| The illegal trade in wild animals has caused great damage to wildlife resources in China. By analyzing the temporal and spatial characteristics of 179 raptor poaching cases from 2011 to 2018 in east China (37.8% of the total raptor poaching cases in the same period of China), we could understand the development trend of the cases. In this study, we obtained the data set of species, the number of individuals, time and location through the statistics of judicial appraisal cases in the archives of State Forestry Administration Forest Public Security Judicial Identification Center. Excel 2016 and ArcGIS10.2 were used to carry out descriptive analysis of spatiotemporal characteristics of the cases. 35 species were involved, with a total of 530 individuals, accounting for 40.5% of the total raptor poaching individuals in China (Table 1). Nine species were the most poached (individual and case number ≥ 9), all of which were national Ⅱ key protected wild animals. In the past 8 years, the number of cases, species and individuals showed an increasing trend year by year. Spring, autumn and winter were the periods of high incidence of cases (Fig. 1). Jiangsu (23 species, 69 cases, 50 sites) and Zhejiang province (21 species, 66 cases, 31 sites) had more cases than Anhui (15 species, 23 cases, 16 sites) and Shandong province (13 species, 21 cases, 7 sites) (Fig. 2). The cases were concentrated at the provincial boundaries (82 cases), particularly close to main roads (83 cases) and railways (70 cases). We suggest that the border of two provinces should be taken as the key monitoring areas of raptor protection, by strengthening the supervision of road and water transportation, especially in spring, autumn and winter. |
