Elephants' Near Extinction: Crossing Over To The Dark Side

Extinction... a word echoed within the corridors of conservation but whispered within the closed doors of government. Sad to think how many wildlife had to go extinct for the world to notice. Just this week, i came across an article that mentioned the horrific poaching of over 70 elephants in the Congo. My friends and I echoed sentiments of how horrific that act was. It led me thinking however, how many of us would pause and let these words resound in our ears. Death is not something you can get used to...its cruel; it's even more cruel when it takes away more life than is being born.

This week, a conference on the African Elephant (the African Elephant Summit) was held in Botswana to discuss the rising numbers in elephant deaths as a result of poaching. The outcome of this summit showed that the African elephant could be extinct within one or two decades. If you think that's a long time...think again...it's well within your lifetime! Yes, a day will come just like it happened to all other extinct wildlife, that we will not have this magnificent animal walking tall within the savanna. Hard to imagine, right? Swallow this then...East Africa has seen the worst decline from 150,000 elephants in 2006 to about 100,000 in 2013! The trend of course is on a decline! Perhaps if the IUCN were to change the status of this animal to let's say ''Near Extinct'' (this category is not among those listed by the IUCN...i just made it up), this might help raise the alarm more clearer, right? Unfortunately, not! Things have gotten worse for the elephant, even with its status reading endangered!

Interesting to note however is that poverty was highlighted as the likely cause of poaching in Africa. Surprised? According to an elephant specialist with the IUCN, a direct correlation was made between human infant immortality; which is a measure of poverty and levels of poaching. Strange, right? Nevertheless, this cannot be far from the truth. Sure poachers are just out to get money to feed their families, but its more likely that these men and women are living within the poverty line and are lured to get quick money at a very big cost. And with the increase in poaching in these parts of the world, these men and women are only acting out of orders from highly organized international criminal gangs. Interestingly, at the summit were representatives of China, of whom have been accused of fueling this crisis. This however goes to show that one apple does not spoil the entire barrel...the Republic is determined to reduce this offense in its backyard. In fact, demand reduction programmes have began in this country.

Still, there is much work to be done to curb this problem. This summit could not have come at a better time. It's main objective being to secure commitments at the highest political level to significantly reduce elephant killings is crucial. Leaders such as President Obama who have stepped up their administrations to work towards combating this illegal trade and protecting elephants are making this dream possible. Thus, if more governments and conservation bodies were to partner in this context, there would definitely be a difference in the world of elephants. Elephants are facing extinction much closer than we think and the power to stop it is in our hands. Will you let these words resound in your ears now? Will you help do something...anything to stop this cruel illegal trade? Elephants need us, will you step up before they cross over to the dark side?

Elephant Social Structure: A Sense Of Direction

They say a picture is worth a thousand words. Well, this week I happened to see a very sad photo of an elephant with tears running down its face and who most likely could have been grieving the loss of a loved one. For most of us who are aware of the social structure of elephants, we can understand the pain in this animal's eyes. A book was published in 1996 on this topic by a man named Jeffrey Masson called 'When Elephants Weep'. Even though he did not dwell on elephants but the entire animal kingdom, he opened up debate on the emotional lives of animals and changed the way we looked at animals.

The social life of elephants has been a subject for years and years with most researchers being fascinated by what they found out. As i pointed out in my earlier posts, elephants live in very close social networks and rely on one another. They practically survive on the bonds they share with one another. And just as every family has a head, the head of a herd of elephants is the matriarch. She is usually the largest and oldest female in the herd and whom all the other elephants look up to. She determines where they eat, when they move and even looks after their safety and health. Now, imagine if the matriarch is taken away from them and lets say, killed by poachers, wouldn't this affect them? Let's for a moment think of it this way...the loss of a father or mother in the home is usually felt far worse more than any other member of the family. Am I right? Well, i could argue many reasons why but one reason stands, the family feels as if its lost direction.

