"Species Under Threat"
Thought: Lest we learn to preserve, we will never learn to keep
The African Elephant
Endangered species, when something
cease from existence and can no longer be found. There are numerous ways in
which animals cease from existence and they always happen to be or relate to
human inner drive or persuasion to exist. Our human will to self preservation,
such as providing food, clothing, shelter, needs and wants. Drives us to commit
atrocities against animals that we see as valuable and vulnerable, thus we
exploit them without impunity and future thoughts. This then results in the
animals ‘rarity’, sharp decline in population and if no extra precaution is
taken, the final result is the ‘extinction’ of the animal
The
largest land animal, which is obviously the ‘African’ bush elephant, is
fighting for survival in plains of Africa. The
elephant grows up to twenty four (24) feet in lengths and thirteen (13) feet in
height. It (elephant) lives on the plains of Africa,
thus it is also known as the African savanna elephant. The elephant is found in
most African states, it occupies open savannah grasslands, deserts, low lying
plains and rainforests.
What
makes the ‘African elephant so special is that it inhabits different areas and
it is the largest of the three elephant species found on earth. The elephant
can weigh up to eleven (11) tons and surpass seventy (70) years of life
expectancy, which is the longest among mammals except humans. The elephants
mainly live on a vegetarian diet since they are herbivores and they need
approximately three hundred and fifty (350) pounds of food or vegetation to
survive daily.
The
African elephant has certain characteristics which differentiates it from other
mammals and elephants. The elephant has two large ears, which props out like
columns, a huge thick body, a huge head, with a big powerfully built movable
trunk. The elephants coexist by separating themselves to different tasks;
generally they are two main tasks for the African Elephant that occurs in both
sexes. The Herds which consists mostly of females and their young are
administered by the oldest female, known as the ‘matriarch’. Male adult
elephants live introverted lives and rarely join the herd. Males only approach
the herd during mating season, thus that is when they fight or struggle to find
out who is the rightful mate. Females go
through twenty two months pregnancy before giving birth to a single calf, which
is the longest gestation among mammals.
Every
organism wants or will occupy a space and strive for survival. African
elephants, due to their immense size, they require a considerable amount of
food and a big area to scavenge, such as the open savannah. Thus Habitat
destruction across their foraging areas has caused a lot of serious damage to
their food source and is a major threat to their survival. Stern activities
such as hunting, has caused a lot of damage to the African bush elephant
populations. Humans primarily kill elephants for their tasks or ivory, thus the
population was ‘decimated to the point of extinction’. Throughout the
nineteenth (19th) and twentieth (20th) century humans
have hunted African Elephants in vast array full numbers, thus threatening the
general population, even today the elephant is still considered as extremely
threatened in areas where it exists.
Issues
faced by this dilemma seem controllable, but actually they are not. To a large
extent, the problem for this issue is simply ‘uncontrolled hunting for ivory’
and habitat loss due to rapid human growth or expansion. Humans taking over old
ranges or habitats that were once occupied by elephants. Occupation, in the
mode of deforestation, desertification and settling. Such activities displaces
elephants, hunting for ivory has destroyed the African elephant population in
the eighteenth (18th) and (19th) centuries. The killing
spread like a plague throughout East and West Africa
in the nineteenth (19th) and twentieth (20th) century. African
Elephants were under threat of rapid extinction during these periods of time.
It
is known as the ‘white gold’ of the animal kingdom. Ivory has been valuable
since the earliest history of men. It (ivory) is known for producing religious
objects, works of art, daggers, piano keys, billiard balls and a range of
accessories, that consists of ‘wants’ and ‘needs’ in the human world. It is not
surprising today that the world’s third largest economy, which is Japan,
is the biggest manufacturer and user of ivory. Ivory differs in different parts
of Africa; it varies in hardness, chemical
composition and luminousness. This means, a different diet results in a
different kind and type of ivory. Thus the food eaten, the geology and soil
composition of the Elephants, determines the value of their ivory. This also
provides good insight data to find out where ivories came from in Africa, this however helps in the fight against or the
‘control of illegal trade in ivory’.
