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A new report assessing the $2 billion a year trade in bears and their parts reveals the scale of the illegal trade. Produced by Interpol the report demonstrates some of the methods that illegal traffickers use to get their products through borders and to their customers.

It’s not just dead products and bear parts that are part of the growing trade in bears. One example highlighted by the Interpol report featured a bear smuggler trying to move live bear cubs from South Yunnan to Chengdu. Officials discovered 22 moon bears – Asiatic black bears – in the back of the car. The trafficker tried to pass the bear cubs off as Akita puppies.

In another incident, reported to Interpol as part of their assessment into the trade, officials reported discovering 200 bear paws hidden in the inside of a car tyre.

The “Assessment on Illegal Bear Trade” report by INTERPOL’s Environmental Security unit highlights in particular how poaching and the illegal trade of bears, their parts and derivatives continue on a large scale worldwide.

The Head of INTERPOL’s Environmental Security unit, David Higgins, said: “Improving enforcement coordination, from legislation to investigation, can have a considerable impact on syndicates involved in the trade. A unified planning process with a cooperative multinational enforcement efforts bringing together police, customs and wildlife law enforcement units is crucial if we want to dismantle the complex networks of individuals”.

The new report was produced with help and funding from the Humane Society Australia. Michael Kennedy, Campaign Director for Humane Society International (HSI – Australia) said: “HSI commends the work of INTERPOL in effectively assessing global enforcement needs, promoting coordinated responses, and offering its global expertise and help to combat this environmentally and socially debilitating trade. HSI looks forward to working with all countries affected by these criminal activities”.

The report shows that the most poached and smuggled bear of the 8 bear species is the moon bear or Asiatic black bear. The scale of the poaching of bears though and the growth in the markets of Asia means that all 8 bear species are being targeted. Parts for American black bears, polar bears and brown bears can all be found in the Asian markets meeting the demand of traditional medicines.

Collation of reports of live bears seizures showed that these tended to occur in the Asian source countries and the majority of living bears seized were on their way to bear bile farms with smaller numbers on their way to the pet trade, circuses or street entertainment as dancing bears.

The report also demonstrates why bears and bear products trading is international in nature. Whole bear gall bladder in China where there is a legal domestic market is valued at $4,000 per kilo. In Japan that same bear gall bladder can fetch $100,000 per kilo. The profits involved makes bear products attractive to international crime  syndicates. In another example bear bile powder in China can fetch $20,000 per kilo while in Japan the same product can fetch $400,000 per kilo – compared with gold at $41,000 per kilo.

Products from wild bears are in particular demand. Wild bear bile can fetch up to 65 times more than a farmed bear. This is put down to farmed bears being kept in such poor conditions that their products are inferior and poor quality.

One of the concerning trends picked up by the report is that historically most bear products tended to originate in China. There is a growing trend now for products to also originate from Russia.

Known only from DNA samples from whaling samples and the occasional body from a stranding scientists for the first time have confirmed a sighting of a rare whale.

The Omura’s whales live off the coast of Madagascar and are often confused for the Bryde’s whales because they look so much alike. Scientists though have made the first field observations of this rare whale and published their results in Royal Society Open Science journal.

The study describes the behaviour of feeding in the shallow waters off the coast of Madagascar and also describes the vocalisations of the whales.

While the Omura’s whale is similar to the Bryde’s whale there are distinct differences allowing people to recognise the species. The Omura’s is smaller than the Brydes and most noticeable are the distinct markings around the lower jaw. The Omura’s have a white marking on the left side of the jaw and a dark marking on the right side.

The species was set apart from other whales as recently as 2003 when DNA samples from whaling victims were analysed. The data was further confirmed with samples taken from strandings on the Pacific coast  but no confirmed sightings of the species in the wild had been made until this study.

“Over the years, there have been a small handful of possible sightings of Omura’s whales, but nothing that was confirmed,” says lead author Salvatore Cerchio, who led the research while at the Wildlife Conservation Society. He is now at the New England Aquarium (NEAQ) and a guest investigator at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI). “They appear to occur in remote regions and are difficult to find at sea because they are small–they range in length from approximately 33 to 38 feet–and do not put up a prominent blow.”

“What little we knew about these whales previously came primarily from eight specimens of Omura’s whales taken in Japanese scientific whaling off the Solomon and Keeling Islands and a couple strandings of dead animals in Japan,” Cerchio adds. “This is the first definitive evidence and detailed descriptions of Omura’s whales in the wild and part of what makes this work particularly exciting.”

Cericho and his team of marine researchers believe that they may have seen a Omura’s whale back in 2011 but like so many mis-identified it as a Bryce’s whales. Because so little is known of the whale the are no figures yet as to just how rare this species is in the wild. One reason for the mis-identification is that it was not believed that Madagascar was in the range of the Omura’s whale.

Once the first sighting was made in 2013 the team soon saw more of the species in the waters and started to recognise the physical markings that made the Omura’s recognisable.

Between 2013 and 2015 the researchers were able to study 44 groups of whales in Madagascar’s waters. They were also able to photo-id 25 individuals. Research is set to continue this year with the researchers hoping to be able to get a more accurate estimate of the local population and do further studies in behaviour and vocalisations.

Cerchio also hopes to work with the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute (WHOI) in deploying a series of hydrophones to be able to better understand the range of the Omura’s whale.