Savannah ElephantSavannah Elephant PhotoAfrican savannah
elephants communicate across great distances at low frequencies
that cannot be heard by humans.Julie Larsen Maher WCS Share on
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African savannah elephant is the largest land mammal in the world.
A mature bull elephant may stand up to 13 feet tall at the shoulder
and weigh 14,000 pounds. The most noticeable distinction between
African savannah andforest elephantsis size: The savannah is larger
and has bigger and more curved tusks.Asian elephantshave much
smaller ears than both African species and usually, only the male
Asian elephant sports tusks.African savannah elephants have large
home ranges, spanning hundreds of square miles. As they move, they
push over trees to get to their branches and roots, helping
maintain the grasslands, and they use their tusks and trunks to dig
for water, creating pools that many other animals need to survive.
These elephants are important dispersers of seeds through their
consumption of fruit.In folklore, elephants are known for not
forgetting. For the African savannah elephant, memory is a tool for
surviving challenges that may come intermittently over decades.
Long-term memory tends to be vested in the older females, called
matriarchs, without which the herd could die of starvation or
dehydration. During the drought of 1993 inTanzania, elephant
matriarchs that remembered a similar drought 35 years before led
their herds beyond the borders ofTarangire National Parkin search
of food and water. Groups with matriarchs that were not old enough
to remember the previous drought suffered a 63 percent mortality of
their calves that year. Unfortunately, these large females are the
most attractive targets for ivory poachers. The animals tend to
have the largest tusks, and they may be easier to find than the
males.Fast FactsScientific NameLoxodonta africana
Elephants have complex social behavior. When a member of the
herd dies, they cover the body with grass and dirt and stay near
the site for several hours.
African savannah elephants communicate across great distances at
low frequencies that cannot be heard by humans. An elephant herd
consists of related females and their young and is managed by the
eldest female.Adult male elephants rarely join a herd and lead a
solitary life, only approaching herds during mating season. African
savannah elephants may live up to 70 years in the wild, longer than
any other mammals except humans. An elephants trunk has more than
40,000 muscles and tendons.The trunk can lift large objects, yet
its sensitive tip can manipulate very small things.
ChallengesHabitat loss and poaching are the biggest concerns for
the survival of elephants. As the human footprint has grown in
Africa, elephant habitats have been converted to farmland,
deforested by industrial logging and mining, and otherwise
developed by roads and settlements. Poachers kill elephants for
their ivory and meat, and farmers sometimes kill them to protect
their crops, which elephants often raid. The IUCN lists African
savannah elephant populations as Vulnerable.WCS RespondsWCS works
throughout much of the elephant's remaining habitat to monitor and
manage populations and find novel approaches to reduce
human-elephant conflict. One way to decrease elephant raids on
human crops is to help farmers devise methods of keeping elephants
away. Such examples include using chili pepper smoke or chili
pepper spray blasted from guns, which serves as a noxious airborne
deterrent. WCS supports the Elephant Pepper Development Trust, a
program that sells hot sauce grown from alternative pepper crops to
aid local farmers and elephant protection efforts.
WCS has been supporting elephant studies in TanzaniasTarangire
National Parkone of the best parks in Africa to see large herds of
calm elephants. Our main goals there are to protect migration
routes and dispersal areas beyond the park's relatively safe
boundaries and to work with local Maasai and tourism operators to
accomplish this.
Working with local governments to curtail poaching, WCS
undertook a fundraising effort to support game wardens inVirunga
National Parkin theDemocratic Republic of Congo. The wardens
suffered attacks by armed militias who were poaching elephants in
the park. WCS also sounded the alarm when poachers with automatic
rifles killed 2,000 savannah elephants in Chads Zakouma National
Park. WCS subsequently established a fund to help save the parks
surviving elephants, numbering fewer than 1,000. A WCS pilot and
light aircraft that are based in Zakouma continually provide
information to Chads park service about poaching activities and
elephant herd locations.From the NewsroomBanning Ivory Sales in
AmericaFebruary 18, 2014As the second-largest market for ivory in
the world, the United States recently announced that it will ban
the trade within its borders through a series of new rules. The
editorial board of theNew York Timesexplores the implications.The
Bloody Ivory BusinessFebruary 8, 2014Following recent ivory crushes
by the governments of France, China, and the U.S., the editorial
board of theNew York Timesevaluates an initiative by New York State
legislators to prohibitall ivory sales in the state, including
those that are now technically legal.How We Can End the Elephant
Poaching CrisisAugust 20, 2013In a blog post following her recent
trip to Tanzanias Tarangire National Park, where she observed
elephants and met with WCS staff, Chelsea Clinton writes on the
urgency of ending the poaching crisis.In the Fight Against Elephant
Poaching, the U.S. Can LeadJuly 29, 2013WCSs John Calvelli, Exec.
Vice President for Public Affairs, describes the momentum building
to save elephants as U.S. lawmakers begin to understand how the
poaching crisis is impacting not just wildlife, but security,
diplomacy, development, and conservation as well.Collars Protect
Elephants in South SudanJuly 1, 2013WCS conservationists, together
with officials from South Sudans Ministry of Wildlife Conservation
and Tourism, have ramped up efforts to protect the countrys last
elephants by fitting individual animals with GPS collars for remote
tracking.MoreThe largest land mammal on earth, the African elephant
weighs up to eight tons. The elephant is distinguished by its
massive body, large ears and a long trunk, which has many uses
ranging from using it as a hand to pick up objects, as a horn to
trumpet warnings, an arm raised in greeting to a hose for drinking
water or bathing.Asian elephants differ in several ways from their
African relatives. They are much smaller in size and their ears are
straight at the bottom, unlike the large fan-shape ears of the
African species. Only some Asian male elephants have tusks. All
African elephants, including females, have tusks. Elephants are
either left or right-tusked and the one they use more is usually
smaller because of wear and tear.The Asian elephant has four toes
on the hind foot and five on the forefoot, while the African
elephant has three on the hind foot and five on the forefoot.Led by
a matriarch, elephants are organized into complex social structures
of females and calves, while male elephants tend to live in
isolation. A single calf is born to a female once every 4-5 years
and after a gestation period of 22 monthsthe longest of any mammal.
These calves stay with their mothers for years and are also cared
for by other females in the group.The two species of
elephantsAfrican and Asianneed extensive land to survive. Roaming
in herds and consuming hundreds of pounds of plant matter in a
single day, both species of elephant require extensive amounts of
food, water and space. As a result, these large mammals place great
demands on the environment and often come into conflict with people
in competition for resources.About the African elephantThe African
elephant is the worlds biggest land animal. There are two
subspecies the larger savannah elephant, which roams grassy plains
and woodlands, and the smaller forest elephant, which lives in
theforestsof central Africa.Female African elephants are very
social animals. They live in strongly bonded groups called herds
with their relatives. Males usually live alone but sometimes form
small groups with other males. Elephants need a lot of space to
find food and water they can roam areas bigger than 30,000 sq
km.The African elephants range has declined by over 50% since 1979
and their populations are becoming more fragmented. While some are
secure and expanding, other populations are in decline particularly
in central Africa.With only 600,000 elephants in the wild and
threats from poaching, habitat loss and conflict with people this
intelligent and powerful animal is officially classed as
vulnerable.Find out how you canhelp protect african elephantsWhy
elephants matter
Elephants play a crucial role in their ecosystem. They are the
architects of their landscape opening up woodlands as they feed and
roam. For example, in forests elephants create clearings which
allow new plants to grow and naturally regenerate the forest.
They also play a vital role in seed dispersal, especially for
large seeds that are not spread by smaller animals. Without
elephants these larger seeds would either be dispersed over shorter
distances, dispersed less often, or not dispersed at all. This
would affect the natural structure and functioning of the forest
ecosystem which is important to people and other animals.
Local people also depend on the natural resources within
elephant habitat for food, fuel and income. As one of Africas big
five, elephants are a popular sight for tourists. This brings
benefits to local people ecotourism can be an important source of
income for them.
By helping protect elephants, were helping conserve their
habitat, supporting local communities, and making sure natural
resources are available for generations to come.Threats to
elephants
Illegal wildlife tradeAfrican elephants are vulnerable to
poaching for the illegal trade in their ivory and meat. Their ivory
tusks are the most sought after, but their meat and skin are also
traded. Tens of thousands of elephants are killed every year for
their tusks. Ivory is often carved into ornaments and jewellery
China is the biggest consumer market for such products.
Human expansionAs the human population expands, more land is
being converted to agriculture. So elephant habitat is shrinking
and becoming more fragmented. This means elephants and people come
into contact more often, and conflicts occur. Elephants sometimes
raid farmers fields and damage their crops affecting the farmers
livelihoods and may even kill people. Elephants are sometimes
killed in retaliation.How WWF is helping protect African
elephants
African elephant programmeOur African elephant programme aims to
create stability for elephant populations and their habitats in 20
landscapes by 2017. To achieve this, were focusing on tackling all
threats to this species poaching, habitat loss and conflicts
between people and elephants.
Tackling illegal wildlife tradeWere helping reduce poaching by
improving protection and management of their habitat, including
helping to train and equip law enforcement and anti-poaching teams.
We work alongside TRAFFIC (the wildlife trade monitoring network)
to investigate, expose and crack down on the illegal trade in ivory
and to reduce the demand, so this trade will no longer be a
significant threat to elephant conservation.