Economics
depends on demand and supply. During the nineteen seventies (1970s) and
nineteen eighties (1980s), the demand for ivory increased, thus this drove the
price up from $60/kg in the nineteen seventies (1970s) to 300/kg in the
nineteen eighties (1980s). This ignited a wave of atrocities or killings and
increased the illegal trade of ivory. The supply then increased during these
years, thus the elephant population which was then one
million three hundred thousand (1 300 000) decreased down to only six hundred
and ten thousand (610 000). Countries such as Uganda saw a massive decline from
sixteen thousand (16 000) to only one thousand six hundred (1 600). Tanzania’s
hundred and nine thousand (109 000) elephants decreased to only twenty-nine
thousand three hundred (29 300). Africa,
which is profoundly the poorest
continent, with a vast population of over four hundred million people, whom
mostly are living on less then a dollar ($1) a day, the temptation for poaching
was inevitable. Most of the real revenue however, are not made by the
‘poachers’, instead they are made by the illegal dealers and middlemen, who
greedily ran the trade and stole millions of revenue from the rightful owners,
which is the African people and their state governments.
At the brink of extinction, humans tend to be friendly. The
demand for ivory collapsed after the First World War, this paved way for
the introduction of wildlife conservation legislation. The elephants
then staged a remarkable upturn or recovery. Delegates around the world
convened at Switzerland in October 1989, at a meeting known as the Convention
on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora or CITES. The meetings purpose was to tackle
the wildlife trade problems and at the peak of the agenda (meeting) was ‘trade
in ivory’. After a much taunted argument the vast majority of delegates voted
to ban ‘ivory trade’, this decision gave birth to the landmark 1989 decision,
banned the international trade in elephant products, placing the African
elephant alongside the highly endangered Asian elephant on Appendix I of the Convention
on International Trade in Endangered Species. The
landmark decision took effect as from 18 January 1990. In regard to the
landmark decision, poaching began to slow down in many African states, this
slow process gave time to elephants to slowly recover and maintain steady
populations. This decision however affected the international ivory trade,
causing it to collapse worldwide; it also resulted in an economic downturn for
some countries such as India,
which saw two thirds of its craftsman (ivory) without work or jobs.
Bad things that are good and beneficial cannot be stopped
but prevented from happening. After the tight clamp down on the international
ivory trade, the question that we are tasked to face now is; whether the ban on
ivory trade did put a stop to poaching (elephant)? Undoubtedly the large-scale
poaching of African elephants has declined throughout the African continent.
The trade ban also provided immense funds to protect the elephants in the wild.
This then resulted in increased law enforcement, strong policies towards
protecting elephants and the development of nature reserves or national parks.
Their future depends on us. Protected areas are safe
havens for African Elephants, but that does not guarantee that every elephant
is safe. Some elephants that survive outside of protected zones depend fully
upon us humans for their well being. Instead of seeing ivory as an elephant’s
death sentence, it could be seeing as its salvation and utilized in profitable
ways. Such ways as controlled legal sale of ivory, local government
control, training of local people to control herd population and the creation
of incentives that the local population can benefit from, if the government
fails to provide for the local people, then the elephants can be seen as
compensation and not a resource. Much effort and work still need to be done, so
that we can help save an endangered species like the African elephants from
extinction.
There are numerous ways in which you can become involved.
What can you as a person do to save this exquisite animal from extinction? You
can become informed and an informant about the issues involved in the elephant
(ivory) case. Providing support for a conservation organization concerned with
elephants is a constructive way. Giving awareness about the issues regarding
elephant poaching and donations towards local areas is essential. It creates
more knowledge about the issues and help local people to not rely completely on
elephant ivory as a source of income and survival. So let us all join hands and
help save the African Elephants from ‘extinction’.
Endangered species are mostly
threatened by human activities. There are many ways in which animals such as the African
Elephants are threatened; they are always connected to human activity, such as
profit and self preservation (needs/wants). By being rationale human beings or
moral men, we can stop exploiting and start conserving. In this way the final
result will not be extinction but prosperity of both men and animals.