One Voice is and always will be in favour of a true hunting reform!

One Voice is and always will be in favour of a true hunting reform!
25.10.2022
France
One Voice is and always will be in favour of a true hunting reform!
Wildlife

More than eight in ten French people are in favour of a hunting ban two days a week including Sunday, and throughout the entirety of the school holidays (IPSOS/One Voice Survey, September 2022). Everywhere where One Voice has investigated in the hunting environment, alcohol has been present. Despite the ‘smoke and mirrors’ efforts by the Fédération nationale des chasseurs [National Federation of Hunters] to make its members aware of safety (like the reminder of 30° angles so as not to shoot your hunting neighbour), it is clear that they are insufficient to curb the deaths and injuries listed each year. The idea of training hunters in first aid is proof that there is nothing insignificant about this hobby.

According to Muriel Arnal, President of One Voice:

«Hunting is the only hobby that can kill those who do not practice it. The creation of a blood alcohol level offence in hunting would be a good start, but who would be in charge of carrying out the controls and what would the consequence be? We should not stop at the impact of setting it.»

A government won over by the hunting lobby

The Secretary of State in charge of Ecology, Bérangère Couillard, is launching a consultation this Tuesday on the areas of work regarding the safety of hunting. This is following a governmental policy very unfavourable towards free wildlife, at least since the first election of Emmanuel Macron, and a clear show in favour of hunters; and this is systematically ignoring legal decisions or devastating problems linked to climate chaos on the environment and its inhabitants. They also follow numerous manslaughters and injuries of varying severities on those who benefit from nature: local residents, cyclists, motorists, foragers, hikers…

The dramatic death of Morgan Keane who was shot while he was in his garden resulted in more than 122,000 signatures on the One Day One Hunter [Un jour un chasseur] petition on the Senate’s site. In line with our previous requests, it asked for safety in hunting, particularly through hunt-free days so that everyone can enjoy nature without risking their life. The Senate Committee welcomed us, like many of our partners, but submitted a report far from being on the level of what is at stake. For the umpteenth time, it takes waiting for humans to be a hunters’ target for the government to act against the privileges that they benefit from constantly.

On-the-ground expertise developed by One Voice on hunting

One Voice has been leading in-depth work on the world of hunting for many years. This whistle-blowing work is essential against a lobby who has connections with the President of the Republic’s office.

To show the reality ignored by non-hunters, their investigators have, among other things, infiltrated the gun hunting world, from hunting with hounds, penned hunting, or even underground fox and badger hunting with hounds, and shown what hunters do and say between them when they are not thinking about either monitoring or controls.

During these years of investigating, we have been witness to hunting parties where everyone was drinking wine in abundance at midday — and sometimes since the morning! — before multiple hunts. The statements made and recorded regarding safety are themselves just as alarming.

An animal defence association who has won many legal victories

One Voice has also filed numerous requests to have the prefectural and ministerial decrees cancelled that they consider to be abusive. Among their notable victories: the decree on glue-trapping, and the suspension and cancellations of the decrees on traditional hunting of small birds, alongside the LPO. But also the suspension of several decrees on mountain Galliformes and the additional period of digging out badgers, in particular.

This painstaking work has also made it possible, on a political level, to contribute to a law, albeit imperfect, on de-fencing in Sologne, and multiple law propositions.

French people have a favourable opinion of a radical hunting reform

One Voice had organised two successive annual joint marches for a radical reform of hunting before the pandemic hit the world in 2020.

The Association has supported around ten high-priority flagship measures for a radical reform of hunting, widely supported by around forty associations and several hundred thousands of people and validated by the opinions of French people (in several surveys by IPSOS in 2019, 2021, 2022).

It is obvious that One Voice is in favour of more measures to allow everyone to benefit from nature in peace. The minister does not seem closed off to the idea of no hunting on a Sunday. This will be a start. A limit on blood alcohol level before operating firearms identical to that in place before driving seems to be the minimum for us. It is high time! Provided that the controls and authorities are also there.

Translated from the French by Joely Justice

One Voice will defend black grouse at the Marseille Administrative Tribunal on Monday 24 October 2022

One Voice will defend black grouse at the Marseille Administrative Tribunal on Monday 24 October 2022
23.10.2022
Hautes-Alpes
One Voice will defend black grouse at the Marseille Administrative Tribunal on Monday 24 October 2022
Wildlife

As their counterpart did in Savoie for three emblematic species of mountain Galliformes, the Hautes-Alpes Prefect has, in mid-September, issued a decree fixing the number of black grouse that can be hunted in the department. While the birds are facing difficulties unmatched in our era and the species is in decline, the hunters can add to the problem by slaughtering 270 of them in the context of their recreational hobby. The hunting season is open. We need to act urgently. One Voice will be at the hearing at the Marseille Administrative Tribunal on Monday 24 October 2022 to defend black grouse.