Creating new protected areasWere also helping create new
protected areas and setting up wildlife corridors that link
fragmented habitats. It means elephants have more space to roam
without coming into villages, and different populations can mix and
breed.END ILLEGAL WILDLIFE TRADEHelp Stop the Slaughter of
Elephants
The killing may be taking place on another continent, but by
supplying these poachers with a market to sell their blood ivory
the U.S. is helping to pull the fatal trigger.President Obama has
made all the right moves, but until his good intentions are
translated into action the tragic loss of the worlds largest land
mammal will continue unchecked.Help us stop this horrific
slaughter, and tell President Obama to crack down on the illegal
trade and sale of ivory within the United States!THE ELEPHANT
DEBATEBy Daphne Sheldrick D.B.E.: 1992 UNEP Global 500
Laureate.IntroductionNo animal triggers more heated debate within
conservation circles than the elephant, for no animal has greater
impact on the environment or is more "human" emotionally. Elephants
can change the face of the landscape enacting their allotted
"recycling" role and they share with us humans many emotional
traits. Theirs is a parallel lifespan, the same rate of
development, a sense of family and death, loyalties and friendships
forged over the years that span a lifetime and a memory that
probably far surpasses our own. They also have additional
attributes such as "instinct", that mysterious genetic knowledge
crucial to survival; the ability to communicate over distance with
low frequency infra-sound hidden to human ears, and, like many
other animals, powers of telepathy. Hence, the question of how best
to "manage" these highly sophisticated and sensitive pachyderms
inevitably evokes heated debate.Elephants and Ivory:-Unhappily, the
ivory of their huge "incisors" has commercial and mystical
significance, particularly in the Far East. In Japan, it is used
for signature seals known as "hankas" and in many other Far Eastern
countries such as China the ancient art of carving is an important
industry with skills handed down over generations from father to
son. It is the demand in the East for an ivory hanka, or in the
West for an ivory trinket, that has injected the commercial element
into ivory and it is the commercial trade that now threatens the
survival of the largest land mammal on earth. All who buy ivory
have blood on their hands, for it has cost an elephant its life and
that of all its dependent young. It has also wrought immeasurable
psychological suffering to many others who were friends and loved
ones.Elephants need S P A C E and space is a commodity that is fast
becoming scarce due to human expansion. Ancient migration routes
have been cut and elephants driven into their last refuges, often
too small to be viable in the long-term, or positioned in marginal
land where survival hinges on the variables of rainfall.Meanwhile,
conflicting messages from the elephant range States and different
conservation factions has bred confusion in the minds of the lay
public and since it is "people power" that will ultimately
determine the course of events, it is important that the
complexities of the elephant story are fully understood. Thirty
years ago the elephant population of Africa stood at a healthy 3
million. Today less than 250,000 remain with numbers poised to
decline further due to human pressures. Remnant elephant
communities isolated from one another and holed up in small refuge
areas immediately become "problem animals" every time they put a
foot out, since they find themselves in conflict with human
interests. The price of this is a bullet.Elephant society is
comprised of bonded female units which stay together for life
(young bulls leave the natal family at puberty to apprentice
themselves to high ranking bulls in order to learn the codes of
behaviour that govern bull society). The female unit is led by the
oldest member of the family, known as the Matriarch, and it is she
who makes all the decisions for her family. Hence, within the cow
units, the misfortunes of one, affect, all, making them
particularly vulnerable. Elephant infants cannot survive without
milk for the first two years of life. Thereafter, ideally, a calf
would supplement its diet of vegetation with some milk from its
mother for the next three years until the arrival of the next baby,
by which time it will be 5 years old. It will reach puberty between
the age of l0 and l5 years; be a young adult at 20, in its prime in
its thirties and forties, still strong and healthy yet ageing in
its fifties, and old beyond the age of sixty. Therefore, when a
calf is orphaned younger than two, it is usually doomed, for whilst
the family will love and care for it as best they can, few cow
elephants with a calf at foot will have the lactating capacity to
suckle two; nor would a cow jeopardise her own calf by doing so.
Occasionally, if times are good, an old cow wise in the ways of
motherhood will allow an orphan to suckle if she has lost a baby,
or has one not wholly milk dependent, but such instances are rare.
Deprived of milk, an orphaned infant will weaken rapidly, fall
behind the herd and then the Matriarch must abandon it in the
interests of the others whose survival is her responsibility. Her
decision is final.The gestation period for an elephant is between
22 and 24 months. A young cow can fall pregnant for the first time
at puberty, so given optimum conditions a female elephant could
have her first calf at the age of l2 or 14, thereafter producing
one baby every five years into her sixties. However, conditions are
seldom optimal for elephants these days. Most populations are under
stress which inhibits conception; many are subjected to intense
human intrusion through mass tourism and scientific monitoring;
droughts are commonplace in marginal areas with both water and food
scarce and, of course, in Southern Africa economics dominate, in a
flawed "if it pays it stays" attitude, so periodic culls are
accepted as necessary management practice. There the meat of culled
elephants is canned as pet food, their hide turned into leather,
fetching high prices in Japan, their feet sold as curios and their
young sold to Zoos and Circuses under the "educational" loophole in
the laws governing endangered species. What can be educational in
viewing a miserable and usually psychotic captive is questionable,
to say the least, particularly in this day and age of sophisticated
technology.The scale of abuse attached to the live baby elephant
trade was graphically highlighted by what became known as the Tuli
Debacle. Calves, some of which were only two years old, were
snatched from their living families by Helicopter in the Tuli Block
of Botswana and subsequently cruelly brutalised in a South African
so called "training" facility in preparation for sale to China and
the Far East. There they became the subject of a cruelty Court Case
which ended up generating such international outrage that some, at
least, were released into Marakele National Park where they
subsequently became absorbed into a wild herd. However, others less
fortunate were spirited away to Northern Transvaal , (no doubt to
be "trained" further far from the public spotlight) and yet others
were clandestinely airlifted to Zoos in Switzerland and Germany,
there to face life imprisonment in conditions that are far from
suitable for an elephant. (Pressure is being exerted to try and get
these wild caught captives returned back to where they belong).
Another report from Tanzania told of young elephants being isolated
from the herd and chased by Landrovers until exhausted, then being
netted and dragged hundreds of metres to a waiting transporter.
(Needless to say, none of these captives survived). It is known
that the live animal trade also acts as a convenient cover and
conduit for illegal narcotics and diamonds.The demand for young
elephants in China is ongoing, because mortality is high in a
country where animal welfare is an alien concept and captive
elephants are subjected to untold cruelty and suffering. CITES (The
International Convention on Trade in Endangered Species) has always
conveniently overlooked what is, and is not, "a suitable
destination" in terms of elephants since few of the delegates are
conversant with the needs, and nature, of elephants. The trade is
lucrative, the demand is there, and money talks!Poaching and
CITES:-In the 1970's and 80's poaching escalated to such an extent
that public outcry forced the International Community to take
action. North of the Zambezi, entire populations of elephants faced
annihilation; security within the Parks impacted negatively on
tourism, (the mainstay of many African economies), and the
situation was desperate. Finally, in1989,CITES, which meets every
two years to discuss trade in threatened and endangered species,
was forced to impose an International Ban on the sale of all ivory.
Elephants were placed on thefully protected Appendix I listing,the
price of ivory fell sharply and with it the incentive to poach. In
short, the elephants won a reprieve just in time throughout most of
Africa and some countries such as Kenya and Zambia went so far as
to burn their ivory stocks in a gesture of commitment and
goodwill.However, others further South and some further North in
possession of illegal stockpiles, chose to hoard it, and
immediately began to orchestrate a cunning P.R. campaign to be
allowed to sell it, despite the fact that a further l0,000
elephants were estimated to have perished when Hong Kong was
allowed to sell its stockpile immediately after the ban was
imposed. This should have been a warning heeded but commercial
interests often cloud good judgement.The International Ivory Ban
held for the next 8 years and for the first time ever poaching was
brought under control. Furthermore, the in-house corruption that
had crept into most wildlife authorities could be addressed. Yet,
eight years is time enough only for just two generations of
elephants to be born to replace the holocaust of the previous two
decades and certainly not time enough to heal the fragile fabric of
elephant society which had been severely disrupted. Still the
pressure mounted from the Southern Africans with talk of "over
population", "rampaging elephants" spilling out of protected areas
to conflict with human interests, and the perennial cry that the
dead must pay for the living. In this respect a quote from Dr.
Richard Leakey sums up the opinion of informed
conservationists:-"Biodiversity cannot be given a price The point
is that species must stay, so we must pay. National Parks are not
larders to be plundered and exploited."One can be excused for
thinking that perhaps we humans should begin by addressing the
negative impact our species has had on the planet through
cultivation, open-cast mining, industrial pollution, river
contamination, forest felling and other facets of mismanagement!
The damage done to the planet by homo sapiens exceeds that of all
others.In June l997,another CITES Convention was convened inHarare,
Zimbabwe,and amidst a great deal of political manoeuvring, the
Ivory Ban that had held for the past eight years was overturned,
and overturned in an unethical way through a second secret ballot.
This over-rode the first vote in favour of the elephants, because
the European Union chose to abstain, which cost the elephants
dearly. In so doing, Zimbabwe, Namibia and Botswana finally won the
right for a one-off sale of their ivory stockpiles to Japan.
