Elephant Species Under Threat

"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 (19^th) and twentieth (20^th) 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 (18^th) and (19^th) centuries. The killing spread like a plague throughout East and West Africa in the nineteenth (19^th) and twentieth (20^th) 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.