Blood Ivory, The Last Stance of the Elephant in the Wild

Thousands of Elephants are dying each year so their tusks can be carved into religious objects and ornaments. Can the slaughter be stopped before it is to late?


In January 2012, a Hundred raiders on horseback out charged out of Chad, Central Africa, into Cameroon's Bouda Ndjidah National Park, slaughtering hundred of elephants-entire families. It was one of the worst concentrated killings of elephants seen since the adoption of the global ivory ban in 1989. Armed with AK47's and Rocket Propelled Grenades, the raiders tore down groups of elephants with military precision. Mother elephants clung to their young to save them, but terrified herds of up to 50 went down together.

The end scenes looked something like this;

 

 

You might ask why is this happening?

Elephant poaching levels are currently at their worst in a decade and the number of killings have dramatically increased in the last few years. It was reported by the WWF that over 32,000 elephants were indiscriminately killed last year.  With populations of wild elephants (African and Asian) at an all time low, (down from 3-4 million in the late 1950's to around 400,000 now) there is a real danger that unless drastic action is taken, the elephant will be extinct by as early as 2050.

Whilst the scene for poaching is in Africa, the destination for the resulting illegal ivory is almost always Asia, with China and Thailand considered the worst offenders in recent years.

 China is considered the key to defeating poachers says conversation groups, "as the final destination of the vast majority of the world's illegal ivory, China has seen a demand explode in recent years as the country's rich residents have grown ever fonder of trinkets and carvings made from illegal ivory".

Just last January two tonnes of ivory almost £800,000 worth was destined for Asia was seized in Kenya.

Furthermore, in the last six months alone more than six tonnes of elephant ivory worth close to $6.5 million was confiscated in one shipment alone in Hong Kong. With a black market price of $3000 per tonne of ivory, the trade in illegal ivory has now doubled since 2007.

Corruption is also rife in the ivory crisis. According to the Convention on International Trade of Endangered Species (CITES) a large amount of ivory stockpiles goes missing each year. A CITES report "Elephants in the Dust, The African Elephant Crisis" states that;

"The size of ivory stockpiles in many countries in and outside Africa, and their possible contribution to the illegal ivory supply chain, remains another important gap in the current understanding of the dynamics of the illegal ivory trade,"

At a recent 178 nation summit of the Convention on International Trade of Endangered Species a gang of "eight nations" were branded key players in the ivory crisis, including Kenya, Thailand, Uganda, Tanzania, Vietnam, Malaysia, Philippines and China. At its final decision, the CITES delegates approved a action plan for these countries to reduce their ivory trade or face international sanctions, barring their own wildlife and plant trades.

However, many have argued that this is not enough to stop the continued and expansive rise in the luxurious illegal ivory trade. Just last week 26 weeks elephants were killed at a World Heritage Site in Central Africa,

Overall, the evidence in front of us is undeniable, and we must decide as a global community which path we will take. The elephant can still be saved but the challenges are large and layered and the future of the species now depends on what happens next. 

Author: Harry Wright

Sources:

http://newswatch.nationalgeographic.com/2013/05/13/chaos-and-confusion-following-elephant-poaching-in-a-central-african-world-heritage-site/

http://edition.cnn.com/2013/03/15/world/asia/hong-kong-ivory

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2013/mar/06/ivory-poaching-sanctions-cites

6 of Nature’s Loneliest Animals Looking for Love

The London Zoo recently put out a call to collectors that doubled as the animal version of a personals ad.
The zoo was looking for females of the Mangarahara cichlid, a species of fish so rare that none are thought to exist in the wild, and one that is in critical danger of going extinct entirely if the zoo’s two males and a further bachelor fish at a zoo in Berlin don’t find mates soon.

 

Many creatures are in this situation because they are endemic (i.e. unique) to specific areas and habitats and therefore at increased risk for extinction, or else because their numbers have been reduced by habitat destruction or hunting and poaching.

The Mangarahara cichlid isn’t alone. Here are some other lonely creatures looking for a friend.