Shamefully, this time, Animal Welfare Organisations there to speak
for the animals and provide some semblance of "conscience" within a
trade oriented forum, were denied even a voice, despite the fact
that it is they who are best equipped to furnish the usually ill
informed delegates with first hand information on conservation
issues. Even the report of the scientific "Panel of Experts" which
questioned the poaching figures submitted by Zimbabwe, fell on deaf
ears. In a nutshell, the l997 CITES Conference of the Parties will
go down in history as a disgraceful showing of acrimony, strong arm
tactics, and deviousness, besides being a mega conservation
blunder. Nevertheless,the South African population of elephants
remained on Appendix Iand that, at least, was some
consolation.Immediately, the message was out - elephants were up
for grabs again. Illegal ivory could again be "laundered" into the
legal system; poaching escalated, as did the stockpiling of illegal
ivory, and this at a time when the elephant populations had barely
recovered from the previous onslaught. Furthermore, many African
range States were in a worsening state of political chaos with no
hope of adequate law enforcement; automatic weapons were easily
procurable and many wildlife authorities were impoverished and
riddled with corruption. More sinister still, there were those that
embarked on a deliberate strategy of covering up poaching incidents
either to disguise their own shortcomings or because they had
vested interests in the illegal trade.In April 2000,The CITES
Conference of the Parties met yet again, this time inNairobi,
Kenya,amidst conflicting and confused reports about whether, in
fact, poaching for ivory was responsible for the further demise of
elephants, or whether, in fact, there had been a reduction in
numbers. The CITES Secretariat was quite openly biased in favour of
the Southern African pro-trade lobby and Kenya and India found
themselves alone in admitting a serious escalation in poaching and
pressing for the fully protected Appendix I listing to be
reinstated. Other range States, known to have been under poaching
pressure, saw fit to again conceal the facts for the same reasons
as before; yet others were either "bought" or intimidated and in
the end a compromise emerged a two year moratorium on the sale
ofallivory in exchange for thedownlisting to Appendix II of the
South African population,thereby sanctioning the trade in all
elephant by-products, except ivory, butincluding live elephants.Yet
again, the thorny question of what is, and what is not,
asuitabledestination failed to be adequately defined. Worse still,
within just a month or two, Zimbabwe deliberately flouted the
Convention's ruling and went ahead with the sale of a large
quantity of ivory to China! Nor is there any doubt that in two
years' time, the pressure to open the Ivory Trade will be even
greater, so the The Millennium Cites gathering will go down in
history as being a no-win situation yet again for the elephants. It
would seem that only when the Southern African populations are
threatened with extinction will the International Community respond
by placing all ivory off limits forever, since wealthy Southern
Africa has more to offer the world in terms of trade than other
African range States.Culling as a Management Option:-The only
practical way of "culling" elephant herds is to gun down entire
family groups, first having immobilised the Matriarch from a
helicopter so that the family cluster around her, confused and
rudderless. The drug commonly used is scholine, banned for use on
humans, since it collapses the muscles causing total paralysis, yet
leaves the victim fully conscious. An anaesthetic would, of course,
be far more humane, but it would contaminate the meat and detract
from its commercial value. Yet, no-one can deny that an elephant
cull is anything short of a brutal massacre that sickens even the
most seasoned men detailed to undertake this terrible task as part
of their conservation duties.Significant, however, is the fact that
artificial culling is undoubtedly seriously flawed. With all age
groups within the female herds still intact, and pressure off the
land by the removal of some, the breeding rate inevitably rises.
Culling therefore has to be ongoing and the problem of "too many
elephants" is never truly solved, serving, of course, the interests
of the commercial trade. But, culling as practised in Southern
Africa is fundamentally flawed for another very important reason,
expediently overlooked. It deprives Nature of evolution's most
potent genetic tool -Natural Selection- something that can never be
duplicated by man. The survival of the fittest ensures the strength
of the genetic core of wild populations so that only the best genes
perpetuate. Natural Selection is the powerhouse of evolution,
crucial to healthy stock, and vital for adaptation in an ever
changing habitat, for Nature isneverstatic; it is a dynamic and
volatile force with evolution constantly at work. The term
"Conservation" has been defined thus by one of the world's most
eminent ecologists, the late Sir Frank Fraser Darling:-"Maintenance
of the Energy flux is conservation reduction of it is the opposite
to conservation".No-one can argue that the removal of large numbers
of elephant from the environment for commercial purposes, is
anything other than a reduction of the energy flux and as such
contrary to the fundamentals of conservation. Neither should the
contribution of the dead to the wellbeing of the living be
overlooked. A dead elephant feeds a great many predators for a long
time, and the recycling of its remains back into the environment
returns nutrients to the soil from whence they sprung, contributing
to fertility. Even the tail hairs of a dead elephant serve a useful
function, plucked out by the birds for nests; bones are chewed and
scattered by predators, gnawed by rodents or weathered back into
the soil by the elements. A study done in Tsavo recorded 84,700
insects in just 3 kilos of elephant dung, so ponder for a moment
the forces at work to recycle what once was a living elephant. When
nothing is removed from the habitat, nothing is lost, and the
environment is the richer for it.The Tsavo Example:-The thorny
issue of what to do about an over population of elephants in a
confined area continues to simmer. Attempts at birth control
through pill implants have proved problematical and are still in
the experimental stage. Who, in fact, is qualified to determine how
many is too many, when there are too many, and which ones should
die? Only Nature can do this, and the example is there within
Kenya's Tsavo National Park, the only Park in Africa where natural
processes and vegetational progression has been allowed to proceed
to a natural conclusion devoid of human intervention. In Tsavo
elephant/vegetational cyclical patterns have been carefully
monitored over time and a natural elephant die-off that took place
in the early seventies has been scientifically documented. There
man stood aside to look and learn rather than to crash in clumsily
where angels feared to tread.The argument most commonly used to
justify the large-scale killing of elephant herds is that they
destroy the habitat, threatening the survival of other life forms.
But, where is the evidence to support this premise? In Tsavo what
at one point in time appeared to be wholesale "destruction" of the
woody plant community, turned out to be something quite different.
Nor did the predicted demise of many species due to the activity of
elephants occur - rather the reverse; the habitat was improved and
became more productive benefiting biodiversity. There the ability
of Nature to adjust elephant numbers was illustrated and the reason
for the female bonding within elephant society also became clear.
Added to this, human failings such as corruption and greed
illustrated the pitfalls of "commercial utilisation" of wild free
ranging populations, where Nature imposes its own controls through
predation, disease, and food and water availability, no provision
allowed in the system for human predation on a commercial scale.It
so happened that Naturalists, as opposed to Scientists, were at the
wildlife helm at that point in time. They viewed things not in
isolation, but as a whole, since Naturalists do not specialise but
consider the big picture. Sympathetic handling of wild populations
and compassion for the orphaned and injured is not seen as a
weakness but rather an essential element of sensitive conservation
husbandry. A Naturalist has the advantage of vision unblinkered by
scientific constraints and an intrinsic passion for wild unspoilt
places where Nature and natural processes rule supreme, and where
wild animals enjoya quality of lifeuntroubled by intrusive
management. Naturalists understand that Nature holds the answers to
many puzzles and that humans should take the time to look and learn
rather than blunder in where angels fear to tread. Nature is
complex and every living organism, whether large or small, is
intertwined contributing, each in its own way, to the wellbeing of
the whole. It has the ability to best correct imbalances caused by
artificial boundaries with species adapting to change, and finding
their own optimum levels within habitat conditions prevailing at
the time. What can exist naturally within artificial boundaries
will, and what can't, wont, such limitations being preferable to
artificially manipulated situations that impact negatively both on
quality of life and the sense of wilderness, quite apart from
usually being too costly for Third World resources. Above all,
Naturalists bow to the significance of natural selection, viewing
it as a vital and necessary process that contributes to the
wellbeing of the species. After all, no one knows better than
Nature as to who should live and who should die.when the time
comes. In other words, when it comes to intrusive management, less
is always best.Tsavo National Park is 8,000 sq. miles in extent. It
was established in l948, not because of its wealth of wildlife, but
simply because it was a large chunk of country not suitable for
either pastoral or agricultural purposes - an inhospitable arid
thirstland with an average annual rainfall of between just l0 and
and 20 inches; its barren wastes tsetse infested "commiphora" scrub
served by only two permanent rivers; the malarial parasite and
tsetse borne trypanosomiasis a deterrent to both humans and
domestic livestock. Grasses were sparse or absent altogether
beneath the dense entanglement of barbed scrub and sanseveria that
dominated at that time, and as a result water runoff during the wet
seasons produced flash flooding in sand luggas that lay dry for the
rest of the year. Then, the habitat favoured the browsing species
such as elephant, and black rhino, both of which were present in
very large numbers, as were dikdik, lesser kudu and gerenuk.
