What is a Wildlife Sanctuary?

Poaching is the illegal hunting, fishing, trapping, or eating of wild plants or animals contrary to local and international conservation and wildlife management laws. Violations of hunting laws and regulations are normally punishable by law and, collectively, such violations are known as poaching.

It may be illegal and in violation because:

* The game or fish is not in season; usually the breeding season is declared as the closed season when wildlife species are protected by law.

* The poacher does not possess a license.

* The poacher is illegally selling the animal or animal parts or plant for a profit.

* The animal is being hunted outside of legal hours.

* The hunter used an illegal weapon for that animal.

* The animal or plant is on restricted land.

* The right to hunt this animal is claimed by somebody.

* The means used are illegal (for example, baiting a field while hunting quail or other animals, using spotlights to stun or paralyze deer, or hunting from a moving vehicle, watercraft, or aircraft).

* The animal or plant is protected by law or that it has been listed as extinct or endangered (see for example the Endangered Species Act for the USA or the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918 and similar laws/treaties.

* The animal or plant has been tagged by a researcher.

Note that only wild animals can be poached. Stealing or killing domestic animals is considered to be theft ("cattle rustling"), not poaching.

Plant poaching is also on the rise. A prominent example is the removal of ginseng growing in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.[http://www.nps.gov/grsm/naturescience/threats-to-wildflowers.htm] It is estimated that dried wild ginseng plants are worth more than $500 per pound on the black market.