A lady warrior - Vietnam's wildlife defender fights poachers and prejudice

Trang Nguyen, founder of local conservation group WildAct, posing for a photograph in Hanoi. Trang -- named by the BBC in 2019 as one of the world's most inspiring and influential women -- has spent much of her time trying to end the illegal wildlife trade. - AFP

Hanoi, March 24, 2021 (AFP): As a small girl, Trang Nguyen saw a bear stabbed through the chest with a giant needle at her neighbour's house in northern Vietnam.

The bear, flat on its back, was being pumped for its bile, a fluid drawn from its gallbladder that has long been used in traditional medicine to treat liver disease.