One Voice has filed an emergency interim proceeding with a view to getting the prefectural authorisation allowing these slaughters urgently suspended, as well as a fundamental appeal, because the Association is rebelling against the fact that hunters use animals as targets for pleasure with free rein from the State, knowing perfectly well that their shots do nothing but worsen an already disastrous situation for biodiversity.

Why are black grouse being shot down more when they are in decline?

In this specific case, black grouse are part of a protected species (under the Birds Directive on a European level and the Environmental Code in French law) because they are classified on a national level on the red list of threatened bird species by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as ‘near-threatened’ and ‘vulnerable’ in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur region. They are protected for a reason!

The proof is that the Observatoire des Galliformes de Montagne (OGM), who measure the evolution of the strength of these individuals, clearly shows that the population has been in decline for more than twenty years. And that the reproduction of the species in 2022 and in previous years is insufficient in relation to authorised hunting acts.

How can we allow these animals to be killed for pleasure, derogating from several layers of protection put in place to guarantee their conservation, adding also to the difficulties that they must confront to reproduce? We must urgently prevent black grouse from continuing to be shot at!

Precedents that make you optimistic in Grenoble and Marseille

The Grenoble Administrative Tribunal has also agreed by urgently interrupting the Savoie decree application of 20 October relating in particular to black grouse (but also rock partridges and rock ptarmigans). Equally in Alpes-de-Haute-Provence, around fifteen days before, the prefectural decrees had been suspended on the section concerning black grouse: we had been successful with regards to our voluntary intervention alongside the LPO.

We hope that it will be the same in the Hautes-Alpes following the 23 October hearing where we will be fighting once again alongside the LPO against prefectural services to help save the lives of hundreds of mountain birds.

Translated from the French by Joely Justice

Victory for mountain Galliformes: One Voice has had the Savoie Prefect’s decree suspended!

Victory for mountain Galliformes: One Voice has had the Savoie Prefect’s decree suspended!
22.10.2022
Savoie
Victory for mountain Galliformes: One Voice has had the Savoie Prefect’s decree suspended!
Wildlife

On 18 October, One Voice defended the black grouse, rock partridges, and rock ptarmigans at the Grenoble Administrative Tribunal. The judge has just ruled for an urgent suspension of the Savoie Prefect’s decree allowing them to be hunted up until 11 November 2022. Furthermore, the hunting acts on these emblematic birds were authorised on very significant quotas, respectively: 414, 190, and 60 individuals.

The fundamental decision, which will take place as a result of an upcoming hearing, the date of which we do not know yet, will determine the legality or illegality of the decree. Our lawyer, from Maitre Gossement’s office, will be representing us once again.
While waiting, no more individuals from these three species of mountain birds from the Savoie region can be killed by hunters in this context: the judge has suspended hunting for the three species: rock partridges, black grouse, and rock ptarmigans.

According to Muriel Arnal, Founding President of One Voice:

«It is a great satisfaction to know that less than one week of action by One Voice will allow the lives of hundreds of mountain birds to be saved. For how long can we put up with State representatives remaining deaf and blind to the cries of these birds that are disappearing? A disappearance amplified by the recreational hobby of hunters!»

The Grenoble urgent applications judge ruled that the urgent condition was fulfilled due to the irreversible character of the “destruction” of individuals from this threatened species and the fact that the hunting season was already open. In line with this idea, he also admitted that there was a serious doubt as to the legality of the decree and the decisions associated on the maximum number of animals allowed to be hunted, with regard to the Birds Directive and the Environmental Code, which could compromise conservation efforts undertaken regarding these birds.

The judge also noted that the 106 decisions made on 12 September 2022 by hunters to allocate annual individual hunting plans were acted upon prior to the Prefect’s decree authorising hunting of mountain Galliformes, while the decree of 15 September 2022 should have constituted the basis allowing these to be adopted.