Grazers were few and sparse, but diverse nevertheless. However, the
viewing of anything was severely restricted due to the impenetrable
wall of bush that gave way reluctantly to every trail.By fortunate
geographical accident, however, the Park just happened to hold a
greater variety of different species than any other Park in the
world, for there the northern and southern forms of fauna just
happened to meet, doubling up on common species. It harboured
Peters Gazelle as well as the Common Grant, the Somali ostrich
along with the Masai, reticulated forms of giraffe merging into
obvious Masai patterning, and, prior to the great rinderpest
epidemic of the late l800's which decimated the ungulates, Greater
kudu as well as the more common lesser variety and even Sable.In
l948 when the Park first came into being, human pressure had yet to
manifest itself along the boundaries, so elephants roamed an
ecosystem of l6,000 square miles, twice the size of the Park
itself. By the late l960's, however, human expansion and good Park
protection brought most of the 45,000 elephants of the ecosystem
within the Park's borders, and their impact on the environment
became glaringly evident. Damage to the woodland scrub trees at a
glance did appear catastrophic, but as the picture unfolded, it
became clear that what was first seen as "destruction" was, in
fact, no more than a rather untidy phase of a perfectly natural
cycle in which scrubland was being recycled to make way for a
grassland regime which would benefit the grazers hitherto
suppressed. Only the elephant can trigger such change.Inevitably,
there was talk of "culling", but ivory related corruption endemic
within the higher echelons of Government called for caution.
Furthermore, it had taken the Park authorities the previous two
decades to control the illegal poaching of elephants within the
Park boundaries by a traditional elephant hunting tribe known as
the Waliangulu who would surely have difficulty rationalising why
the authorities had the right to slaughter elephants when they had
been prevented from doing so. Equally as important was the fact
that Kenya was a leader in the psychological aspect of wild
animals, and particularly of elephants, so the humane angle was a
major consideration. That elephants are essentially "human" in
emotion was already known as early as the fifties, (and has
recently been scientifically proved through a study of the
components of both human and elephant breast milk, both of which
contain complex olichosacharides that promote complex brain
formation). Like us, elephants "bury" their dead, covering a body
with sticks and leaves; they grieve and mourn a lost loved one as
deeply as any human, returning to the remains to pay their respects
periodically, and for years afterwards. Like us, elephants remember
- in fact, they never forget, so they are constantly in touch with
friends and loved ones throughout their life.As humans, we
understand the trauma of death, and most of us are familiar with
grief. So, consider the grief wrought amongst elephants subjected
to an annual "cull"; the trauma of forever being stalked by the
threat of death, of annually mourning friends and family and never
knowing who is next. It is unacceptable to believe that only humans
are worthy of compassion or that the world exists simply for the
benefit of mankind. We need a more holistic approach to Nature and
the other creatures that have evolved in tandem with us on this
planet, all of which fulfil a specific function within the
environment.Of course, The Wardens of the time had the benefit of
the South African example as well. They knew that with commercial
culling inevitably come Tanning and Meat Processing plants
employing a work force that cannot easily be dismissed; contracts
and deadlines that have to be met and policy decisions influenced
by economics rather than environmental considerations, not to
mention the danger posed to visitors by traumatised and wounded
animals too fearful to stand for a photograph. Then there is the
perennial problem of corruption and greed creeping into the
equation with disastrous results.Fortunately, however, in Tsavo,
the controversial "Elephant Debate" was overtaken by events in l970
when a worse than usual drought hit the Park and Nature stepped in
to sort things out ahead of man. Subjected to stress due to the
shortage of food, natural adjustment of the birth rate began to
inhibit recruitment. The cows simply did not conceive. Furthermore,
the oldest females of the cow units, the Matriarchs, were the first
to feel the affects of malnutrition and as strength ebbed, they
took the female family within easy reach of permanent water. There
conditions during drought conditions are inevitably harsher,
affecting all members of the female herd. Then came the quiet mass
die-off of selected female age groups throughout the entire
population - a one-off event that saw the loss of almost 9,000
mainly female elephants of specific age groups. This created the
generation gaps necessary to relieve the pressure on the land,
immediately plunging the elephant population into a long slow
decline which relieved the pressure on the land and made way for
the regeneration of a new generation of trees. These had, of
course, been planted by the elephants themselves in their long
range wanderings, deposited far and wide in their dung. The reason
that Nature has ordained that female elephants stay bonded together
for life now becomes obvious, for in order to put a population into
decline, it is the breeding females that must be targeted.It was
all over within three months, at no cost, and with no disruption to
other wild communities - no profiteering - just a cataclysmic
natural tragedy soon obscured by the mists of time. Only the ivory
was removed from the carcasses. In a perfect world this too should
have remained where it was, to be recycled back from whence it
came. The removal of females from the Tsavo population set the
stage for the elephants to achieve a natural equilibrium with the
food resource now available to them, bearing in mind that the
population had been swelled by unnatural immigration induced by
human expansion.This now poses a question. Surely, in this day and
age of sophistication, it must be possible to repeat a natural
die-off artificially, using anaesthesia rather than scholine and to
remove a selected number of females of selected age groups, as did
Nature? A natural die off has to take place, at the most, only once
in an elephant's lifetime and this surely must be more humane than
an annual cull. Could mankind not sacrifice the meat once in an
elephant's lifetime in the interests of good conservation,
particularly as there is an over-abundance of domestic livestock
badly in need of a cull for environmental reasons. These are the
issues that Science should be addressing and especially now that
the lay public are better informed about the nature of elephants.
Inhumane handling of elephants, and indeed all animals, is becoming
anathema.Elephants are essentially fragile; huge eating machines
that require not only a great quantity of vegetation in a day, but
also a wide selection of different plants including the bark of
trees to provide the trace elements and minerals essential for such
a large frame. They are delicate in infancy and by design have been
equipped with a surprisingly inefficient digestive system, passing
6% protein in their dung. Once denied the essentials in their diet,
they weaken rapidly, which forces them to retreat to sources of
permanent water where conditions are inevitably worse. Before all
others, they are the first to feel the affects of malnutrition,
inducing a condition known asketosis, which is a painless lethargy
caused by lowered blood sugar levels, even when there is food in
the stomach. What that food lacks, however, is the quantity and
nutritional components needed to maintain strength. The elephants
become comatose, spending a lot of time asleep, devoid of energy to
move far from water. Inevitably, one day, they simply cannot get up
and then the end comes quickly and quietly. They die surrounded by
their loved ones who bring comfort and love right up until the end,
and who then have time to mourn as they "bury" their dead,
comforting each other in their bereavement. (It is this natural
die-off that in the past gave rise to the legendary myth of "the
elephants' graveyard" when the bones of many elephants were found
near sources of permanent water).Hot on the heels of the Tsavo
die-off came the rampant poaching of the seventies and eighties,
and this pushed the population rapidly below the optimum downward
swing of the natural vegetational seesaw, foreshortening the
grassland cycle. This then is the only unnatural event in Tsavo,
and one that could impact negatively on the grazers in the
long-term since they may not be afforded the time they need to
proliferate to the point when they can withstand another woodland
cycle. The woodlands are regenerating, and regenerating rapidly, so
Tsavo will revert to what it was like when the Park was first
proclaimed dense scrub thicket. Thus, within just l5 years, Tsavo's
once over population of elephants became an under population
threatened with annihilation. The poaching was now fuelled by
in-house greed and corruption forcing the elephants to abandon huge
swathes of the Park, too fearful to return for the next 30 years.
Ironically they sought shelter around human habitation where the AK
47 and G3 wielding killers could not easily get at them, but this
created a different set of problems that of the so-called "problem
elephants". Only the imposition of the Ivory Ban in l989 brought a
reprieve and only now, thirty years later, are the elephants
beginning to venture back into the interior of the Park.The role of
Elephantsis a very crucial one, crucial to the survival of many
other species both large and small. They are Nature's Bulldozers,
their most important function that of recycling the nutrients and
trace elements locked in wood, drawn up out of soil by tree roots
over decades. Only when the trees themselves are felled are these
rare earths released back into the environment to become available
to other plant and animal life less well equipped. No other animal
can, for instance, recycle the precious minerals of the giant
Baobab, a long lived colossus extremely rich in calcium and trace
elements. The debris of trees felled by elephants shield pioneer
grasses and shrubs from trampling; deep rooted perennial grasses
follow, the grazers proliferate and browsers decline. Natural
selection ensures that the gene pool is honed and that the
strongest survive in readiness for another thicket phase as
elephant numbers fall. Then, if the elephants can be adequately
protected, their numbers will rise again in tandem with the
regeneration of the woodlands, and this then is the natural order
of events - a cyclical vegetational seesaw of woodland to grassland
and back to woodland inextricably intertwined with elephant
numbers.It is the elephants who create the trails that benefit all
others, roads that not only select the best alignment over
difficult terrain, but also unerringly point the way to water,
acting as conduits for run-off rainwater directing it to the
waterholes and ensuring that they fill more surely and rapidly.
Elephants create the waterholes in the first place and enlarge them
every time they bathe, carrying away copious quantities of mud
plastered on their huge bodies. The puddling action of their giant
feet seals the bottom against seepage, so that water lasts longer
in the dry seasons benefiting all life and relieving feeding
pressures near permanent sources. Elephants also have the ability
to expose hidden subsurface supplies buried deep beneath the sands
of the dry riverbeds, making it accessible to others by tunnelling
at an angle with their trunks. Their sheer weight compresses the
sand bringing water closer to the surface as dozens of elephants
patiently await their turn to drink from these holes. Were the
elephants not there to fulfil this function, all water dependent
species would not be able to exist in such places - a case in point
being the Tiva river in Tsavo, which literally died faunally when
the elephants left.Elephants provide in other ways too, breaking
down branches to bring browse to a lower level, thereby making it
accessible to the many smaller creatures that share their world. By
felling trees they create the space that allows seedlings to take
root and grow uninhibited by their parents' shadow. The very rapid
metabolism of an elephant ensures copious quantities of dung, the
very life support for the largest scarabs, who roll it into balls
and bury it deep below the ground, thereby enriching the soil. The
dung also attracts the insects that nourish a host of insectivorous
birds, mammals and reptiles and because elephants have such an
inefficient digestive system, it is particularly rich.The
Future:-Tsavo provides an example of how Nature controls elephant
populations. Whilst the natural die- off of elephant and the
build-up to it has been well documented, unfortunately, no in-depth
study of the subsequent sequence of events was undertaken, simply
because gun brandishing poachers proved a deterrent. However,
records and photographic evidence does exist within the Sheldrick
Trust's Archives making a retrospective study feasible.One thing is
sure, and that is that CITES which should have prevented the demise
of the elephant by controlling the trade has failed in its mandate.
