DAILY TRIFECTA: World Elephant Day Of Reckoning
We're taking home the trophies, but we're losing the game.
TITLE: Echoes of the Ancients: The Wisdom and Power of Elephants
https://goodmenproject.com/featured-content/echoes-of-the-ancients-the-wisdom-and-power-of-elephants/
EXCERPT: World Elephant Day, celebrated on August 12th, honours one of Earth’s most magnificent creatures, the faithful, gentle and powerful elephant species of Asia and Africa. Over the past decade, the number of elephants has significantly dropped by 62% due to multiple threats, the main ones being deforestation for palm oil and meat and the illegal killing of elephants for the black market of wildlife trophies.
One of the most significant threats to elephants is habitat destruction. A study by the University of California, San Diego, revealed that more than 3 million square kilometres of the Asian elephant’s historic habitat have been lost in just three centuries (University of California – San Diego, 2023).
This loss is largely due to agricultural expansion, deforestation for commodities like palm oil, meat, and cocoa, and urban development. The reduction in suitable habitats leads to increased human-elephant conflicts as elephants encroach on human settlements in search of food and space.
Poaching is another critical threat. It is estimated that 100 African elephants are killed each day for their ivory, primarily driven by demand in Asian markets. This relentless poaching not only reduces elephant populations but also disrupts their social structures and destabilises the ecosystem.
Research from Lund University has shown that regions with abundant large herbivores, such as elephants, have more variable tree cover, benefiting biodiversity overall (Wang et al., 2023). Elephants play a crucial role in maintaining the health and diversity of their habitats by dispersing seeds and creating pathways for other species.
A study by Saint Louis University found that if elephants become extinct, the rainforests of central and west Africa would lose a significant portion of their ability to capture atmospheric carbon, amplifying global warming. Elephants help maintain the diversity of tree species, promoting the growth of high carbon density trees which store more carbon from the atmosphere (Blake et al., 2023).
Let’s not forget that they deserve to exist in their own right, just as any other animal deserves to live. Elephants are intelligent, emotional and complex sentient beings, as countless recent research papers have shown.
A recent study by Colorado State University revealed that wild African elephants use name-like calls to address each other, a rare ability among nonhuman animals (Pardo et al., 2024). This finding suggests a high level of cognitive sophistication and social complexity in elephants.
A study conducted at the Salakpra Wildlife Sanctuary in Thailand documented wild Asian elephants solving puzzles to access food. This research demonstrated that elephants possess individual innovation and problem-solving abilities, with some elephants showing greater persistence and success in retrieving food from various compartments (Jacobson et al., 2023).
A study in PLOS Biology revealed that Asian elephants are keen to cooperate with friends but will compete aggressively when resources are scarce. This behaviour sheds light on the complex social strategies elephants use to balance cooperation and competition (Li et al., 2021).
Research from the University of Exeter suggests that male elephants are more aggressive when fewer older males are present. The study, conducted in Botswana, found that older bulls play a key role in keeping younger males calm, reducing the risk of aggression towards non-elephant targets such as vehicles and livestock. The removal of old male elephants, often targeted by trophy hunting, can lead to increased human-wildlife conflict, highlighting the importance of preserving these wise old giants. (Allen et al., 2021).
TITLE: Botswana: Sharp Spike in Elephant Poaching - 'Someone is Dropping the Ball Here'
https://allafrica.com/stories/202408120084.html
EXCERPTS: There has been a dramatic increase in elephant poaching in northern Botswana, with little official concern about reports of the poaching. An aerial survey in July revealed 19 poached carcasses, bringing the total to 105 since October 2023.
Mary Rice, Executive Director of the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA), warns that "the increasing number of elephant poaching incidents being documented in Botswana should be of real concern to the wider conservation community".
"Whilst it may be the view that the figures are relatively low given the size of the population," says Rice, "we have seen this trajectory of engagement before: failure to address the problem internally, denial of the problem and evidence of seizures and arrests mainly taking place in neighbouring countries, for which those enforcement agencies are to be applauded. It is clear that there is significant intelligence available for targeted enforcement action to take place, but is there the will?"
The lack of political will could be a reflection of President Masisi’s desire to reduce Botswana’s elephant population. Masisi has vociferously defended the high elephant hunting quotas by claiming that killing elephants keeps the population in check and reduces human-elephant conflict. Trophy hunting in Botswana is at an all-time high – 400 elephants were permitted to be trophy-hunted for the 2024 season.
This effectively means that the elephant population in Botswana is getting assaulted on two fronts – legal trophy hunting and illegal poaching.
Earlier this year, Masisi threatened to send 20,000 elephants to Germany in response to a suggestion by the German Environment Minister to place stricter measures on the import or hunting trophies.