Mountain Galliformes also defended in Pau

In Pau on 19 October, the Administrative Tribunal cancelled the Hautes-Pyrénées prefectural decree of 2 October 2020 that we had obtained a suspension for in October 2020. This one was relating to the hunting of western capercaillies and rock ptarmigans for the 2020-2021 season. It had been attacked by the FNE Midi-Pyrénées, FNE Hautes-Pyrénées, and Nature en Occitanie Associations, who One Voice joined as a voluntary participant.

As we have condemned for years, the prefectures thus seem to be the place for hunters to register their wishes… A public policy must come from a balanced decision, taking into account all of the parties involved, those defending animals and wildlife included. And certainly not to support the private interests of a small group who intend to practice their ‘hobby’ as they see fit: hunting. All of our futures depend on it.

Translated from the French by Joely Justice

Traditional hunting of larks: Victory! The State Council has urgently suspended the decrees

Traditional hunting of larks: Victory! The State Council has urgently suspended the decrees
21.10.2022
France
Traditional hunting of larks: Victory! The State Council has urgently suspended the decrees
Wildlife

One Voice and the LPO have defended the fate of larks that have been trapped and killed in the name of traditional hunting in the Gironde, Landes, Lot-et-Garonne, and Pyrénées-Atlantiques Departments for the 2022-2023 hunting season. Our two associations filed emergency interim suspension proceedings on the Monday following the issue of the laws signed by the Ministry of the Ecological Transition. They defended birds tooth and nail before a ministry and hunters who did not know how to justify the pig-headedness of issuing new decrees that had scarcely been reformulated after the repeated cancellations and suspensions in preceding years.

There was an urgency to act and the State Council, consistent with past decisions, sided with our arguments. Field larks are on the list of birds classified on the IUCN Red List. And as the European Union Court of Justice recalled, France has not respected the European ‘Birds’ Directive of 30 November 2009 because it has contravened two exonerating criteria. On one hand, the absence of alternative techniques for trapping birds in particular, on the other, the fact that this technique allows the capture only of individuals of this species, in very limited numbers and without harm. The Ministry failed to demonstrate that the nets and cages were the only existing methods, that they only capture larks, or that they do not capture other bird species without killing any in the process…

The urgent applications judge at the State Council ruled that a “serious doubt” existed on the legality of the 2022 decrees challenged by One Voice and the LPO, and ordered them to be suspended immediately, from the day after the hearing.

«We come back here to the State Council each year, we would like this to be the last. And when I think about nature and the shared heritage of future generations, I have a dream, which should not be one, that the Ministry of Ecology will guarantee the protection of birds and biodiversity. And that their primary concern will not be to protect a hobby which is nothing other than that: a recreational hobby as we have heard during the hearing. Birds are disappearing and potentially there are cultural elements, but in that case, it should be the Ministry of Culture who must face us. Here it is about the Ministry of Ecology. It should be there to serve in protecting biodiversity.»

Muriel Arnal, President of One Voice

When will the Ministry of Ecology stop delivering birds, whose species is disappearing through our own faults, to hunters, all while daring to talk about conservation and daring to say that they are worried about biodiversity? When will those who govern us respect the highest decisions of the administrative legal courts in France? After the cancellations of the 2018 to 2020 decrees and the suspension of the 2021 and 2022 ones, we hope that this time the Ministry of Ecology will give into it.

The hearing regarding the cancellation of the suspended decrees of 2021 is set for Monday 24 October; we will be there for the birds.

Translated from the French by Joely Justice

In Corrèze, the prefectural decree on badger digging was illegal

In Corrèze, the prefectural decree on badger digging was illegal
18.10.2022
Corrèze
In Corrèze, the prefectural decree on badger digging was illegal
Wildlife

Clear victory for One Voice: the Administrative Tribunal has just decided on 13 October to cancel the prefectural decree from May 2022 — already suspended — in Corrèze, authorising an additional period of underground badger hunting with hounds. This decree was therefore illegal.

This is good news that confirms the suspension of the decree obtained urgently by One Voice just after it being issued and allowing the lives of numerous badgers and their young to be saved. The court revealed multiple illegalities.

The non-transparency of the presentation note

Firstly on the style: the presentation note accompanying the decree project during the public consultation did not detail either the reasons leading to the additional period of underground badger hunting with hounds being authorised or give local data on badgers. The court considered that the violation of this article in the Environmental Code deprived the public, and particularly associations for environmental protection, of a guarantee.