Instead it has evolved into a political lobby bent on trade and the
endangered species have become mere pawns in a money game. In fact,
in the past CITES agents themselves orchestrated the laundering of
illegal ivory into a stockpile in Burundi, accepting bribes as a
pay-off for the CITES stamp. Now, more than ever, when the
elephants are so very vulnerable, their social family fabric torn
to tatters, should the worldSAY NO TO IVORY,no matter in what form.
Each and every one of us can, and should, at least do that. Every
piece of ivory is a haunting memory of a once proud and majestic
animal, that should have lived three score years and ten; who has
loved and been loved, and was once a member of a close-knit family
akin to our own; but who has suffered and died in unspeakable agony
to yield a tooth for a trinket. Something so symbolic of death and
suffering can never be beautiful.A True/False QuizThink you know
somethingabout elephants? Well here you can test your knowledge
about tusks and see why theres such an uproar about ivory.
Ready?True or false?All elephants grow tusks.False!
AllAfricanelephants grow tusks, but only some male Asian elephants
have tusks. Some female Asian elephants have very tiny tusks called
tushes but no long tusks.
An Asian elephant. Photo Credit: Jayanand Govindaraj
No two tusks are alike.True! In fact, researchers who track
elephants use the appearance of the tusks, along with the ears, to
identify individuals.If an elephant breaks a tusk it will grow
back.False! Tusks are teeth and just like our teeth, if one is
broken, it stays broken. But unlike our teeth, a tusk can continue
growing from the root if that isnt damaged. Its not unusual to see
an elephant with only one tusk because the other was injured to the
point that it stopped growing.The tusk is the equivalent of our
incisor teeth (the tooth on either side of our two front teeth). It
is made of ivory, a material soft enough to be carved, which is the
root of the poaching problem.All elephant teeth are ivory.False!
Only the tusks are made of ivoryan extremely dense dentine covered
with a carveable calcified rind called cementum. The rest of the
elephants teeth are made from enamel, dentin and pulp, like
ours.
Photo Credit US Fish & Wildlife Service Forensics Lab
We can tell an elephants age by the length of its tusk.True! As
long as the tusk hasnt been broken, it can reveal an elephants age
relative to other elephants of the same sex and species. Because
most of the elephants with the longest tusks have been killed,
their genes are no longer passed along. That is one of the reasons
authorities are confiscating shorter and thinner tusks every year.
Another reason: Since most of the oldest bull elephants have been
poached for their longer tusks, poachers now are going after the
females and the younger males. This spells disaster for breeding
herds.One of the largest tusks ever found was about 10 feet long
and weighed over 200 pounds. Tusks can grow up to seven inches a
year.
Kilimanjaro Tusks, ca. 1898Most elephants are right- or
left-tusk dominant.True! Like humans, elephants have a preference
over which tusk they use for their primary jobs (such as breaking
branches, digging for water, ripping bark off trees). You can tell
which tusk is dominant by looking at it the most-used tusk will be
shorter and rounder at the tip.A tusk can be removed without
killing the elephant.False! In fact, a broken tusk, which is
common, can lead to a life-threatening infection. But poachers use
darts, poison and high-powered automatic rifles with night scopes
to take elephants down and, while they are dying, the tusks are
gouged out of from the living elephants skull. The elephants die an
agonizing, slow death from hemorrhage.
Photo Boubandjida Safari Lodge courtesy of International Fund
for Animal Welfare (IFAW)
Like an iceberg, much of an elephants tusk is below the
surface.True! Only two thirds of the elephants tusk is made of
ivory and is visible while the elephant is living. The base of the
tusk is embedded in the skull and made of pulp, blood and nerves
like the roots of our own teeth.Only elephants produce ivory.False!
Ivory can be taken from hippos, walruses, sperm whales, horn-billed
birds and even from fossilized mammoths. What makes elephant ivory
so prized is its softer carvability.We can prevent poaching by
dying or scarring the tusks of living elephants.False! Though many
have proposed solutions like this, they are impractical as
elephants would have to be darted with anesthetic or their watering
holes infused with dye. Darting is far from an exact science and
can kill or maim an elephant. Surface scars into the ivory could be
repaired by sanding or, if they are too deep, could cause
infection. Placing chemicals in the water supply risks poisoning
the elephants and other smaller animals who use the same source,
but also doesnt solve the problem of making future growth of the
tusk undesirable.There is an alternative to ivory.True! Synthetic
celluloid ivory (also called French Ivory) can be crafted to the
same standards as genuine ivory and its price in China is less than
20% of real ivory.A palm-like tree called Tagua gives us 7-20 nuts
that can be carved like ivory and are used for everything from
jewelry to umbrella handlesan inexpensive and renewable
alternative.
A piece made from synthetic ivory. Source: Pin It
Tagua Nuts and carvings. Photo Credit Suzette Leith
And piano keys?Do elephants still need to die for those? No!
There are alternativessuch as plastic and resinand evolved
musicians wont use anything but non-ivory keys. Read what Piano Man
Billy Joel has to say about the subjecthere.
Source: Billyjoel.com
It is okay to buy and sell antique ivory items.False! While some
rationalize the market for old ivory by saying the elephant died
years ago, so whats the harm? The truth is that any market for
ivory creates a demand for tusks, which is leading to the rapid
extinction of elephants. In fact, the more valuable ivory is seen
as being, the more likely it is that people who cant afford
antiques will buy new ivory as an investment. In addition, its hard
to tell the age of carved ivory, and new ivory can be artificially
aged and papers forged about when it was bought/sold, making import
and export exceptions for antique ivory a gigantic loophole that
international traders abuse to profit from their horrendous
crimes.Think of ivory as the new fur. Would you wear a fur coateven
an old one? If you own ivory you can keep it; just dont wear it or
sell it. Become part of the movement to remove ads for ivory from
sites likeGoogleandeBay. If you live in the U.S., sign a petition
to ban ivory trade in your statehere.The United States has banned
the sale of ivory.False! The U.S. currently is the second largest
market for ivory in the world, with China being #1. In February
2014 apartial banon the import and export of elephant ivory was put
in place and is now in force, but sadly there are exceptions that
permit antique, noncommercial, and personal use import and export.
Just as bad, it continues to allow inhumane hunters to import
elephant heads as trophies. No, this is not the 18th century, but
it sounds like it, right?There isnt muchyoucan do to stop
poachers.False! One of the more effective ways to stop elephant
poaching is to eliminate the market for ivory.On October 4,
2014,The Global March for Elephants and Rhinosis conducting
worldwide educational marches about the ivory trade in 105 cities
worldwide. You can go to their site to sign petitions to ban import
and sale of ivory and you can find more petitions at96
Elephants.You can use Twitter and Facebook to educate your friends
and family know about this issue and what they can doincluding
never buying, selling or wearing ivory.Finally, you can support
organizations likeBig Lifethat are stopping poachers on the ground
in Africa.
So, the truth about tusks?They belong on elephantsnot on us, not
in stores, not on our walls, and not on the auction block.
Painting by Sarah Soward: Sarah Soward
Facebook.com/rhinotopiaTOPICS:IVORYPOACHINGELEPHANTSELEPHANTTUSKSTUSKFranette
ArmstrongASIAN ELEPHANTAND AFRICAN
ELEPHANTENDANGEREDSPECIESThroughout history, the elephant has
played an important role in human economies, religion, and culture.
The immense size, strength, and stature of this largest living land
animal has intrigued people of many cultures for hundreds of
years.In Asia, elephants have served as beasts of burden in war and
peace. Some civilizations have regarded elephants as gods, and they
have been symbols of royalty for some.Elephants have entertained us
in circuses and festivals around the world. For centuries, the
elephants massive tusks have been prized for their ivory.The
African elephant once roamed the entire continent of Africa, and
the Asian elephant ranged from Syria to northern China and the
islands of Indonesia. These abundant populations have been reduced
to groups in scattered areas south of the Sahara and in isolated
patches in India, Sri Lanka, and Southeast Asia.Demand for ivory,
combined with habitat loss from human settlement, has led to a
dramatic decline in elephant populations in the last few decades.
