The Wombat Whisperer

 

The wombat is under threat from an agonising disease. 101 East meets the woman trying to save them.

They call Donna Stepan the Wombat Whisperer.

At her unique animal sanctuary in Australia, she works around the clock to save injured and orphaned wombats.

She has a dire warning about her much-loved wombats: "They'll be on the critically endangered list within 20 years. No doubt in my mind."

India: Elephants in My Backyard

As human-animal conflict escalates in India, a conservationist is determined to prove people and elephants can co-exist.

Elephant habitats across India are shrinking at an alarming rate, leading to conflict with local residents.

In the southern region of Hassan, the conflict has been particularly intense. But accountant-turned-conservationist Vinod Krishnan is part of a team, led by Dr Anand Kumar, that is pioneering a radically new approach to deal with the conflict based on strategies of co-existence.

Australia's Wildlife Emergency

101 East meets the first responders saving Australia's wildlife from the country's worst bushfires.

Millions of hectares have burned, dozens of lives have been lost, thousands of homes destroyed - and now a wildlife emergency is unfolding.

It is estimated that as many as one billion animals have been killed. With bushland scorched, more animals are continuing to succumb to the loss of food and habitat.

101 East travels to Kangaroo Island, a tourist destination off Australia's southern coast which has been ravaged by fires.

Known for its stunning natural beauty and abundance of wildlife, conservation groups are now in a race against time to try to rescue and care for the island's sick and injured animals.

Insectageddon

Insects are vital to pollinate crops feeding the world, but have pesticides wrought irreparable damage on the ecosystem?

Where are all the insects going? To anyone suffering from the overenthusiastic attention of a cloud of mosquitoes or lamenting the effects of leaf-munching creepy crawlies in their back garden, it might seem like a ridiculous question, but it is one that many scientists have been asking for some time now.

Since the 1970s, according to one report from UK ecologists, half of all insects in Europe may have been lost as a result of intensive farming, the heavy use of pesticides and climate change.

Another 2019 study, in the journal Biological Conservation, warned that globally at least 40 percent of the remaining 1 million known species of insects are believed to be facing extinction.

The Wombat Whisperer

The wombat is under threat from an agonising disease. 101 East meets the woman trying to save them.

They call Donna Stepan the Wombat Whisperer.

At her unique animal sanctuary in Australia, she works around the clock to save injured and orphaned wombats.

She has a dire warning about her much-loved wombats: "They'll be on the critically endangered list within 20 years. No doubt in my mind."

Donna wants the world to know about the fatal and contagious parasitic disease plaguing Australia's wombats - sarcoptic mange.

Killing Whales

People and Power investigates a fierce personal battle that's raging over the future of whaling in Icelandic waters.

It may come as a surprise to those who thought the practice had long since been outlawed internationally, but although almost universally condemned as inhumane by animal rights groups and conservationists, commercial whaling still goes on - in Japan, Norway and, albeit with occasional breaks, Iceland.

In the latter, where this documentary was filmed, it's only a small industry that's left defying both a global moratorium that's been in place since 1986 and the mass of public opinion around the world that has come to see killing whales as nothing short of murder.

China: Caging the Ocean's Wild

We investigate the devastating cost of China's expanding ocean theme parks on the world's largest marine mammals.

Sick seals left to die in dirty water. Whales confined to tiny tanks. Freezers full of animal carcasses. Ocean theme parks are booming in China, but what happens to their prized marine performers behind the scenes?

In this exclusive Al Jazeera report, 101 East infiltrates China's multibillion-dollar aquarium industry and exposes the dark side they don't want you to see.

As part of a two-year undercover investigation, 101 East examined more than 15 marine parks and interviewed more than a dozen insiders. The result is a shocking picture of animal abuse and cruelty.

The Lizard King: Illegal Wildlife Trade's Poster Boy

An undercover investigation into the man at the heart of illegal wildlife trading. Is the Lizard King back in business?

The illegal trade in wildlife is thought to be worth at least $19bn a year, a sum rivalled only by the black markets in drugs, counterfeit goods and people.

But while drugs and people smuggling are seen as profitable but extremely risky, the wildlife trade has become increasingly attractive to criminal networks because it is not only lucrative but the risks are far lower.

Hunted: Law of the jungle

From hunting in Siberia to poaching in the jungles of Myanmar, we explore the relationship between humans and wildlife.

In Siberia, wolves are killing reindeer by the thousands, pushing the government to create a bounty system to curtail the wolf population.

In 2017, roaming wolf packs were responsible for the killing of livestock, including 9,000 reindeer, costing the state $2.5m and pushing indigenous communities into poverty.

State-recognised Hunter Maxsimovic used to hunt sable, but since 2013 he has switched to full-time wolf hunting - not just for the money but also to protect a way of life.