The Commission in charge of evaluating the consequences for animals was misinformed

Before any issuing of a decree, the National Commission for Hunting and Wildlife must be summoned according to the rules which have not been followed to the letter in this case. Not only have its members not had access to documents that must be sent to them to study the decree project sufficiently ahead of the meeting, but these documents were not all together! Particularly, they had no knowledge of the “decree project, the dates of this additional period, or the estimates of the badger population in the department or, to a greater extent, the effects that an extension on the hunting season was likely to have on the presence of the species in the Corrèze Department.” (Extract from the ruling.)

The casual nature of arguments put forward by the Prefecture

Finally and in substance, the court ruled that the Prefect had based their decision on the occasional damage to agricultural produce that was not established, and that the survival of the young as well as the potential presence of other animals in the setts should be taken into account, something that the Prefect had not done.

«The additional period for hunting badgers thus opens opportunities to kill young animals that are not yet weaned or starting a mixed diet. Furthermore, the significant number of secondary setts dug by badgers allows other animals to use them for their own needs. Yet the Corrèze Prefect has not matched their decision with any particular requirements to avoid the destruction of either the young badgers while the demographic growth of this animal is weak, or the destruction of other species.»

Extract from the ruling.

We are in complete agreement with the court!

We have filed numerous emergency interim proceedings and appeals this year to try to get the additional periods of underground badger hunting with hounds suspended and cancelled alongside our partners.

To support our plea to protect badgers, sign our petition!

Updated 21 October 2022: the two occurrences of the term “judgement order” have been replaced by the more accurate “ruling”.

Translated from the French by Joely Justice

Hunting: One Voice is at the Grenoble Administrative Tribunal on 18 October for mountain Galliformes

Hunting: One Voice is at the Grenoble Administrative Tribunal on 18 October for mountain Galliformes
17.10.2022
Savoie
Hunting: One Voice is at the Grenoble Administrative Tribunal on 18 October for mountain Galliformes
Wildlife

Decrees are raining down on all areas where mountain Galliformes live to authorise them being slaughtered by hunters, and this despite their poor state of conservation! For One Voice, this is unacceptable. We have attacked the Savoie Prefectural decree of 23 September 2022 authorising the hunting of black grouse, rock ptarmigans, and rock partridges. The emergency interim proceedings will take place at the Grenoble Administrative Tribunal next Tuesday 18 October. We hope to have this authorisation to hunt them suspended as quickly as possible.

One Voice is attacking the decree on the basis that it authorises the slaughter of these three species of bird. The novelty in this case file, in relation to others on mountain Galliformes, is that we have chosen to fight not only for lagopus and black grouse, but also for rock partridges that are classified as ‘near-threatened’ and for which the figures from the Mountain Galliformes Observatory [Observatoire des Galliformes de Montagne] (in charge of the in situ inventories) are not good.

Each hunter in each area can kill a rock ptarmigan, while the fate of black grouse and rock partridges is left to the indiscretion of the individual hunting plans which can kill up to 414 individuals for black grouse and 190 for rock partridges.

Is this short-term vision that authorises hunting to continue normal? Is it normal that the quotas are established according to the data collected in the previous year? We do not calculate a provisional budget there: this is not theoretical, lives are at stake, and that is not all! Mountain Galliformes are disappearing bit by bit. If we allow more of them to be slaughtered in years where, finally, they can live and reproduce in peace, this is not how we will ensure that they survive when they are already having such trouble doing so without being in the line of fire. If we add to this that the hunting season is particularly long in this department, we could end up believing that there is a desire to make them disappear as quickly as possible.

Translated from the French by Joely Justice

Traditional hunting of larks, gray partridges, and wood pigeons: regulations under scrutiny

Traditional hunting of larks, gray partridges, and wood pigeons: regulations under scrutiny
17.10.2022
France
Traditional hunting of larks, gray partridges, and wood pigeons: regulations under scrutiny
Wildlife

Our team and our lawyers will be rallying in great numbers on 20 October to defend the cause for birds, at the same time as the LPO, at the Paris State Council. The suspension of the ministerial decrees on traditional hunting of larks will be discussed and disputed there! And at the same time at the Haute-Garonne Administrative Tribunal in Toulouse, where the fate of grey partridges and wood pigeons will be in the hands of administrative justice.

Lawyers from Maitre Gossement and Maitre Thouy’s offices will defend grey partridges and wood pigeons respectively in the South-West; Maitre Lyon-Caen will meanwhile be at the State Council to put forward our fight for field larks and other birds trapped in folding nets and hanging cages.