In 1930, there were between 5 and 10 million African elephants. By
1979, there were 1.3 million.In 1989, when they were added to the
international list of the most endangered species, there were about
600,000 remaining, less than one percent of their original
number.Asian elephants were never as abundant as their African
cousins, and today they are even more endangered thanAfrican
elephants. At the turn of the century, there were an estimated
200,000 Asian elephants. Today there are probably no more than
35,000 to 40,000 left in the wild.DescriptionAt first glance,
African andAsian elephantsappear the same. An informed eye,
however, can distinguish the two species. An African bull elephant
(adult male) can weigh as much as 14,000 to 16,000 pounds (6300 to
7300 kg) and grow to 13 feet (four meters) at the shoulder. Its
smaller relative, the Asian elephant, averages 5,000 pounds (2300
kg) and 9 to 10 feet (3 meters) tall.TheAfrican elephantis
sway-backed and has a tapering head, while the Asian elephant is
hump-backed and has a huge, domed head. Probably the most
interesting difference between the two species is their ears.
Oddly, the African elephants large ears match the shape of the
African continent, and the Asian elephants smaller ears match the
shape of India.Elongated incisors (front teeth), more commonly
known as tusks, grow up to 7 inches (18 cm) per year. All elephants
have tusks, except for femaleAsian elephants. The largest of the
African bulls tusks can weigh as much as 160 pounds (73 kg) and
grow to 12 feet (4 meters) long. Most animals this big, however,
are gone; they were the first to be killed for their
ivory.MostAfrican elephantslive on the savanna, but some live in
forests or even deserts. Most Asian elephants live in forests. As
herbivores (plant eaters), elephants consume grass, foliage, fruit,
branches, twigs, and tree bark. Elephants spend three-quarters of
its day eating, and they eats as much as 400 pounds (880 kg) of
vegetation each day. For this task, they have only four teeth for
chewing.In the hot climates of their native habitats, elephants
need about 50 gallons (190 liters) of water to drink every
day.Elephantsboast the largest nose in the world, which is actually
part nose and part upper lip. It is a large natural hose, with a
six-gallon (23-liter) capacity.Role in the EcosystemElephants are
considered aKeystone speciesin the African landscape. They pull
down trees, break up bushes, create salt licks, dig waterholes, and
forge trails. Other animals, including humans, like the pygmies of
the Central African Republic, depend on the openingselephantscreate
in the forest and brush and in the waterholes they
dig.Evenelephantdroppings are important to the environment. Baboons
and birds pick through dung for undigested seeds and nuts, and dung
beetles reproduce in these deposits. The nutrient-rich manure
replenishes depleted soil. Finally, it is a vehicle for seed
dispersal. Some seeds will not germinate unless they have passed
through an elephants digestive system.BehaviorWildelephantshave
strong family ties. The females and young are social, living in
groups under the leadership of an older female or matriarch. Adult
males are solitary, although they stay in contact with the females
over great distances, using sounds well below the range of human
hearing. Family groups communicate with each other using these
low-frequency vibrations.It is an eerie sight to see several groups
converging on a waterhole from miles apart, apparently by some
prearranged signal, when human observers have heard nothing.The
natural lifespan of an elephant, about 70 years, is comparable to a
humans.Elephantsreach breeding age at about 15 years of age.
Females generally give birth to one 200-pound baby after a 22-month
pregnancy.Elephants and HumansHumans first tamedAsian elephantsmore
than 4,000 years ago. In the past, humans used elephants in war.
Elephants have been called the predecessors to the tank because of
their immense size and strength. They were important to military
supply lines as recently as the Vietnam War in the
1960s.AlthoughAfrican elephantsare harder to train than Asian, they
too have worked for humans, mostly during wartime. For example, the
elephants that carried Hannibals troops across the Alps to attack
the Romans in 200 B.C. were African.In modern times humans
useelephantsprimarily for heavy jobs like hauling logs. An elephant
is the ultimate off-road vehicle and can get tremendous traction
even on slippery mud. An elephant actually walks on its toes, aided
by a great flesh-heel pad that can conform to the ground.In some
remote areas of Southeast Asia it is still more economical to use
elephants for work than it is to use modern machinery. Scientific
researchers use elephants for transportation in the hard-to-reach,
swampy areas they study, and tourists ride elephants to view
wildlife in Asian reserves.Elephantsare the ideal mobile viewing
platform in the tall grass found in many parks.Asia has always had
a strong cultural connection to the elephant. In Chinese, the
phrase to ride an elephant sounds the same as the word for
happiness. When Thailand was called Siam, the sacredWhite
Elephantdominated the flag and culture. According to Thai legend,
in the beginning all elephants were white and flew through the air,
like the clouds and rain.Thousands of years later, a white elephant
entered the side of Queen Sirimahamaya as she lay sleeping. Later
she gave birth to Prince Siddhartha, the future Guatama Buddha.
Among the predominantly Buddhist kingdoms of Southeast Asia, the
most auspicious event possible during a monarchs reign was the
finding of awhite elephant.Causes of EndangermentHabitat
LossElephants need a large amount of habitat because they eat so
much. Humans have become their direct competitors for living space.
Human populations in Africa and Asia have quadrupled since the turn
of the century, the fastest growth rate on the planet. Forest and
savanna habitat has been converted to cropland, pastureland for
livestock, and timber for housing and fuel.Humans do not
regardelephantsas good neighbors. When humans and elephants live
close together, elephants raid crops, and rogue elephants
(aggressive male elephants during the breeding season) rampage
through villages. Local people shoot elephants because they fear
them and regard them as pests.Some countries have established
culling programs: park officials or hunters kill a predetermined
number ofelephantsto keep herds manageable and minimize
human-elephant conflicts.OverexploitationHunting has been a major
cause of the decline in elephant populations.Elephantsbecame prized
trophies for big-game hunters after Europeans arrived in Africa.
More recently, and more devastatingly, hunters have slaughtered
elephants for their ivory tusks. The ivory trade became a serious
threat to elephants in the 1970s.A sudden oil shortage caused the
world economy to collapse, and ivory became more valuable than
gold. In fact, ivory has been called white gold because it is
beautiful, easily carved, durable, and pleasing to the touch. Most
of the worlds ivory is carved in Japan, Hong Kong, and other Asian
countries, where skilled carvers depend on a supply of ivory for
their livelihoods.Huntingelephantsis no longer legal in many
African countries, butpoachingwas widespread until very recently.
For many the high price of ivory, about $100 a pound in the 1980s,
was too tempting to resist. Local people often had few other ways
to make a living, and subsistence farmers or herders could make
more by selling the tusks of one elephant than they could make in a
dozen years of farming or herding.As the price of ivory soared,
poachers became more organized, using automatic weapons, motorized
vehicles, and airplanes to chase and kill thousands ofelephants. To
governments and revolutionaries mired in civil wars and strapped
for cash, poaching ivory became a way to pay for more firearms and
supplies.Poaching has caused the collapse ofelephants social
structure as well as decimating their numbers. Poachers target the
biggest elephants because their tusks are larger. They often kill
all the adults in the group, leaving young elephants without any
adults to teach them migration routes, dry-season water sources,
and other learned behavior. Many of Africas remaining elephant
groups are leaderless subadults and juveniles.Conservation
ActionsProtected AreasThere are many national parks or reserves in
Africa where elephant habitat is protected. Many people believe,
however, that the parks are not large enough and are too isolated
from each other to allowelephantpopulations to recover. (SeeIsland
Biogeography). Some countries are developing refuges linked by
corridors to allow seasonal migration and genetic exchange.Human
use of the same land to grow crops, however, makes it difficult to
create linkages between reserves without increasing conflicts
between humans andelephants.Sometimes reserves are too successful.
When there are too many elephants in a reserve for the available
vegetation, they destroy the habitat. They also forage outside the
park and destroy crops.EcotourismOne factor that has convinced
African governments to take strong measures to protectelephantsis
the rising importance of the tourist trade to their economies.
