Stiles, 72, grew intrigued by apes decades ago as a graduate

The Illicit Global Ape Trade

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canada goose parka outlet Daniel Canada Goose Outlet Stiles, a self styled ape trafficking detective in Kenya, had been scouring Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp for weeks, looking for pictures of gorillas, chimps or orangutans. He was hoping to chip away at an illicit global trade that has captured or killed tens of thousands of apes and pushed some endangered species to the brink of extinction. canada goose parka outlet

canada goose outlet phone number After hundreds of searches, Mr. Stiles found an Instagram account offering dozens of rare animals for sale, including baby chimpanzees and orangutans dressed in children’s clothes. He sent an email to an address on the account “looking for young otans” (the industry standard slang for orangutans) and several days later received a reply. canada goose outlet phone number

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canada goose outlet legit The trafficker identified himself only as Tom and said he was based in Southeast Asia. Mr. Stiles knew what Canada Goose Online Tom was hoping for: to sell the infant cheap canada goose uk orangutans to a private collector or unscrupulous zoo, where they are often beaten or drugged into submission and used for entertainment like mindlessly banging on drums or boxing one another. Such ape shows are a growing business in Southeast Asia, despite international regulations that prohibit trafficking in endangered apes. canada goose outlet legit

canada goose outlet online store review Several weeks later, after a few more rounds of text messages with Tom to firm up the details, Mr. canada goose uk outlet Stiles decided to fly to Bangkok. canada goose outlet online store review

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canada goose victoria parka outlet ‘Endgame Conservation’Ape trafficking is a cheap Canada Goose little known corner of the illicit wildlife trade, a global criminal enterprise that hauls in billions of dollars. But unlike the thriving business in elephant ivory, rhino horns, tiger bone wine or pangolin scales, ape smuggling involves canada goose black friday sale live animals some of the most endangered, intelligent and sensitive animals on Earth. canada goose victoria parka outlet

canada goose outlet hong kong Mr. Stiles, 72, grew intrigued by apes decades ago as a graduate student in anthropology. He and the other researchers estimated that the smuggling had claimed more than 22,000 apes either trafficked or killed. canada goose outlet hong kong

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canada goose jacket outlet store Apes are big business a gorilla baby can cost as much as $250,000 but who exactly is buying these animals is often as opaque as the traffickers’ identity. Many times, researchers uk canada goose say, they can only begin to track where the apes have ended up by stumbling across the Facebook posts and Canada Goose Jackets YouTube videos of rich pet collectors. canada goose jacket outlet store

canada goose factory outlet toronto location “This is sick,” Mr. Stiles said as he pulled up a picture of a small chimpanzee wearing lipstick. “You got this poor animal, without its mother, without any other members of its own species, totally Canada Goose Outlet bewildered and canada goose store terrorized, all for human amusement.” canada goose factory outlet toronto location

canada goose outlet authentic Wildlife officials said that a handful of Western businessmen had also been arrested. But the majority of recent busts, they added, have been in Africa or Southeast Asia, usually of low level traffickers or poorly paid underlings, not the bosses who control underground exports and travel abroad to make deals. canada goose outlet authentic

canada goose clothing uk For years wildlife officials suspected that a mysterious American known simply as “Joe” was running a large trafficking ring out of Thailand, one of the world hubs for smuggled apes. According to “Tom,” the trafficker Mr. Stiles discovered, “Joe” had recently retired. canada goose clothing uk

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canada goose outlet winnipeg According to the Arcus buy canada goose jacket cheap Foundation, a nonprofit group that studies apes, Indonesia and Canada Goose Parka Malaysia have tripled their palm oil Canada Goose sale production in the past 15 years, wiping out the habitats of thousands of orangutans. In Africa, canada goose clearance sale it’s the same, with new rubber plantations, new roads and new farms cutting deeply into gorilla areas. One species, the Cross River gorilla, is now so endangered that scientists think there are only 200 or 300 left. canada goose outlet winnipeg

canada goose outlet store montreal “In living memory, there were millions of apes,” said Ian Redmond, a well known primatologist. “Now, there’s just a few hundred thousand and falling.” canada goose outlet store montreal

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canada goose outlet in toronto The Apes’ WorldMost apes, which include gorillas, gibbons, orangutans, chimpanzees and bonobos, live deep in the rain forest. The Basankusu region of Congo, lying along a tributary of the legendary Congo River, is one of the last bonobo refuges and a source of many trafficked apes. canada goose outlet in toronto

canada goose outlet store new york It’s not easy getting here. We flew from Congo’s capital, Kinshasa, to Mbandaka, a river town where 50 foot dugout canoes arrive every morning, edging into shore crammed with uk canada goose outlet products of the forest: onions, eggplants, buckets of red skinned peanuts, dead pangolins, dead turtles, dead monkeys and, occasionally, live apes. canada goose outlet store new york

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