Lonesome George

 

One of the most well-known members of the Forlorn Creatures Club was the aptly named Lonesome George, a Pinta Island tortoise from the Galapagos who sadly passed away last year after several failed attempts to successfully mate him with another tortoise and thereby continue the subspecies. At over 100 years old Lonesome George at least had a good run, but it was a long and solitary one (see “Lonesome George Not the Last of His Kind, After All?“).

Here are a few other lonesome creatures who we hope can find love and avoid a similar fate

Beauty Spots

The forests of Eastern Russia may not seem like big cat country but they are in fact home to the Amur leopard, a quick, clever, and striking feline of which only roughly 30 are thought to exist. Their eye-catching appearance is actually part of the problem. Despite their critically low numbers, the leopards are still being killed by poachers for their valuable skins.

Further compounding the Amur’s population problem is a food problem: It’s typical prey of deer and hare are often hunted by the residents of nearby villages, making it difficult for the population to grow. Luckily for the Amur leopard the Russian government took action in 2012 to create a 650,000-acre (263,046-hectare) protected zone called Land of the Leopard National Park, giving the species a fighting (and loving) chance.

Big Love

Then there’s the Javan rhinoceros. Once common throughout Southeast Asia, these lonely hulks are now isolated entirely to Ujung Kulon National Park in western Java, with fewer than 100 individuals thought to be remaining. As perhaps the rarest large mammal on Earth, needless to say their situation is critical and it’s in the interest of biodiversity that their love lives be as exciting as possible.

Lonely Mountains

 

Now spare a thought for a lonely heart from our own great ape family: the mountain gorilla of Central and East Africa. As humans have encroached on their habitat, mountain gorillas have been driven to higher, more unforgiving altitudes. The main factor putting the squeeze on the mountain gorilla is habitat loss, as displaced humans from conflict zones move in and in turn displace the gorillas, clearing flora for agriculture and to make charcoal.

Thanks to conservation efforts populations have stabilized somewhat in the past few years, though with a population estimated to be under 900 they remain critically endangered.

Small Porpoise, Big Pond

The vaquita is a mini-porpoise that makes its home in Mexico’s Gulf of California. It has suffered as a casualty of the fishing industry, getting unintentionally caught and killed in nets (a phenomenon known as “bycatch”). Because of this there are estimated to be only 200 individuals remaining.
Since their dolphin cousins are famously frisky animals, with prehensile penises, who even copulate face-to-face, populations would hopefully rebound if the porpoises were left to their own devices and free of human ones. One can only hope that efforts to eliminate bycatch incidents will be sucessful and that the vaquita will be left to get busy getting busy.

Source: http://newswatch.nationalgeographic.com/2013/05/15/six-of-natures-loneliest-animals/

Chaos and Confusion Following Elephant Poaching in a Central African World Heritage Site

As poachers fired on forest elephants inside the Dzanga-Ndoki National Park, a World Heritage Site in the Central African Republic (CAR), the impotence of foreign governments and non-governmental organizations in preventing the slaughter of wildlife amid political chaos was, once again, revealed.
Earlier this week, the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) reported that on May 6 a group of 17 heavily armed poachers, who presented themselves as part of the transitional Séléka government but were of Sudanese origin, entered the Dzanga-Ndoki National Park.

They then headed to Dzanga Bai, a large clearing where between 50 and 200 elephants gather at any given time during the day and night for the mineral salts. Ecoguards later reported that they saw these poachers fire at elephants from the observation platform used by scientists and tourists.

Located in southwestern CAR, the Dzanga-Sangha reserve (which includes the Dzanga-Ndoki National Park) is part of the Sangha River Tri-National Protected Area (TNS), which includes Nouabalé Ndoki National Park (NNNP) in the Republic of Congo (Brazzaville) and Lobéké National Park in Cameroon. Dzanga-Sangha is home to rare western lowland gorillas and more than 1,000 forest elephants. (This population is part of several thousand that share habitat with NNNP.)
While most World Heritage sites in elephant range states are seriously affected by poaching, the remoteness of the Dzanga-Ndoki National Park, combined with on-the-ground support by WWF and the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), have helped protect it from major poaching incidents. Until now.

