Two bear cubs were put up for sale on Facebook. Within a day, they had been rescued in northern Laos.
Free the Bears, an international conservation nonprofit, coordinated the operation with local authorities in Oudomxay province after finding the Facebook post while monitoring online platforms for wildlife traders.
The advertisement showed two Asiatic black bear sisters, roughly 2 months old and weighing less than 3 kilograms each.
“They had been taken illegally from the wild, and sadly their mother was likely killed in the process,” Free the Bears said in a press release.
The nonprofit said both cubs were rescued within 24 hours of the post being found. They were malnourished and cramped in a plastic washing basket when they were recovered.
They are now receiving specialist care at the Luang Prabang Wildlife Sanctuary, according to Free the Bears.
Matt Hunt, CEO of Free the Bears, told Mongabay by email that the case shows how the illegal wildlife trade is shifting online.
“In the past, bear cubs would change hands several times before reaching cities or bear farms, from hunters to village middlemen and onto other traders,” Hunt said.
“Each time cubs changed hands was an opportunity for law enforcement to intervene. Today, with the rise of social media, hunters in even the most remote forested provinces can directly reach urban buyers through chat groups on platforms like Facebook, WhatsApp, or WeChat.”
Hunt said that shift makes the trade faster and harder to track. Once animals are listed online, he said, they can be moved within hours, forcing law enforcement to respond quickly.
“It highlights the need for stronger action from platforms to identify and remove illegal wildlife trade at scale,” he said.
A recent joint investigation by Mongabay and independent journalism organisation Bellingcat in Indonesia found that traders in Facebook groups use codes such as “WC” for “wild-caught” and other alphanumeric codes to get around automated moderation.
In 2019, Meta, Facebook’s parent company, banned live animal sales and later joined the Coalition to End Wildlife Trafficking Online.
But online marketplaces are still a major part of the illegal wildlife trade, which environmental groups and researchers say appears to be growing.
Data from the Indonesian nonprofit Garda Animalia showed an increase in Facebook advertisements for several threatened species between 2020 and 2025.
After the Mongabay and Bellingcat report, Meta closed nine Indonesian Facebook groups that were trading wildlife.
The United Nations Development Programme has valued the illegal wildlife trade in East Asia and the Pacific at $2.5 billion a year.
Dwi Januanto Nugroho, the Indonesian forestry ministry’s law enforcement chief, previously said the nature of the organised crime “can evolve faster than the law enforcement system.”
The Laos rescue involved two cubs from a species identified in the advertisement as Asiatic black bears, or Ursus thibetanus.
Free the Bears said the sisters were less than 2 months old when they were offered for sale online.
The group said they were found in a small plastic washing basket before being moved to the sanctuary for treatment.
A banner image released with the case showed the washing basket the cubs were found in beside a transport crate used to take them to the sanctuary.
The cubs are now at the Luang Prabang Wildlife Sanctuary, where Free the Bears said they are receiving specialist care.
