The Ivory Trade and the Slaughter of Elephants

Thesis: The illegal activity of killing animals in Sub-Saharan Africa has caused many short and long terms affects for this continent.

Wildlife Conservation: Research Paper Between the years 1970 and 2010 about 50 percent of the world’s wildlife have been lost due to deforestation, poaching, overfishing, and overhunting (Dell’Amore). 5 million African elephants roamed the Earth not too long ago but currently there are roughly only 470,000 elephants around today. The novel, The White Bone by Barbara Gowdy is a story of a family of elephants that must take a journey to overcome the destruction of their habitat and poaching as well. The one thing that they are searching for is a “White Bone” that is said to have the power to reverse the drought and protect them from those that hunt them. The book not only provides the outside forces that are pushing the elephants, it also gives

At this point there is no clear option to saving the elephants but this one does not preserve elephants it makes them a cattle to be sold distributed and slaughtered.

I would take the side of the people who are trying to stop elephant and ivory poaching. Because if it continues the elephants will go extinct soon and we will only be able to see them in zoos. There should at least be 2,000 elephants in the wild. Hunters can hunt other animals for money. Elephants are amazing creatures that do not deserve to be killed just for their tusks so hunters can just make some money. But if they keep killing them they will go extinct and hunters won’t make any more money.

Trading ivory is permitted as long as the shopkeeper has a license. The merchants may only sell the ivory if carved before 1990. But most of the ivory sold in bazaars where carved after 1990. Chinese citizens perches about ¾ of all ivory items.

Ivory’s appeal to the upper-classes as a symbol of affluence and its timeless style has lured people to the tusks since as far back as the ancient Egyptians around the year 3000BC. Since the Egyptians, every civilization with a significant upper class population has sought ivory and been willing to pay a premium price for it. The most expensive and most sought after was the ivory of East Africa where it was agreed that the ivory was, without a doubt, the best in the world.

Because of the poaching of African elephants there has been a decrease in the average weight of their tusks, poachers look for elephants with larger tusks. This has been recorded by the Uganda Game Department between 1925 to 1928 (Dawkins, 2009). Natural selections is a mechanism of evolution beginning with variations of traits within a population, these variations must be heritable in order to be passed to offspring, there must also be differential reproductive success, this causes the organisms with the favorable gene to survive and pass the trait on to future generations (Berkeley.edu, 2015). Poaching results in natural selection because there is a variation in the gene that codes for tusk sizes. The larger tusks are being targeted and killed, smaller tusked elephants remain giving them a better chance to reproduce and pass their genes, causing the genes that result in smaller tusks to appear more frequently. Directional selection, which is a mode of natural selection, is happening in this population because one phenotype is more favorable. These elephants are displaying a change in genetic frequency, a result of a mutation causing variation in tusk size. This is a heritable trait, the genes that code for smaller tusk sizes are being passed down more than those for larger tusk sizes. Evolution is the change frequency of allele, because the elephants with the larger tusks are being killed the elephants with smaller tusks are left with the best fitness. This leads to a

The reading talks about some methods for hunting elephants: such as digging ditches to catch elephants, make a tree trap, and use strategies. The consumer might not know how the process of ivory is. In medieval, some people claimed that the "helfent," when hunted, would fall down and break its bone, producing the rarity know as ivory. The article also briefly describes the role of the elephant in some medieval stories, and

Messer, a conservationist and author of “Protecting endangered species: When are shoot-on-sight policies the only viable option to stop poaching”, believes that shoot-to-kill laws are becoming the only way to stop poaching and increase wildlife populations. Traditional anti-poaching policies, such as raising the amount of fines and lengthening jail terms, appear to have only minimally reduced poaching (Messer, 2010). Since 1989, countries, such as Kenya and Zimbabwe, have had shoot-to-kill laws and their anti-poaching forces have killed 167 poachers (Messer, 2010). Their elephant populations have increased by nearly 50%, while other countries in Africa, without shoot-to-kills laws, are continuing to see decreases in their wildlife populations. Zoologist and other wildlife specialists have been trying to convince these countries to have these laws, but many countries continue to dismiss their pleas. These countries’ economies thrive on the profits of illegally traded and sold animal

Almost all elephants face habitat loss. When they lose their habitats, they are forced to move to another area which can lead them to dying because they are not used to that certain habitat. Hotter and drier climates make it harder to forage or find food, and threatens calf survival.

Elephants are a kind hearted large mammal who could potentially be forgotten about over time. This topic relates to what we have discussed in class because this article demonstrates the catastrophic decline of Elephants in Africa due to poaching (D-Arian). The article also exemplified the harsh dealings in Africa regarding the Ivory trade throughout Africa and China (Asiah). The issue itself is very disturbing some individuals had no sympathy about the life of an elephant however, they are looked at as a resource (Tyaira). Overall this article and what it stands for opened my eyes to how violent and lucrative the ivory trade is in Africa and China (Cherisse). But we are very thankful that there are recent laws past that to protects the elephants

People all over Africa, hunt elephants for a living, for meat, trading, and just for show. They trade ivory, which is the substance of a tusk, mainly from elephants. Sudan has became a area where Africa’s ivory trade is. In addition, poachers kill the elephants for mainly their ivory. Dontego, a former poacher, has killed many elephants, but he killed them for the meat, so he could feed his family. Also, Dontego was a poacher until people criticized him, then he felt guilty and helped protect elephants. Moreover, poachers kill elephants up to 6,000 - 12,000 a year for basically the ivory, so Dontego knows where to go and what poachers use, so he can help stop poachers. The ivory trade is how it sounds, a group of poachers meet up, maybe even

Animal poaching has a bigger price tag than the trophy sitting on the shelf. Poaching is causing iconic animals of many continents and of our oceans to become endangered or even extinct. These animals that people have come to love and fantasize over may be gone before we are (Africa). Elephants, rhinos, lions, and zebras are the animals thought of the most when it comes to animal poaching, but many animals are poached. They are killed for only one quality, like their horns or skins and the rest of the animal is left behind. Poaching is a massive business that is ran by international networks, it’s estimated to make hundreds of millions of dollars (World). Not all wildlife trade is illegal, but it becomes a crisis when an increasing amount of illegal poaching is done and it directly threatens the survival of species in the wild (World). Since 1960 97.6% of the Black Rhino population in Africa has been poached and lions are extinct in seven African countries (Africa).

There are organizations around the globe designed to stop elephant poaching. Their intent is to sway people’s opinions to help with the world-wide problem. Only a global ban on the sale of ivory would take the heat off of these massive creatures. Solutions might include, addressing the involvement of international criminal institutes by means of strong law enforcement at both national and international levels along the full extent of the supply. Closing down domestic (national) markets in ivory, would also be beneficial. Countries could embrace the trade ban, and educate consumers in order to stem the demand for ivory (Bloody Ivory; January 11, 2013).

Elephants are the “keepers of the savannas and gardeners of the forest” and are one of the most intelligent and unique animals on the planet. Much like humans they have the ability to feel emotion and create kinship bonds with other elephants, so much so that they grieve over the deaths of other elephants (The Ivory Game). This is something that very few other animals have the capability of doing. Not only are they unique in their behavior, but also in the precious cargo they carry, known as ivory. A few hundred years ago millions of elephants roamed the sub- Saharan and the rainforest of Central and West Africa, but less than 400,000 African Elephants exist today. If poaching continues at its current rate the African Elephants are well on their way to becoming extinct. In the last 20 years there has been a serious increase in demand for ivory in Asia and in the Middle East, which has led to a serious poaching problem in Africa and an increase in black market activity across Asia.