For the past 30 years WWF, WCS, and the CAR government have collaborated on programs within the Dzanga–Sangha protected areas that both protect wildlife and support livelihoods for hundreds of local people.

For nearly 25 years, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) also has supported efforts in the park, including funding research on the forest elephants that use Dzanga Bai.

Dozens of Elephants Dead

Following the retreat of poachers on the evening of May 8, ecoguards explored Dzanga Bai the next day and found more than 26 elephant carcasses: 20 adults and four youngsters in the clearing itself and two in the river nearby. All their tusks had been hacked off.
An assessment of additional damage, possibly including other elephant carcasses in the surrounding forest and smaller clearings, is ongoing. It is reported that at least one of the camps in the park has been ransacked.

A Surprise
The violent incursion took conservationists by surprise. Months earlier, groups of poachers originating from Sudan, who were killing elephants in the Ngotto forest (some 60 miles from Dzanga Sangha), had been successfully blocked from advancing toward Dzanga-Sangha by government troops supported by WWF.
WWF staff in the area thought the poachers had left the region and started their trek back to Sudan in order to beat river levels rising in the rains; their donkeys and camels would be unable to cross the swollen rivers.
While lawlessness in the area had increased over the last two months—rebels repeatedly pillaged park headquarters and WWF offices, and there had been some local elephant poaching—nobody was ready for the methodical attack.
Since 2010, poachers had sought the Dzanga Bai elephant clearing, but conservationists had managed to prevent them from reaching it.
“We didn’t expect to find our worst nightmare: the most experienced elephant killers of these parts of Central Africa,” said Bas Huijbregts, who leads the Illegal Wildlife Trade Campaign for WWF in Central Africa.
“With our staff evacuated after the pillaging,” Huijbregts said, “our main priority was maintaining a minimum protection presence to stop local poachers from going on a rampage in the park while continuing to try to mobilize reinforcements from central government troops in Bangui. We were not prepared for this.”

Who Are the Poachers?
Who are the poachers? The answer is unclear. The vehicle carrying the group into the park was branded as Séléka. The poachers did not speak the local language or French.
“We understand that these Sudanese poachers came with a mission order from Séléka powers in Bangui,” Huijbregts said.
In March, Séléka, which means “union” in the local Sango language and is an alliance of seven opposition groups, finally ousted former CAR President François Bozizé. Chaos has reigned since then.
There have been many reports of looting, rapes, killings, and other human rights abuses since the takeover. On April 29, the UN Security Council issued a statement expressing strong concern about the worsening humanitarian and security situation and the weakening of CAR institutions.
The Séléka-dominated government is having a very difficult time establishing control over the country. There are many fighters who report to no one, and many splinter groups, who refer to themselves as Séléka but who may or may not be part of the “official” alliance. It seems that each of the seven members of the alliance has its own chief of staff and armed fighters.
One such subsidiary of Séléka is currently stationed in Bayanga, a town near the park, where they’re in charge of protecting Chinese diamond prospectors. Unlike previous groups who sacked  the region, these men are reportedly well-disciplined. They have helped reestablish some rule of law and have had meetings with local authorities and ecoguards.
On Wednesday, this subsidiary delivered a message to the poachers in the park from the Séléka leadership in Bangui asking them to leave the park immediately and report to the Bayanga-based Séléka.
It appears that the poachers obeyed. According to WWF, by the evening of May 8, they had left the park with their truck fully loaded with ivory.
Since the shooting, WWF reports that no elephants have been seen in the area.
What Is Happening Now?
The CAR ministry of environment in Bangui was expected imminently to announce a mission to secure the area in and around the Dzanga-Sangha protected areas. But when that announcement will be made, what such a mission would be, and who would be involved is unclear.
It would likely be made up of agents from the ministry of environment, plus some compilation of other forces. These could include members from one or more of the seven groups that make up Séléka and perhaps some of the official armed forces, who reportedly have little or no weapons or equipment.
As of May 10, most of the park’s 42 ecoguards are back at their posts—watching and waiting.
“We’re at war right now, and it’s foggy,” explains Richard Ruggiero, Chief, Branch of Asia and Africa at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Ruggiero has worked on the ground in Central Africa for over 20 years. “The possibility exists that we can turn this around in the very near future.”
Indeed, it’s not the first time conservationists have faced this situation. In 1997, rebels threatened to wipe out elephant herds in the Nouabalé-Ndoki National Park in the Republic of Congo (Brazzaville), and a group of dedicated conservationists and government rangers successfully prevented it.
“We are considering all options,” Huijbregts said. “We urge the government in Bangui to send the support troops to the area that were promised almost two weeks ago. In the meantime, we continue to support the local rangers, who, against all odds, are still doing their job.”

