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Sharai Mawere, 43, a market stall owner, was making love to her boyfriend at a secluded spot in the bush near the northern town of Kariba when the lioness struck on Tuesday. Later, the lion and her two cubs were shot dead by wardens from the Department of Parks and Wildlife Authority and a professional hunter.

Link: Telegraph.co.uk

Sharks are being slaughtered at a breathtaking clip — and with shocking disregard for their suffering or for the waste of the rest of their bodies — to satisfy a demand for shark fin soup. They're being wiped out so that people can have appetizers. Well, maybe something finally is being done about that on an international level. Today, protective measures for five shark species advanced at the CITES conference in Bangkok, with final action on those measures to be fully resolved by week's end. Watch our Will Travers' reaction to the shark developments and find other up-to-the minute tweets, photos, blogs and videos on our "Latest from CITES" webpage; and check out our CITES photo gallery.

The global trade in ivory and rhino horn is at the top of the agenda at the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, or CITES conference, taking place in Bangkok. The conference is debating imposing bans on all wildlife trade in 19 countries unless they crack down on the poaching, smuggling or sale of illegal ivory.

Link: VOANews.com

The mauling death of a 24-year-old intern at a private zoo in central California Wednesday has renewed calls for better regulation of exotic animals in the United States. A five-year-old male African lion named CousCous — who had once appeared as a cub on the TV show “Ellen” — attacked and killed the volunteer, Dianna Hanson, who was alone in the cage with the big cat.

Link: CSMonitor.com

Day after day, the slaughter of the elephants continues at a record pace — 25,000 killed in 2011, conservationists say, and more than 30,000 last year. A study from the Wildlife Conservation Society shows that 60 percent of all African forest elephants (a slightly smaller subspecies of the African savanna elephant) have been killed in the last decade for their ivory, leaving about 80,000 in their primary habitats in Western and Central Africa.

Link: NYTimes.com

The investigation into a lion attack that killed a 24-year-old woman who loved big cats is focusing on a cage door that the 550-pound animal managed to escape through to reach the volunteer intern, officials say.

Link: MiamiHerald.com

In a blow to polar bears and a maddening display of capitulation to crass commercial interests, an assemblage of nations today declined to provide extra protection — i.e., Appendix I status — for polar bears. Will Travers expresses his disappointment in the vote at the Bangkok meeting of CITES, which soundly rejected a proposal to help an animal who also is greatly imperiled by the impacts of climate change. Watch Travers' reaction and find other up-to-the minute tweets, photos, blogs and videos on our "Latest from CITES" webpage; and check out our CITES photo gallery.

A milestone event that occurs just once every three years, the 16th Meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) is well under way in Bangkok, Thailand — and Born Free USA is there in force, doing all we can to advance the companion causes of compassionate conservation and keeping wildlife in the wild. Our chief executive officer, Will Travers, already has spoken out many times, including at a wildlife law enforcement awards ceremony March 6. Watch his six-minute presentation by clicking on the accompanying image; find that speech and other up-to-the minute tweets, photos, blogs and videos on our "Latest from CITES" webpage; and check out our CITES photo gallery.