highest rates of turtle poaching in the world.

Near Acapulco just last week, six men were caught transporting 3,756 eggs from Olive Ridley turtles, which are protected under Mexican law.

Of the seven sea turtle species in the world, six return to Mexico’s northwestern beaches to lay eggs. All six species are in danger of becoming extinct, according to the World Wildlife Fund.

Fortunately the turtles that nest along those beaches have guardian angels in the form of nature lover Oscar Aranda and the conservation group he founded, La Sociedad Ecológica del Occidente (also known as Vallarta Rescue).

Ted Nugent, musician and hunting fanatic, was brought up on 11 charges of poaching, including baiting and killing a deer too young to be legally hunted. Ted Nugent pleaded no contest to the poaching charges and was fined $1,750 by the state of California.

Poaching is a serious crime against animals. Poachers shoot animals out of season or beyond legal limits. Poachers often use illegal methods of killing, and kill protected species.

Ironically, Ted Nugent was caught poaching because of his hunting television show, Spirit of the Wild on the Outdoor Channel. Apparently, game wardens saw Nugent kill an immature buck on a February episode of the show.  An investigation was launched and California officials found that the immature deer had been eating bait called C’mere Deer. Baiting wildlife is illegal in California.

Nugent is a longserving board member of the National Rifle Association, refe