‘Gold rush’ as Botswana meets appetite for lion goods
Data investigation by Calistus Bosaletswe shows that over a 10-year period South Africa received most of the live lions and their products exported from Botswana...
20 January, 2021
Canned hunting investigations
‘The great emptiness is upon us’
Fifteen months after Zimbabwe's two infamous lion killings earned the Lower Dete Valley its reputation as the graveyard of Hwange National Park’s big cats, Oscar Nkala visited the area to...
07 November, 2016
Zimbabwe’s elephant poaching citadel
Why is a dusty town near Hwange National Park making international headlines for the poisoning of elephants? Oscar Nkala unravels the networks and modus operandi behind Dete’s infamy...
20 May, 2016
Botswana bans canned hunts
The Botswana government banned canned hunting of large carnivores, in response to an Oxpeckers cross-border investigation. Lawrence Seretse reports...
01 April, 2014
Uproar over ‘canned’ lions
[caption id="attachment_284" align="aligncenter" width="740"] Young lions crammed into an enclosure at a breeding facility in the Free State[/caption] This photograph, taken during an undercover transnational investigation by Oxpeckers reporters in late...
18 March, 2014
SA’s tigers going home to China?
Chinese official says the country is ready to take home the critically endangered tigers that have been bred and 're-wilded' in South Africa, reports Hongqiao Liu...
10 January, 2014
Minister probes lion export
Tshekedi Khama dispatched a team of investigators to probe how lions exported from Botswana ended up in a canned hunting facility in South Africa. Investigation by Lawrence Seretse...
07 January, 2014
Officials turn a blind eye to the smuggling of wild lions
South African farmers are using cattle-rustling routes to smuggle wild lions out of Botswana to supply the demand for lion-bone potions in the Far East. Investigation by Fiona Macleod...
09 December, 2013
Botswana minister in lion-trade scandal
Transnational exposé: In his latest lion deal, agriculture minister Christian de Graaff exported a huge shipment of lions to a canned hunting outfit in South Africa. By Fiona Macleod, Charné...
07 December, 2013