The transnational wildlife market, worth an estimated $159 billion, involves the annual trade in more than 350 million animals and plants. This trade is regulated by the United Nations 1975 Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species. A portion of the trade, worth about $6 billion, is illegal. The illegal segment of the trade involves live exotic and endangered animals (mammals, birds, and reptiles) that are sold to private collectors, pet shops, animal brokers, game farms, biomedical labs, circuses, and even exotic meat dealers. This illicit trade also involves trafficking in animal parts, such as elephant ivory for decorative objects, rhino horns, tiger bones and genitals, leopard pelts and paws, and bear paws and gallbladders for use in traditional African and Asian medicines; pelts from various animals are used for clothing, rugs, and wall hangings. Plant species, both rare and common, are poached to meet the consumer demand for holistic medicines and yard decorations. The lucrative feature of the trade is the primary incentive for poaching. Combatants in civil wars in Africa poach and traffic wildlife on a large scale both to fund military operations and for personal profit. As worldwide demand for wildlife products has increased, the populations of some species have dramatically declined. The illegal market is composed of a supply chain that consists of three components: the initial suppliers, traffickers, and end users. This paper contains special sections on the poaching of and trafficking in elephants and rhinoceros in Namibia and South Africa, African cats, birds and reptiles, flora and marine life, and African traditional medicines. For each of the aforementioned subjects, the paper discusses poachers' and traffickers' motivations and methods. The study found that in the source countries examined, the illegal wildlife trade was dominated by extensive poaching and trafficking in birds and reptiles for the domestic and international markets. There was no one distinct profile for all wildlife poachers or traffickers; and the two countries have not experienced the ravages of large-scale commercial poaching operations by armed gangs or military units, as has been the case in some other African countries. Neither does the level of organization of poachers and traffickers in the two countries indicate the involvement of well-organized criminal syndicates, gangs, or paramilitary units. This contrasts with the features of illegal wildlife trade in central and east Africa. 41 references