However, contrary to Masisi's claim of reducing elephant numbers to reduce human-elephant conflict, trophy hunting generally takes place far from human settlements as was the case of the largest tusker trophy hunted in the remote NG13 concession in the far north of the country in 2022, where, incidentally, five of the recent poaching victims have been found.
Poaching also tends to take place far from permanent settlements, where poachers enjoy less chance of detection. All the recently discovered elephant carcasses are in remote concessions, most of them in NG15 and NG18, along with a temporary poacher's camp containing tusks.
Of the greatest concern, though, is that both poachers and trophy hunters are exclusively targeting bull elephants. All the elephants recently poached were bulls. Poachers favour the bulls, especially mature ones, since they have the biggest tusks and therefore the greatest market value. Trophy hunters are after the bulls for the same reason. According to elephant biologist, Dr Keith Lindsay, this will create a serious imbalance to the social fabric of the elephant population in Botswana.
Trophy hunters tend to argue that "harvesting" mature male bulls are past their prime breeding age. They claim that they are "redundant" and are therefore legitimate targets.
This is problematic in a number of ways:
Firstly, "harvest" implies that elephants are inanimate crops in a field to be collected, mere commodities for financial gain. The term, which is increasingly being used by proponents of trophy hunting attempts to sanitise what essentially is a mass slaughter of sentient animals who live in complex societies..
Secondly, removing older males has detrimental effects on the broader elephant society through the loss of leaders crucial to younger male navigation in unknown, risky environments. A study in Botswana in 2020 raised concerns over the biased removal of mature bulls in both legal trophy hunting and illegal poaching. The research finds that "young adolescent males may gain considerable fitness benefits by associating with older males, with potentially decades more experience of utilising their environment safely and effectively, and older male elephants may act as repositories of ecological knowledge to younger males". Lindsay warns that elephants "can ill afford the loss of their genetic contribution and role as social keystones to the long-term health of the population".
TITLE: Conservationists Demand End To Elephant Trophy Hunting In Tanzania
https://www.citizen.digital/news/conservationists-demand-end-to-elephant-trophy-hunting-in-tanzania-n347610
EXCERPT: Researchers and environmentalists presented the Tanzanian government with a global petition that has garnered over 500,000 signatures since March 2024 on Monday, urging the cessation of elephant trophy hunting in the Tanzanian portion of the range, which borders Kenya.
This follows Tanzanian authorities' decision to issue hunting permits for super Tuskers in the Greater Amboseli-West Kilimanjaro elephant population.
Five were targeted, hunted, and killed by trophy hunters in Northern Tanzania over the last eight months. More permits are set to be issued imminently.
Hunting is still legal in Tanzania, where hunting companies obtain licences on behalf of clients, despite Kenya's 1977 ban.
Trophy hunters are targeting the last ten remaining Amboseli Super Tuskers as they cross the Kenya-Tanzania border.
Despite an agreed-upon moratorium on trophy hunting between Kenya and Tanzania since 1995, the Tanzanian government has renewed licences to kill members of this cross-border elephant population.
While elephant management in Tanzania is recognised as the Tanzanian government's sovereign duty, scientists reminded the two leaders that this population is shared and has been protected for three decades through a bilateral agreement.
“The loss of these elephants is not just a blow to elephant populations but to our collective efforts in conservation,” said Dr. Cynthia Moss, founder of the Amboseli Trust for Elephants.
Until 2023, there had been a 30 year period of no elephant hunting incidences reported. The recent hunting wave was triggered by a new quota that was issued in 2022 to Kilombero North Safaris.
The last unfortunate super tusker hunting incidence had been in 1994 leading to an international outcry when four well known elephants (RBG, Sleepy, Saibulu, and Oloitipitip), subjects of the Amboseli Elephant Research Project, were shot by trophy hunters on the Tanzanian side of the border.
“The recent killings of super-tuskers is particularly concerning due to the rarity and special role these older males play in elephant society,” stated Dr. Joyce Poole, Scientific Director of Elephant Voices.
SEE ALSO:
Nigeria loses 73% of elephants in 30 years
https://businessday.ng/africa/article/nigeria-loses-73-of-elephants-in-30-years/
Wildlife NGO calls for more protection of elephants in Nigeria
https://www.thecable.ng/wildlife-ngo-calls-for-more-protection-of-elephants-in-nigeria/
KWS urges human-wildlife coexistence to boost elephant numbers
https://www.the-star.co.ke/news/2024-08-12-kws-urges-human-wildlife-coexistence-to-boost-elephant-numbers/
App to reduce deaths by elephants launched in India
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cy4yp0zy39lo