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PHOTOGRAPH BY EMMANUEL RONDEAU
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By Rachael Bale, Executive Editor, Animals
When Nat Geo’s Dina Fine Maron first spoke with a buyer of illegal tiger parts in Russia for a story about Siberian tiger poaching, the conversation was tense. He repeatedly said he had to be careful what he told her because the FSB, Russia’s security service, might be listening in.
He wasn’t the only one who was nervous. “So many people with knowledge of what was going on in Russia with tigers were unwilling to speak with me because of concerns for themselves, their families, or their visas,” Maron says. That included not just those involved in illegal activity, but also scientific researchers and conservationists.
But there was one person willing to go on the record in a big way: Allison Skidmore, a National Geographic Explorer who studies wildlife trafficking. She spent five months in Russia with tiger poachers and buyers and has published several journal papers about it. She talked extensively to Maron for her Wildlife Watch story on Siberian tiger poaching. (Pictured at top, one of the tigers.)
Skidmore’s work has come with consequences though: While in Russia in March 2020, Skidmore had her computer, phone and other possessions confiscated by officials who tracked her down at an airport and put her on a plane out of the country. She probably will never be able to return to Russia to continue her research on the ground. All of this “underscores the high-stakes, risky nature of this issue,” Maron says.
Read Maron’s story, “Siberian tigers are being poached at night for their body parts,” here.
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