What Is Elephant Poaching?

Did you know that poaching has led to most animal extinctions this century? Poaching is a continuously growing problem that will cause many problems to the environment and people. Poaching can be defined as the illegal hunting of animals on land that is not the hunters own. Poaching does not only happen in unprotected lands such as the wilderness, but it has also happened in protected lands such as zoos. Animals may soon become extinct because of the high rate of killing the poachers are doing. If animals do become extinct, life would be very different. An example of how life would be different without animals, such as tigers, is talked about by Eugene Linden when he said, “the wild tigers of old will be gone forever, their glory surviving

One of the many problems of poaching is that many animal species are being hunted to the point of extinction. For example, thousands of African Elephants are being killed each year. According to (“Poaching”), “In September

People love going to zoos to get an up close and person look at non-domestic animals, but a lot of people don’t realize how popular animal poaching is. It is when an animal’s life is taken illegally, usually for valuable body parts, and the numbers of animals killed each year are increasing at alarming rates, for example studies show that: “An average of 96 elephants are murdered for their ivory in Africa , more are being killed for their ivory than being born, says animalmatters.org.

Around the world, there is an abundance of animals that are becoming extinct or endangered due to poaching. Animals such as Rhinos, Turtles, Gorillas, and the Tigers are critically endangered due to vulnerability and have been jeopardized by human activities. Many countries have legalized poaching, but still this problem has increased significantly in the past decade. If the world does not stop this issue countless of animals will become extinct, and our older generation will never be able to see these exotic animals living in their natural habitat. Poaching is happening all around the world and will never be stopped until people are more educated about this crime and what is occurring from it.

Elephant populations suffered a drop in numbers that carried the species into the endangered animals list. At the beginning of the twentieth century, about ten million elephants lived in Africa. Presently, the ten million is reduced to half a million because of illegal hunting and habitat loss. Studies of the population show twenty-two thousand were killed in 2012 and twenty-five thousand in 2011. When comparing the death rate to the natural population growth, there is a possibility the largest mammal on Earth could be extinct soon (Vaughan 1). Because the elephant is the largest animal to walk on land, the greatly increasing human population affects the elephant population first. They live in some regions of the world that have the densest human population which continues to grow, which therefore continuously decreases their own population (Bryner 1). As the human population swiftly increases, the elephant population in turn, decreases. This is so because they cannot cohabitate the same living space. Elephants and humans cannot cohabitate because they would kill each other due to the inability to communicate. About population recovery, the Animal wildlife foundation states, “Populations of elephants- especially in Southern and Eastern Africa- that once showed promising signs of recovery could be at risk due to the recent surge in poaching for the illegal ivory trade”(1). Poaching presents one of the main issues that make recovery so difficult for these animals.

The official title of the world’s largest land dwelling animal belongs to the elephant, more specifically, the African elephant. Elephants also are some of the most deadly animals, which therefore increase the danger of human and elephant interactions. The more human interactions occur, the more deaths result, whether it is the elephant or the human who dies. These animals, surprisingly, are socially apt; their trunk is used for more than just eating and drinking- it is used for socializing. They are complex animals who live in large familial herds-females stay with their family throughout their entire lives while males only stay for approximately fifteen years (Elephant Protection, 1). Elephants possess a great memory and only forget what they learn occasionally and rarely, giving way to the “an elephant never forgets” saying (Maloiy, 178c). Despite how many people use the beloved saying, elephants may not be around much longer due to the shortened life span and increased mortality rates. Due to their incisor teeth, tusks, being extremely expensive and profitable, they are being murdered for the wealth they carry. This, coupled with the life span shortening because of malicious treatments and brutal practices reduces the life span of the African elephant from 56 to 16 years and the Asian elephant from 42 to 19 years (Elephant Protection, 1). According to what the statistics show, elephants may be following their ancestors to their death. Of the group of mammals called

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

Although the CITES banned the poaching of Asian and African elephants and international trade in the mid 1980’s, many organizations have been posting anti-ivory trade promotion on their website (Stiles, 309). Websites such as International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW), Born Free Foundation, Care for the Wild International, and the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) (Stiles, 309). Many of the southern countries of Africa do not agree with the African elephant ban (Stiles, 309). They’ve been against the ban since around the mid-1980’s (Stiles, 309). People from the southern countries of Africa have been arguing because they don’t believe they should be penalized because other countries don’t know how to handle their wildlife (Stiles, 309). The CITES Conference of Parties voted in favor of Botswana, Namibia and Zimbabwe to

Poaching is becoming less and less popular with ivory and the elephant tusks and today the elephants are thriving in the 21st century. A man named Desire Dondego was a killing machine, but now helps the elephants live and thrive. Poachers can be hunted illegally or legally and if you hunt somewhere where it is illegal, they can get arrested and go to prison

The poaching of elephants for their tusks has driven the animal in some countries - such as Sierra Leone and Senegal - to the point of extinction. More than 30,000 elephants were slaughtered in Africa last year alone, 382 of them in Kenya. (Stewart, 2013n n.p.).

The CNN news announced the new current event on Thursday, September 1, 2016, in Linyanti Swamp, Botswana. Africa's Savannah elephant population became smaller due to habitat loss, human-elephant conflict, and climate change. Many poachers kill elephants and sell them to the underground economy and the organized crime gangs. They use anything that has the potential to inflict serious harm or kill an animal. For instance, they use poison-tipped spears, spiked traps, and snares or poison water holes to pierce an elephant's tough hide. Also, they use grenades to kill the

It is common knowledge that many animals in Africa are going extinct and it is most definitely because of the involvement of people. For example, 10,000-15,000 free-roaming African lions remain, down from 50,000 a decade ago and In 1900 there were about 100,000 cheetah worldwide, present estimates place their number at 10,000 -15,000 with about one tenth of those living in captivity. Because of this many people feel that it is our responsibility to make sure that they survive, or at least continue as nature would intend. Well that is simply an unrealistic expectation, but we should try to make sure we don’t completely ruin the ecosystems, and trophy hunting is the last in a long line of problems to be resolved, and as for now it is actually one of the only things helping certain regions who impose it properly.

“We are experiencing what is likely to be the greatest percentage loss of elephants in history,” said Richard G. Ruggiero, an official with the United States Fish and Wildlife Service (Ney York Times; December 3, 2012). The poaching of elephants started in the late 1800’s and is still happening today. People are slaughtering these majestic animals for their ivory tusks. Ivory has been sold on the black market for millions of dollars. Before the start of ivory poaching there were millions of elephants in the world in both Africa and India, but today because of the hunting for ivory, there are barely any of these giants left in the wild. Throughout history Europeans have been moving in on central African states to make

The complexity surrounding conservation is a theme that I found both important and compelling. This topic came up during the “Class within a Class” on the Illegal Wildlife Trade. One of the readings assigned was a New York Times article about elephant poaching. After working at a charity focusing on wildlife preservation in Africa last summer, I had become passionate about elephant conservation. I had learned about the rapid decline of elephants along with the threat of poaching based on the ivory trade. Yet after completing the readings, I realized that the issue was more complicated than I had previously appreciated. For example, I was unaware of the complex geopolitical elements of the issue: the ivory demands of middle-class China, the

Poaching is one of the leading effects of the poverty in Africa. There are many poachers who are seeking money, but the only way they look at finding it is through killing wildlife. They are illegally killing animals, especially elephants, and ivory.