Poached

Inside the Dark World of Wildlife Trafficking

By: Rachel Love Nuwer

Narrated by: Christina Delaine

Length: 16 hrs and 33 mins

Publisher's summary

Our insatiable demand for animals - for jewelry, pets, medicine, meat, trophies, and fur - is driving a worldwide poaching epidemic, threatening the continued existence of countless species. Illegal wildlife trade now ranks among the largest contraband industries in the world, yet compared to drug, arms, or human trafficking, the wildlife crisis has received scant attention and support, leaving it up to passionate individuals fighting on the ground to try to ensure that elephants, tigers, rhinos, and more are still around for future generations.

As Reefer Madness (Schlosser) took us into the drug market, or Susan Orlean descended into the swampy obsessions of The Orchid Thief, Nuwer - an award-winning science journalist with a background in ecology - takes listeners on a narrative journey to the front lines of the trade: to killing fields in Africa, traditional medicine black markets in China, and wild meat restaurants in Vietnam. Through exhaustive first-hand reporting that took her to 10 countries, Nuwer explores the forces currently driving demand for animals and their parts; the toll that demand is extracting on species across the planet; and the conservationists, rangers, and activists who believe it is not too late to stop the impending extinctions.

©2018 Rachel Love Nuwer (P)2018 HighBridge, a division of Recorded Books

Fascinating

Recommended for anyone interested in wildlife conservation, illicit trade, or animal welfare. Pretty funny at parts, too!

Excellent book to learn about wildlife trafficking

This book is an excellent source to begin one’s understanding of wildlife trafficking and crime. The author does a great job of touching upon multiple wildlife crime topics, and helps keep the reader engaged with a more story like way of explaining what can sometimes be a boring topic. After you listen to this book, you will want to save every elephant, tiger, and pangolin on this planet!

Excellent snapshot of the devastating wildlife trade

The most thorough and engaging book I’ve seen on this surprisingly complex issue. Great writing and refreshingly solid narration performance. The story covers the main issues around the most prominent wildlife trade species at the moment: elephants, rhinos, tigers, pangolins, and bears.

Highly recommend this book, and hope it inspires more support for efforts at protecting this vanishing wildlife.

great read

This is a fantastic book! I loved it and was disappointed only bc I finished it and couldn't keep listening! Admittedly I preferred the talk of pangolins and could have listened to an entire book about her experiences around them the whole book was great and really opened my eyes to many things I was unaware of... so far one of the best books I've listened to regarding wildlife on Audible!

Sad, but worth it.

I debated whether or not to listen to this book. I knew the content would make me sad, angry, and frustrated. But nevertheless I proceeded, because I had to, not because I wanted to. The stories and acts covered in this book are grotesque and sickening. But if we continue to ignore them, to stick out heads in the sand, they will go on unchecked until our most precious natural resources are gone.

Great content

A great and insight book.
The narration, however, could be improved. If you can’t do a good accent, please don’t do it.

A view into a depressing reality

This book is not for the faint of heart. The brutal reality of animal trafficking is well established and explored in a first-hand account that may disgust you to your core. I am very interested in wildlife issues and was "pleasantly" surprised at the new information that the author laid out that most exploratory second-hand online articles either leave out or don't know themselves. Animal death, torture, and cruelty are sensitive subjects that can and will turn people away. But this book wasn't ever intended to be a feel-good story with a happy ending. To me, knowing the reality of what is actively occurring is much more important than sugar-coating the atrocities within the poaching world. Heading face-to-face with the horror of what is happening is an important step towards education and change.

The narration is rather monotone and had it not been for the subject matter at hand, I may have skipped through some parts where the tone really didn't fit. Mostly though, it was a decent match as the monotone narration depicted brutal realities to allow the listener to embrace the full experience and meanings of the words.

Although this book is 100% not for everyone, it is now one of my favorites and extremely recommended to any individual who has even a mild interest in this subject.

Definitely worth the read!

Very well written & narrator was great as well! Even though I already knew a lot of the details, like about Sudan the last male Northern White Rhino & about all the problems our star animals are facing & why, it still helped put things in order for me (a good timeline is explained) & most importantly, it makes you care for these animals that much more! Anything I can do to help, I help...like donations & volunteering an hour of my time a week to pick up trash around waterways. We all have to help nature right now because it’s vanishing right before our eyes! I will admit though It does get a little repetitive at times but overall, very well done!

A must read

Great book and insight into the illegal wildlife trade. The author did an excellent job conveying the message.

Interesting in the poaching activities

Its great work of investigations in the different species and continents.
Its has some parts that are not interesting, missions connections in chapters, going back and forwards some times.