Poachers illegally hunt and kill wild animals, often targeting endangered species like elephants for their ivory tusks or wild cats for their valuable pelts. Poaching also includes stealing plants and flowers. Poachers are difficult to catch, but can be convicted and sentenced to prison if caught with illegal items.
A person who illegally kills or hunts wild animals is known as a poacher. Hunting animals can be illegal for a number of reasons: in some cases, the hunter does not have a permit to hunt a particular animal or hunting an animal is not permitted at a certain time of year. In many cases, however, a poacher hunts and kills an animal that is protected as an endangered species.
A poacher can target any type of animal, but when endangered species are involved, the most commonly hunted animal is the elephant. A poacher will kill the elephant and cut off its face, so that it can remove the tusks from its body. Since the tusks are made of ivory, they are very valuable and can be sold on the black market for thousands of dollars. Typically, the elephant’s body is simply left to rot.
In other cases, a poacher will target endangered wild cats, such as leopards, tigers and ocelots, because their pelts are considered highly valuable. Often, eight or more of a species must be killed and skinned, so that the skins can be stitched together into a coat. These furs often sell for many thousands of dollars, although their sale is officially banned in most countries.
Many animals are in grave danger today because they have been targeted and hunted to extinction by the poacher. Poachers often frequent countries with many exotic animals, such as those in Africa and Asia. They also cause problems throughout the US national park system by illegally killing native animals such as bears.
When a person illegally steals or removes a plant, flower or other type of flora, he is also considered a poacher. In some cases, flowers worth millions of dollars have been stolen by poachers, who use the original flower to grow their own. In recent decades, there have been problems with poachers stealing thousands of dollars worth of cactus and bear grass.
It is often difficult for federal wildlife agencies to catch and convict a poacher because the agencies have to cover very large areas with few personnel. Often, a poacher is caught at an airport, attempting to sneak in on a large shipment of illegal poached items. In these cases, the poacher is often convicted and sentenced to prison.
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