Kenya alone receives $50 million a year from tourists coming to see
elephants. The national parks bring in much-needed income, and
tourism is a source of income that can continue into the future
because it does not deplete wildlife populations.Trade
ProhibitionWorldwide concern over the decline of the elephant led
to a complete ban on the ivory trade in 1990.Elephantshave been
placed on Appendix I ofCITES, the Convention on International Trade
in Endangered Species, which means all trade in elephant parts is
prohibited. Some governments have cracked down hard on poachers. In
some countries, park rangers are told to shoot poachers on
sight.Not all governments support the ivory ban. In Zimbabwe, South
Africa, and Botswana, for example, people farmelephantson ranches
for trophy hunters. Government officials argue that trade in ivory
should be regulated, not prohibited. They say countries that are
managing their elephants well should be allowed to sell ivory in
order to pay for conservation measures, such as park guards and
equipment.Others argue that the only effective solution is a total
ban, because there is no way to distinguish ivory of elephants that
were legally killed from that ofelephantsthat were poached. The
debate over the effectiveness, fairness, and wisdom of the ivory
ban continues.Asian ivory craftspeople are turning to other sources
of raw material for their carvings. Some are turning to walrus
tusks instead ofelephantivory, shifting hunting pressure to
walruses.Captive BreedingCaptive breeding ofAfrican
elephantsprovides elephants for zoos so zoos do not have to take
more elephants from the wild for display. The Jacksonville
Zoological Park has established aSpecies Survival Plan (SSP)for the
African elephant.Questions for ThoughtDo you find it odd that a
species that still has hundreds of thousand of individuals is
consideredendangered?Why do you thinkelephantsare regarded as
endangered?Which elephants chances for survival are better, the
African or the Asian? What factors lead you to this conclusion?Do
you think banning trade in ivory affects other species?If the ban
on trade in ivory is successful in stopping poaching, do you think
the elephants survival is assured? Is your answer the same for
African andAsian elephants?Are reserves the solution to the problem
of habitat loss? What else could or should be done?What Is It About
an Elephant's Tusks That Make Them So Valuable?Chinese demand for
ivory is driving conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
REBECCA J. ROSEN SEP 6, 2012Chinese demand for ivory is driving
conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
ReutersIn Garamba National Park in the northeastern corner of
Congo, thousands of elephants are being killed each year for their
tusks, their carcasses discarded like hair clippings on a
barbershop's floor.Ina beautiful and brutal report,New York
Timesreporter Jeffrey Gettleman describes the carnage, both animal
and human, in harrowing detail. Last year, he writes, "broke the
record for the amount of illegal ivory seized worldwide, at 38.8
tons (equaling the tusks from more than 4,000 dead elephants). Law
enforcement officials say the sharp increase in large seizures is a
clear sign that organized crime has slipped into the ivory
underworld, because only a well-oiled criminal machine -- with the
help of corrupt officials -- could move hundreds of pounds of tusks
thousands of miles across the globe, often using specially made
shipping containers with secret compartments." (Although there are
many sources of ivory such as walruses, rhinoceros, and narwhals,
elephant ivory has always been the most highly sought because of
its particular texture, softness, and its lack of a tough outer
coating of enamel.)What in the world could fuel such demand for
animal teeth? An ascendant Chinese middle class, whose millions can
now afford the prized material. According to Gettlemen, as much of
70 percent of the illegal ivory heads to China, where a pound can
fetch as much as $1,000. "The demand for ivory has surged to the
point that the tusks of a single adult elephant can be worth more
than 10 times the average annual income in many African countries,"
Gettlemen writes.This explains the mechanics. Demand rises, price
goes up, and the costs poachers and smugglers are willing to endure
increase in sync. But what underlies the demand? Why do so many
Chinese people want these elongated cones of dentin?The comparison
to diamonds is commonly made: Diamonds, like ivory, are a natural
substance with little inherent value but prized social
significance. Desire in richer lands tumbles poorer societies into
resource wars and labor abuse. And certainly the modern dynamics
are the same. But demand for ivory is something demand for diamonds
is not: ancient. And its history as a technology, a material with
few peers for centuries, propels this demand even today.Diamonds,
as a cultural symbol,are an invention of the 20th century, the
result of a collaboration between Mad Men and De Beers. Ivory, in
contrast, has been used and valued for millennia. In China,
according toIvory's Ghostsby John Frederick Walker, artistic ivory
carvings exist from as far back as the sixth millennium BCE,
excavated in Zhejiang Province. "By the Shang Dinasty (ca. 1600-ca.
1046 BCE) a highly developed carving tradition had taken hold," he
writes. Specimens from this period are today in museums around the
world.But ivory wasn't solely prized for its aesthetic value.
Ivory's properties -- durability, the ease with which it can be
carved, and its absence of splintering -- uniquely suited it for a
variety of uses. Archaeologists and historians have recovered many
practical tools made out of ivory: buttons, hairpins, chopsticks,
spear tips, bow tips, needles, combs, buckles, handles, billiard
balls, and so on. In more modern times we are all familiar with
ivory's continued use as piano keys until very recently; Steinway
only discontinued its ivory keys in 1982.What do many of these
things have in common? Today we make them out of plastic, but for
thousands of years, ivory was among the best, if not the very best,
option -- the plastic of the pre-20th-century world. For some of
these items (piano keys being the most prominent example) we didn't
have a comparable alternative until very recently. Walker
writes:Synthetic polymers had been in widespread use on keyboards
since the 1950s but found few fans among serious pianists. In the
1980s Yamaha developed Ivorite, made from casein (milk protein) and
an inorganic hardening compound, which was trumpeted as having both
the moisture-absorbing quality of ivory and greater durability.
Unfortunately some of the first keyboards cracked and yellowed,
requiring refitting with a reformulated veneer. Clearly there was
room for improvement. Steinway helped fund a $232,000 study at
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York, in the late
1980s to develop a superior synthetic for keyboard covers. In 1993
the project's team created (and patented) an unusual polymer --
RPlvory -- that more closely duplicated the microscopically random
peaks and valleys on the surface of ivory that allow pianists'
fingers to stick or slip at will.That usefulness, combined with its
warm luster and its receptivity to engravings, meant that it gained
stature as a luxury good from the get-go. China's demand for ivory
today shows the staying power of a luxury symbol, even if a
substance's inherent qualities have been superseded by new
materials.Where does that leave the elephants of Garamba National
Park, their poachers, the smugglers, and a rising China? Is there a
way to remarry ivory's cultural significance to its material one,
to instill the idea that ivory is nothing more than an animal's
tooth?The power of the idea of ivory is immense, and shows no signs
of waning. For the elephants that bare them, perhaps the only hope
is that the price will go up and up, through greater regulation and
greater monitoring, putting ivory once again out of reach for even
the middle class. The irony of this is that the side effect of the
best way to staunch the flow of ivory and the slaughter of
elephants may be the reinforcement of the cultural myth: Make ivory
even rarer, even more reserved for only the very few, and esteem
for it will only rise. JUMP TO COMMENTS Beloved African Elephant
Killed for Ivory"Monumental" LossPopular with tourists, Satao fell
to poachers May 30, group says.ByChristine Dell'Amore,National
GeographicPUBLISHEDJUNE 16, 2014
Satao drinks at a water hole in Tsavo East National Park, Kenya,
in 2013, when the magnificent tusker was in his prime.
PHOTOGRAPH BY MARK DEEBLE AND VICTORIA
STONE,WWW.MARKDEEBLE.WORDPRESS.COMOne ofKenya's most adored
elephants, who had giant tusks and was known as Satao, has been
killed for his ivorya "monumental" loss, experts say.Poachers shot
the bull elephant with a poisoned arrow inTsavo East National Park,
waited for him to die a painful death, and hacked off his face to
remove his ivory,according to the Tsavo Trust, an area nonprofit
that works with wildlife and local communities.Satao was
particularly appealing to poachers as a tusker, a type of male
elephant with a genetic makeup that produces unusually large tusks.
His tusks were more than 6.5 feet (2 meters) long."Kenya as a
country contains probably the last remaining big tuskers in the
world," saidPaula Kahumbu, a Kenya-based wildlife conservationist
with the nonprofit WildlifeDirect. (Read Kahumbu's essay on Satao's
death in theGuardian.)"To losean animal like Sataois a massive loss
to Kenya. He was a major tourist attraction to that part of Tsavo,"
said Kahumbu, who was a2011 National Geographic Emerging
Explorer.The elephant was killed May 30, but members of the trust
announced his death on June 13, after verifying the carcass's
identity. (Related: "Efforts to Curb Ivory Trafficking Spreading,
but Killing Continues.")"It is with enormous regret that we confirm
there is no doubt that Satao is dead, killed by an ivory poacher's
poisoned arrow to feed the seemingly insatiable demand for ivory in
far-off countries," the Tsavo Trust said in a statement."A great
life lost so that someone far away can have a trinket on their
mantelpiece." (Read "Blood Ivory" inNational
Geographicmagazine.)
Satao was killed by poachers and his face was hacked off in
Tsavo East National Park in May 2014.
PHOTOGRAPH BY MARK DEEBLE AND VICTORIA STONE,
WWW.MARKDEEBLE.WORDPRESS.COM"Massive and Hostile" ExpanseSatao died
despite his high profile, which brought special protection."It's
also a reflection on the situation in Kenya that even in a place
where all efforts are made to protect the elephants, it's still
very difficult to protect them," Kahumbu said. (Watchvideo:
"Elephants in Crisis.")For the past 18 months, the Tsavo Trust and
the Kenya Wildlife Service have been monitoring Satao's movements
by air and on foot. "When he was alive, his enormous tusks were
easily identifiable, even from the air," according to the Tsavo
Trust.Satao generally kept to a predictably small area with four
other bull elephants. But in search of food following big rains, he
had recently moved into a boundary of the park that's a known
poaching hot spot, especially for hunters with poisoned arrows.
(Also see: "Poachers Slaughter Dozens of Elephants in Key African
Park.")Authorities noticed this and protection efforts were stepped
up, but the area Satao entered "is a massive and hostile expanse
for any single anti-poaching unit to cover, at least one thousand
square kilometers [about 390 square miles] in size," according to
the Tsavo Trust."Understaffed and with inadequate resources given
the scale of the challenge, [Kenya Wildlife Service] ground units
have a massive uphill struggle to protect wildlife in this area."