Despite a particularly devastating summer, the State goes again for traditional bird hunting

It is 2022… After the summer that we have had and the lasting difficulties that birds met due to urbanisation and intensive agriculture, we are awaiting something else from the Ministry of Ecology and the prefectures. The first is persisting in issuing new decrees to keep traditional hunting, against the repeated opinions of the State Council and the European Union Court of Justice and contradicting their own statements. And in Toulouse, the Prefecture is acting as a registration centre for hunters’ wishes, against the protections implemented for birds and also against the European Directive named ‘Birds’.

Wood pigeons hunted in Haute-Garonne… by force of habit?

We are attacking the decrees of 31 August and 8 September 2022, which approve the management hunting plan authorising the hunting of wood pigeons from 1 October to 30 November from 2022 to 2026 and thus provides for the opening periods and places of the latter with an emergency interim suspension. Apart from the defects in the style, the decree is empty of content. Yet the protected status of wood pigeons in different laws stipulates a justification for a multitude of elements to authorise them being hunted. The management plan approved by the decree does none of that and is happy to show that wood pigeon hunting can carry on due to a tradition which exists in the region. In other words: the existence of this hunting justifies it continuing. Absurd. We believe that it is urgent to get this decree suspended because the wood pigeon hunting season is already open and each life lost represents a violation of the species.

Hunters (badly) defending their interests is one thing, but what is worse is that the Haute-Garonne Prefect has approved this management plan by substituting his appraisal with theirs.

Two or four grey partridges per hunter in Ariège and in Haute-Garonne respectively… with no limit?

We have also attacked the prefectural decrees of 1 October authorising a fixed quota of two partridges per day per hunter in Ariège and the one of 22 September 2022 for four partridges per hunter in Haute-Garonne with an emergency interim suspension. The two decrees having been issued barely a few days after the start of them being applied. But grey partridges are also protected by the Birds Directive. The prefectures cannot put a maximum limit on hunters or birds!

The species’ vulnerability and the absence of an exact understanding of their numbers coupled with the fact that hunting irreversibly affects the conservation status of the species gives proof of the urgency in suspending these decrees. It is exactly this argument that has allowed us to get the Pyrénées-Atlantiques Prefect’s decree suspended on 4 October by the Pau Administrative Tribunal.

A Ministry of Ecology persisting in slaughtering small birds… cruelly and with no selectivity!

As we have announced and like the LPO, we have referred the urgent suspension of the four ministerial decrees of 7 October 2022 allowing the capture and slaughter of field larks, protected birds, according to methods known as ‘traditional hunting’ in the South of France (Landes, Lot-et-Garonne, Gironde, and Pyrénées-Atlantiques), to the State Council. This represents more than 106,500 larks, which are added to those from other species trapped in nets or hanging cages, who by definition do not decide on which animals they trap.

The ministry has indicated that they will not issue another decree while the substantive decision has not been made in this latest case file… yet the hearing in question has just been set for 24 October for the cancellation of the already suspended 2021 decrees. It should be noted that these commitments have not been respected.

We are asking for an urgent suspension of these disgraceful decrees. The Birds Directive is once more being trampled by the French State. The criteria clearly put forward by the European Union Court of Justice and which have allowed the State Council to give their decision to cancel the 2018 to 2020 decrees on 6 August 2021 and to suspend the 2021 ones are not always taken into account. Traditional hunting is in addition to hunting ‘with guns’ and does not replace it. There are no longer additional checks. In short, the authorisation of these hunts is therefore not in “the interests of birds”. But who doubted it? What kind of hunting could be?

Translated from the French by Joely Justice

Wildlife SOS and the IUCN propose a World Day for Sloth Bears

Wildlife SOS and the IUCN propose a World Day for Sloth Bears
12.10.2022
International
Wildlife SOS and the IUCN propose a World Day for Sloth Bears
Wildlife

Sloth bears are a unique species that are found mainly in India. They also exist in a tiny number in Nepal and have a sub-species in Sri Lanka, thus making India their main home. They are also the least studied bears in the world. They are strong enough to scare away a pair of wild adult tigers to protect their young.Wildlife SOS India, involved in the conservation and protection of sloth bears for more than 25 years, has proposed to the IUCN that 12 October be declared ‘WORLD DAY FOR SLOTH BEARS’ in order to attract attention to the conservation and protection of this unique ursine species, endemic on the Indian sub-continent and listed as ‘vulnerable’ on the IUCN Red List. The IUCN-SSC team of experts on sloth bears has accepted this proposal and declared that this day will be celebrated worldwide.

