Let’s ignore the troubling times in the US for now and think instead about African elephants – and something encouraging that may be happening for those iconic but desperately endangered animals.
After years of predictions about African
elephants nearing extinction, as thousands upon thousands of them have been savagely
slaughtered for their ivory, a tiny ray of hope recently became visible.
But first, a little background. From an estimated
1.3 million African elephants in 1979, that number dropped to fewer than half 10
years later. Why? Because around 70,000 elephant tusks were leaving Africa each year, most of them destined for
China. Once Cites (the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species)
banned the ivory trade in 1989, elephants were relatively safe, and their
numbers began picking up.
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| Countless babies have become orphans |
The last decade
has been a horrific time for African elephants, as their protections ran out
and ivory-lust and greed continued unchecked. Elephant families have been
decimated; babies have seen their parents butchered before them; family
structure, leadership roles and basic behaviors have been altered. One extraordinary example of fear-based
adaptation: an elephant (wearing a tracking collar) who moved from Kenya to
Somalia, usually traveling by night and resting in thick bush during the day, and
who lived.
That “is extreme
behavior adapted to survive the worst-known predator on Earth: man,” says Iain
Douglas-Hamilton, elephant expert and advocate.
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| Douglas-Hamilton @ NYC march |
Ivory trafficking
involves poachers who brutally murder elephants and sell their tusks; smugglers
seeking their cut; entrepreneurs running ivory-carving factories, merchants who
sell the trinkets made from elephant tusks; and consumers, who place more value
on an ivory bracelet or statuette than on the life of a sentient being – all
with an overlay of organized crime.
The largest land
mammals on earth, elephants are majestic, intelligent and social. They live in
matriarchal family groups, protect their young and mourn their dead. Herbivores with 70-year life spans, they’re crucial
to their ecosystem; they travel huge distances in the wild, remembering both
their routes and safe places. And
yet, they have been hunted and killed in a variety of creatively cruel
ways. For ivory trinkets.
However -- and here is where possible good
news comes in -- elephants may have been granted a stay of execution, or better,
by China, the very
country whose demand for elephant ivory has caused cataclysmic drops in
elephant population numbers. With its decision to end
its domestic ivory trade this year, China may make the crucial difference. That
decision, plus a drop in ivory prices and a sustained global advocacy campaign,
may mean life instead of death for irreplaceable African elephants.
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| Both male and female African elephants have tusks. |
My sources for information, and now for guarded
optimism too, have been the NYTimes,
which for years has covered the plight of African elephants, and various
organizations that have worked against unbelievable odds to protect them – the chief
one for me being “Save the Elephants.” It was founded by Iain Douglas-Hamilton, who has
dedicated his life to elephants and
founded STE in 1993 after documenting the scale of poaching.
"I don’t think anybody in any civilized
country would want to cause the extermination of a species of animal," he says.
We shall see.
China has a growing influence in Africa and if the Chinese government really enforces the ban on domestic ivory trading it will make a huge difference to the elephant population. Thanks for researching the story.
ReplyDeletetrying to keep up w/ elephant news and hoping for the best!
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