The Greater Malady

Whatever actions are taken to resolve this crisis, the larger issue is the underlying incentive for the elephant poaching: high demand and high ivory prices.
“What we’re seeing in Dzanga-Sangha is a symptom of a greater malady,” Ruggiero said. “The malady is human selfishness and ignorance that produces the market that causes all of this demand. We’re seeing the symptoms being played out in CAR. The disease is greater and comes from elsewhere.”
“At the end of the day, one of two things will end poaching,” Huijbregts added. “Either there is no more demand, or there are no more elephants. The choice is up to us.”

Lets hope this does not mark the end of the African Elephants. Only 450,000 remaining in the world.

Source: http://newswatch.nationalgeographic.com/2013/05/13/chaos-and-confusion-following-elephant-poaching-in-a-central-african-world-heritage-site/

Indian tigers face threat 'due to lack of genetic diversity'

India's tigers are facing extinction owing to a collapse in the variety of their mating partners, say Cardiff University researchers.

 

They found that 93% of DNA variants found in tigers shot the period of the British Raj were not present in tigers today

Prof Mike Bruford said the genetic diversity needed for the species to survive had been "lost dramatically".

There are fewer than 2,000 tigers left worldwide, 60% in India.

The Cardiff university team collaborated with the National Centre for Biological Sciences in Bangalore, India on the research.

They had unprecedented access to the Natural History Museum of London's tiger collection which allowed them to identify the DNA variants in the tigers killed in the British Raj period from 1858 to 1947 but which have disappeared today.

Mechanised trophy hunting reduced the animal's numbers from 40,000 in a mere 100 years.

The territory occupied by the tiger has declined more than 50% during the last three generations and mating now only occurs in 7% of its historical territory.

A tiger hunt on the back of elephants in India in 1912
Prof Bruford of the Cardiff School of Biosciences was one of the research's lead authors.

He said: "We found that genetic diversity has been lost dramatically compared to the Raj tigers and what diversity remains has become much more subdivided into the small (20-120 individual) populations that exist today.

"This is due to loss of habitat and habitat fragmentation, meaning lower population sizes, and the prevention of tigers from dispersing as they once would have, which means their gene pool is no longer mixing across the subcontinent.
Breeding programmes
"This is important because tigers, like all other species, need genetic diversity to survive - especially under climate change - so what diversity remains needs to be managed properly so that the Indian tiger does not become inbred, and retains its capacity to adapt."

Prof Bruford added: "Both conservationists and the Indian government must appreciate that the number of tigers alone is not enough to ensure the species' survival."

"They need to protect the whole spread of forest reserves because many reserves now have their own unique gene combinations, which might be useful for future breeding programmes.

"This study shows that genetic diversity can be lost and a new genetic structure can arise very quickly, if the effects of population collapse and habitat fragmentation are strong enough, so quick action is needed to stymie further demographic loss."

The report Demographic loss, genetic structure and the conservation implications for Indian tigers is published in the Proceedings of The Royal Society journal.

Funding for the project was provided by a Royal Society Collaborative Research Grant.

www.bbc.co.uk/news