World Day for Sloth Bears will be an opportunity for this species to be showcased, and for associations, institutions, rescue centres, and zoos in the whole world to promote conservation of sloth bears and their habitat, to expedite research, and to make the public aware of this still little-known species on an international level. Sloth bears are often confused with South-American arboreal sloths who move slowly. In reality, sloth bears are agile and considered among the most formidable wild animals.

To commemorate the first World Day for Sloth Bears, Wildlife SOS and the IUCN-SSC team of experts will organise an inaugural event at the Agra Bear Rescue Centre in Uttar Pradesh on 12 October 2022. This is the biggest rescue and rehabilitation centre in the world for sloth bears, created in 1999 by Wildlife SOS in collaboration with the Uttar Pradesh Forest Department.

Sloth bears (Melursus ursinus) are one of eight ursine species present in the world. They are known thanks to their very distinctive long dark-brown or black fur, a distinct white patch on their chest in a V-shape, and their curved ivory-coloured four-inch long claws used to dig out termites and ants from hard mounds. In the Indian subcontinent, they are present throughout the Deccan Plateau, coastal areas, western ghats, and up to the foot of the Himalayas.

Today, 90% of the global sloth bear population is found in India. According to several reports, their population has shot up from 40 to 50% during the last three decades, mainly due to loss of habitat, habitat fragmentation, poaching, and an increase in conflict with humans.

The 1972 Indian law (Wildlife Protection) included sloth bears in Annexe I, granting them the same level of protection as tigers, rhinoceroses, and elephants. However, this key species in particular had to fight a long and hard battle for survival and urgently requires conservation and protection measures.

These bears were formerly captured in India for fun (a barbaric practice of ‘dancing bears’). Wildlife SOS has been at the forefront of conservation for sloth bears for more than 25 years. With the support of their international partners — IAR (International Animal Rescue) and One Voice — they have saved and rehabilitated more than 628 dancing bears, thus putting an end to a four-centuries-old barbaric tradition. They have also provided alternative livelihoods to members of the nomadic Kalandar community, making the women independent and educating the children to prevent them from carrying on this illegal and cruel tradition.

Sloth bears are classified as ‘vulnerable’ on the IUCN Red List. Their conservation is only hindered by the fact that we know very little about them. With only 6,000 to 11,000 individuals in the wild in India, it is essential that we start to rewrite the history for this species.

«This day is a call to arms so that people in the whole world better understand this species and promote their conservation so that they will never disappear. The public can help to save Indian sloth bears by discovering their habitat and by supporting the associations actively working to protect them. We are grateful to the Forests Department, the MoEF & CC, the Indian government, and our partner associations, IAR (United Kingdom), HSI (Australia), One Voice (France), and Terre-et-Faune (Switzerland), for their friendly and unfailing support of our work as the decades pass.» Kartick Satyanarayan, Co-Founder and CEO of Wildlife SOS

«One Voice has been a partner of Wildlife SOS for decades, having worked hand-in-hand to put a stop to dancing bears and for the preservation of wildlife in India. The work accomplished by their team to promote research, conservation, and raising awareness regarding sloth bears is remarkable. We will be proud to celebrate World Day for Sloth Bears on 12 October and to help Wildlife SOS to ensure that these animals receive the protection that they need.» Muriel Arnal, Founding President of One Voice, a partner association of Wildlife SOS

«In many ways, sloth bears are the most unique ursine species. They carry their young on their backs for 6 to 9 months, 50% of their diet is made up of termites and ants, and they are capable of making an adult tiger flee. Unfortunately, they are faced with growing pressures of habitat loss and fragmentation as well as other man-made risks, particularly poaching. World Day for Sloth Bears is an opportunity to take stock and reflect on the importance of protecting this truly unique species.» Nishith Dharaiya, Co-chair of the IUCN sloth bear expert team

«Sloth bears have lived on the Indian subcontinent for almost two million years. These are the least-studied bears in the world and we have many mysteries to solve concerning this unique ursine species. We hope that 12 October each year will be established for the preservation of sloth bears in the world.» Geeta Seshamani, Co-Founder and Secretary for Wildlife SOS

Who is Wildlife SOS?

Wildlife SOS is a charitable not-for-profit association created in 1998 with the main goal of saving and rehabilitating wildlife in distress in India. It actively leads protection projects for wildlife and nature to promote conservation and fight against poaching and the illegal trade of wild species. It works in partnership with the government and native communities in order to provide former poaching communities with alternative and sustainable livelihoods.

Translated from the French by Joely Justice