This same feeling is felt when the elephants' circumstances changes in their once docile environment. They feel lost and surely without a sense of direction, their chances of survival lessen. Well, sure they could join other groups or make one of their own but its never really the same. More so, elephants herds are usually made up of mostly females as the males leave the herd in their teens. These female  therefore have to look out for one another and help each other look after their young ones. Just this week, we celebrated International Women's Day with many women celebrating one another and recognising those women who have triumphed in a male-dominated world. Well, if we could have an 'International Day for Female Animals', the matriarchs would definitely be among the most celebrated. Can i hear an Amen ladies! :) 

Poaching of elephants as you may be aware is usually targeted on the big adults because of their big tusks and sadly, the matriarch most times falls victim. This causes disarray within the family making them anxious and violent. As humans continue to encroach on their habitats, elephants are becoming increasingly violent and will do away with anything that comes in the way of their survival. This goes against their nature as they are known to be very friendly, playful and sociable animals. With these threats they face, elephants are slowly being forced to change according to their circumstances. Understanding that as humans we're responsible for the change in their social structure is important to enable us to start thinking of ways we can change this trend before its too late.

There's a lot of literature on the social behavior of elephants that would burn your ears out just listening to it. Nevertheless, with many research studies being done on these social structures, maybe we can find a way of interacting with these animals in a way that is not harmful to them. Till then, we should take the time to learn more about these animals. Who knows, they may teach us a thing or two on proper interactions, don't you think? ;)

Elephants vs Locals: Ignorance is Bliss?

This has indeed been a great week in the world of everything environment and wildlife! On 3rd March we celebrated three events in one day! The first was the second year celebration of World Wildlife Day which was made official during the UN General Assembly Session in 2013 in commemorating the adoption of CITES. The second event, Africa Environment Day also falls on the same day and in honour of Wangari Maathai and the contributions she made in the protection of the environment, allocated that day as Wangari Maathai Day; making it the third celebrated event.

The highlighted issue that stood out this week was that it was time to get serious about wildlife crime. This was the message given by the UN Secretary General and echoed by the Secretary General of CITES. WWF also came out clear on recognising the importance of wildlife especially those endangered and threatened. Another issue raised was the increasing loss of habitat and its destruction in many African ecosystems. It has been realised that most African economies are being grown at the expense of the environment. With mining and exploration activities on the rise, we are slowly losing our environment to the gutter. Deforestation rates have increased and over-fishing has become a common problem. Do i even need to discuss what climate change is doing to our nations?

Its come out clearly over the past decades that things are getting worse in our world. With major technological and developmental discoveries, man is each day finding ways to survive. This however is affecting our environment many ways than it can handle and elephants are right in the middle of this. I've spoken a lot in my past posts on how elephants are being affected by man's destructions. Being the intellectual beings they are, their loss is felt far more than we can imagine. It is however even sadder to know that these elephants survival is tied to those whom they live close to as reported in 'The Guardian'. As 'harsh' as this writer may sound, i have to agree on his thinking, locals living around these animals have the power to protect them, but only if they knew why.

Its easy to put the blame on the government for bad governance, the wildlife organisations for not doing enough and the poachers, well for poaching. But have we stopped to consider the people at the grass root level? Elephants destroy their farms and kill them by the hundreds; would you protect an animal that does that if you didn't know why? No? Exactly! These locals need to be educated why elephants are important to them otherwise we will continue to face more elephant deaths by their numbers. Equally, those people living in forests who depend on it for their survival and cut down its trees unknowingly of the destruction they do will only continue to do so unless they know why they shouldn't. I believe that creating awareness to the locals living close to these ecosystems as well as these wildlife will go a long way in protecting these animals.

We may continue to celebrate these world events and remind ourselves how we are to blame for the loss of our environments and wildlife but if we continue to let these important people continue to live in their ignorance, we may be to blame far more than we are now. Let's think about that, shall we?