How illegal wildlife poaching actually works, according to an undercover investigator

Allison Skidmore is a wildlife criminologist and National Geographic Explorer specializing in transnational wildlife trafficking networks. She's gone undercover in Russia, Malaysia, and the Horn of Africa to expose poaching and the illegal wildlife trade.

Skidmore began her career as an anti-poaching ranger in South Africa's Kruger National Park. In 2016 she began a PhD in environmental studies. As part of her doctoral research, Skidmore went undercover in Russia's Far East to investigate Amur tiger poaching. She embedded herself within remote hunting communities to track local poaching rings.

Skidmore speaks to Business Insider about the mechanics of wildlife trafficking, including going undercover in poaching networks, tracing corruption, and money laundering. She also explains how traffickers exploit vulnerable transit hubs.

Following the completion of her research in Russia in 2020, Skidmore published her findings in 2020in a number of academic research articles. She is the founder of Leave Them Wild and a visiting professor at the University of Innsbruck in Austria.

Find more about Skidmore's organization, Leave Them Wild, here.