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Meet Our Animals

Meet Roly Poly: A Rescued Sunda pangolin

The Sunda pangolin is an amazing animal - a scaly mammal that eats ants and termites, hides in dense forest, and rolls into a tiny ball when scared.

 

Meet Pursat: The World’s Only Rescued Hairy-Nosed Otter

Wildlife Alliance’s Care for Rescued Wildlife program at Phnom Tamao is home to Pursat, a rescued hairy-nosed otter. Pursat is probably the only one of his species cared for by humans anywhere on Earth.

Wildlife

The illegal wildlife trade involves millions of individual animals and plants and tens of thousands of species. Smuggling ranges from live animals and plants that supply the pet and horticulture trades, to wildlife meats for luxury foods for the wealthy and traditional Asian medicine, to wildlife derivatives like ivory, pelts, and bones used to make curios, clothing, and medicines.

Asian Black Bear paws confiscated from a wildlife traffickerThe entire trade is estimated to be worth at least $5 billion and potentially in excess of $20 billion annually. A substantial portion of the global illegal wildlife trade takes place in Southeast Asia, which makes it an ideal region for Wildlife Alliance to focus our fight against it.

Wildlife Alliance began responding to the illegal wildlife trade in 2001. Our approach partners law enforcement with rescued wildlife care. The Wildlife Rapid Rescue Team first rescues animals from poachers and sellers, confiscates illegal products made from wildlife, and prosecutes criminals. These wildlife law enforcement efforts are then integrated with our Care for Rescued Wildlife program, which has the ability to care for and rehabilitate animals victimized by the illegal wildlife trade, reintroducing them into the wild when possible and providing lifetime care when necessary at the Phnom Tamao Wildlife Rescue Center. 

Chhouk, who lost his foot in a poacher’s snare, now walks with the help of a prostheses and his keepers at Phnom Tamao Wildlife Rescue CenterSince 2001, Wildlife Alliance has rescued more than 43,000 animals from poachers and illegal wildlife traders, and has dramatically driven down the buying and selling of wildlife in Cambodia and throughout Southeast Asia.

Wildlife Alliance also works to combat the illegal wildlife trade by working with communities to educate and empower locals to protect their environment through our environmental education initiatives, and by providing them with the tools to choose environmentally responsible livelihoods through our ecotourism and sustainable agriculture projects.

 

“We came to be profoundly affected by poaching of wildlife in the world, and the diminished habitat of those magnificent creatures— small and large—just for the most temporary human gains. Nature is slow and deliberate in its rebirth ‘til maturity.” — Tamaki Foundation

The Tamaki Foundation first became involved in Wildlife Alliance’s work after trustees read news articles describing our anti-poaching patrols in Southeast Asia. The Foundation funded the construction of a new ranger station in Koh Pao, Cambodia, whose rangers work to protect wildlife from poaching and illegal logging. After meeting with Wildlife Alliance staff and the director of the Phoenix Fund, Sergei Bereznuk, the Foundation’s support broadened to include Phoenix Fund’s anti-poaching patrols in Russia as well. Tamaki Foundation support has been a large part of our anti-poaching and anti-trafficking efforts in both Southeast Asia and the Russian Far East for more than four years.