(Related: "In War to Save Elephants, Rangers Appeal for
Aid.")PostbyTHE TSAVO TRUST.Poaching's TollAbout 472,000 to
690,000African elephantslikely roam the continent today, down from
possibly five million in the 1930s and 1940s. The animals
areclassified as vulnerable by the International Union for the
Conservation of Nature.Conservationists estimate that 30,000 to
38,000 elephants are poached annually for their ivory, which is
shuttled out of West African and, increasingly, East African
seaports en route mainly to China and other Asian consumer
countries such as Thailand. (Seea graphic of elephant poaching in
Africa.)The whereabouts of Satao's tusks are unknown, but Kahumbu
said that they are likely on their way to being exported."What
worries me is we're seeing increasing amounts of ivory moving
through Kenya, and it's a real indicator of the corruption," she
said.Kenya has a history of dealing with celebrity elephants."One
of the most powerful messages that Kenya ever made was when the
first president of Kenya, Jomo Kenyatta, gave presidential
protection to an elephant [named Ahmed] because of the size of his
tusks," she said. (Read about how China and other countries are
crushing their ivory stocks.)"He died of old age because he had two
armed guards with him 24-7," Kahumbu said. "This is the kind of
measure our president Uhuru Kenyatta needs to do," Kahumbu
emphasized."If we fail to protect these elephants, we lose the gene
pool of big tuskers forever in Africa." Most read Live feeds Top
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World news ElephantsThe elephant slayer: Butchery of poacher who
killed more than SEVENTY elephants and inadvertently helped fund
terrorism 09:53, 5 FEBRUARY 2014 BYTOM PARRYTo dirt-poor Kenyans
like John Sumokwo, 33, it is just a heartless way to make a bit of
quick cash no matter where the big profits end up 3785Shares Share
Tweet +1A Kenyan poacher has boasted how he brutally slaughtered
more than 70 elephants for their valuable tusks.John Sumokwo, 33,
is part of a sickening 12billion-a-year ivory trade which isfunding
terrorism and endangering the species.It has been dubbed the white
gold of jihad and the brutal slaughter of African elephants for
their ivory is helping extremists to bankroll jihadists around the
world.The sickening trade is said to be worth around 4.5billion to
some of the most feared international groups, including those
linked to the ruthless al-Shabaab network.But to dirt-poor Kenyans
like Sumokwo it is just a heartless way to make a bit of quick cash
no matter where the big profits end up.The convicted poacher
boasted how he has butchered more than 70 elephants for their tusks
selling them on to shadowy dealers for a fraction of what they can
fetch on the black market.He described how he speared the
magnificent beasts through the heart before hacking off their
trunks, skinning their heads and cutting off the ivory with an
axe.Rowan Griffiths / Daily MirrorInterview: Sumokwo, 33, speaks
with Mirror man Tom ParrySumokwos revelations come just days before
Britain hosts world leaders for an international summit on how to
combat the barbaric killings and end the illegal
trafficking.Motivated by the massive demand for ivory trinkets and
jewellery in China and the Far East, poachers like Sumokwo, 33, are
bringing the worlds elephant population to the brink of
extinction.So great is the threat, British troops from the
Parachute Regiment have been training Kenyan wildlife rangers
involved in fighting back.Sumokwo, who was finally caught
red-handed after running an ivory poaching gang for a decade, was
released from prison two months ago after serving just over a year
behind bars. But he showed little remorse as he recalled his kills
in horrific detail.I remember the way the elephants scream when
they die, said the father of six, vibrating his tongue against the
roof of his mouth to imitate the sound.When I killed the elephants,
the others would shout. They were extremely distressed.They would
run around looking for ways of defending the one I had attacked. I
remember one young calf saw me kill her mum.She ran off for
protection from other animals. My attacks were so frequent that the
elephants could not mate and have calves. There were not enough
male bull elephants left.To me, this was just business I didnt
think about it any other way. The buyer gave me money and then sold
it off to the big syndicates in Mombasa.AlamyHorrific: Elephant
butchered for 'white gold'With his primitive weapons, Sumokwo
slaughtered one in seven ofthe elephantsin the idyllic Lake
Kamnarok Game Reserve.We spoke to him in the town of Kabarnet, high
above the Kerio Valley, which were his killing fields.Shielded by
dense vegetation, the valley floor was once a place where herds of
elephants roamed undisturbed. Now there are only 500 left.He
explained: We killed them with spears. They were extremely sharp. I
would always have two spears because if you did not kill the
elephant with the first one he would try to kill me.Elephants are
not easy. If they see you they can run after you and kill you. I
was chased several times, but I got more experience.I knew exactly
where to put the spear. It has to go in near the heart, and then
the elephant dies immediately.I would climb up a tree and I would
wait for them to come to that area to graze. I studied their
movements, so I knew exactly where they went.The more I killed the
longer it would take to get the next one because the elephants
would remember where I hid and go a different way. As they
approached, other men in my gang would push the animals and kick
them, so they came in my direction."We targeted the old bull
elephants because they have the longest tusks.Valuable: Ivory
recovered from poachers being sorted by rangersSumokwo said he and
his gang were paid 80 a kilo for the ivory about 9,600 for an
average bull elephant.In China the tusks can fetch more than 2,000
a kilo. It is this massive profit margin that has led to the
involvement of terrorist organisations.Andrea Crosta, of pressure
group the Elephant Action League said ivory trafficking funded up
to 40% of the cost of al-Shabaabs army of 5,000 people.He estimated
the jihadists made up to 365,000 a month from ivory alone. The
tusks Sumokwo hacked off with an axe were sold in Mombasa then some
will have been sold on to al-Shabaab. The terror gang last year
killed more than 60 people in the Westgate mall massacre in
Nairobi.White Widow: Samantha LewthwaiteA key figure among the
jihadists is White Widow Samantha Lewthwaite.The mum of four, from
Aylesbury, Bucks, is the widow of one of the 7/7 bombers, and is
wanted for seven murders in Kenya.The lethal combination of
wildlife destruction and terrorism is the reason 50 world leaders
have been invited to next weeks London Conference on the Illegal
Wildlife Trade, hosted by Prime Minister David Cameron.Prince
Charles and Prince William are also due to attend. Yesterday
Foreign Secretary William Hague, who will chair the conference,
said: We know that the trade feeds corruption and organised crime
and creates regional instability.I know that the challenge we face
is significant and that the threat is highly organised and
ruthless. But it can be defeated and we can reverse the decline in
species. I am determined we do so before it is too late.Recent
figures estimate the worldwide illegal wildlife trade is worth a
total 12billion each year making it the fourth most lucrative
illegal activity behind only drugs, counterfeiting and human
trafficking.Kenyan organisation Wildlife Direct has described the
trade as being the same as the previous blood diamond crisis in
West Africa.Analysts believe terrorists are ultimately behind a
surge in poaching which has seen up to 60,000 elephants and 1,650
rhinos killed in the last two years. Last year a record 41 tonnes
of illegal ivory was seized the highest total in 25 years. Britain
too is experiencing the terrorist-driven boom in illegal ivory.Last
year a specialist UK Border Force team seized 80.7kg at British
airports, compared with just 3.3kg in 2010.Professional Somalian
gangs have been using night-vision equipment to strafe large herds
of elephants in Kenya and Tanzania with assault rifles.Kenyas
elephant population has plunged from 167,000 30 years ago to just
30,000. In Africa, there are now just over half a million, compared
with three to five million in the 1930s.Rowan Griffiths / Daily
MirrorConvicted: Poacher Sumokwo was released after just over a
yearPoachers such as Sumokwo will now face life sentences for
killing endangered animals, as part of crackdown which came into
force a month ago.But animal welfare charity International Fund for
Animal Welfare believes much more needs to be done to stop warlords
sending bandits with AK47s to get ivory to fund more
weapons.Charity official Evan Mkala said: Ivory poaching is war.
Wearing ivory kills human beings as well as elephants.This whole
business is something the world can do without.What you can doAhead
of next week's summit in London on the illegal wildlife trade, the
International Fund for Animal Welfare asked the British public to
donate any unwanted ivory items so they can be removed from the
marketplace and destroyed. There is still time to donate to the
charity. If you have unwanted ivory please call IFAW on 020 7587
6700. To find out more about IFAW's essential work and how you can
get involved visitwww.ifaw.orgPoachers inZimbabwehave killed more
than 300 elephants and countless other safari animals by cyanide
poisoning,The Telegraphhas learned.The full extent of the
devastation wreaked in Hwange, the country's largest national park,
has been revealed by legitimate hunters who discovered what
conservationists say is the worst single massacre in southern
Africa for 25 years.Pictures taken by the hunters, which have been
obtained exclusively byThe Telegraph, reveal horrific scenes. Parts
of the national park, whose more accessible areas are visited by
thousands of tourists each year, can be seen from the air to be
littered with the deflated corpses of elephants, often with their
young calves dead beside them, as well as those of other
animals.There is now deep concern that the use of cyanide first
revealed in July, but on a scale that has only now emerged
represents a new and particularly damaging technique in the already
soaring poaching trade.Zimbabwean authorities said that 90 animals
were killed this way. But the hunters who captured these
photographs say they have conducted a wider aerial survey and
counted the corpses of more than 300.Related Articles China imposes
one-year ivory ban on eve of Prince William visit27 Feb 2015 Help
stop slaughter of elephants, David Attenborough tells Xi Jinping23
Feb 2015 South African rhino poaching deaths nears 1,00019 Dec 2013
Chinese man caught smuggling ivory from Zimbabwe25 Oct 2013 Kenya
to microchip every rhino's horn16 Oct 2013 Mugabe buses in African
wildlife for UN summit propaganda28 Aug 2013 The fun and easy way
to learn a new languageSponsored by BabbelPoachers killed the
elephants over the past three months by lacing waterholes and salt
licks with cyanide. Animals are drawn to them during the dry season
in the already arid and remote south-eastern section of the
5,660-square mile park.After the elephants died, often collapsing
just a few yards from the source, lions, hyenas and vultures which
fed on their carcasses were also struck down, as were other animals
such as kudu and buffalo that shared the sa