Wildlife Management in Africa Essay

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

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.

Poaching animals is defined as the “illegal hunting or capturing of wild animals mainly in areas in which hunting is forbidden” . The main difference between poaching and hunting is the legal permission, indeed “hunting is regulated by the government, and hunters must obtain permits authorizing them to kill certain animals” .

Because of the sale of illegal ivory so many elephants' lives are put at risk. If the poaching of elephants and ever-growing trade in illegal ivory is to be seriously addressed, part of the solution to this complex problem must be a return to the full ban on the sale of ivory established in 1989 (Bloody Ivory). Between 434,000 and 684,000 African savanna elephants in 18 countries remain, down 30% in the last seven years. Once again levels of poaching and illegal trade have spiraled out of control. Rates of poaching are now the worst they have been since 1989. There are no easy answers, but a total ivory trade ban is the one strategy we know has worked (Mary Rice). Hong Kong seized 779 elephant tusks three days into 2013, over a ton of ivory,

A century ago, the lion population of Africa thrived as these animals were able to roam freely across the continent. However, owing to a multitude of factors such as poaching, trophy killings, loss of habitat area and conflicts with humans- the population of the African lion today is just 10% of what it once was. The need to address this rapid decline in lion populations is vital in ensuring that these animals are present for future generations to enjoy, whilst not impeding the access for the current generation. Lions, being a non-market public good without well-defined property rights results in society’s inability in managing this resource effectively (Shogren and Taylor, 2008); to overcome this, a market must be established which

The people responsible for killing the elephants throughout the time period of 1800’s -1999 is all local hunters and big game hunters. Roberts seen a group of boys torturing an innocent baby elephant who he then took back to his plane and tried to nurse it back to health but alas the baby elephant died after being Robert's care for ten days ( Hammer, Joshua.). A group of boys from some village seen that a little elephant was wandering out alone so they decided to mess with the little guy well when roberts seen this he decided that that wasn’t going work for him at all and decided to rescue the innocent baby elephant. Some of the elephants that get poached are in retaliation because they were getting all over a farmer’s crops so the farmer took it upon himself to kill the elephant that didn’t know any different not to go in that area.( The reason the elephants don’t know any different is because their land that they onced roamed freely just started being taken over by the human population. Now we are going to talk about the people responsible for killing elephants from the time period of 2000’s and above. Most of the human hunters nowadays have heavy machinery that can take down elephants like ak 47’s and other machinery such as that. With their big guns elephants don’t really stand a chance against human hunters. They also use a gps/sonar mapping to see where the elephants are located. Then they go and kill them and that is also how they find them so easily in big hordes as they do.

Elephants have been victims of not just the incessant poaching but also of the civil wars; ultimately making them to fight back. The killing case have gone over the roof, as the “singular perversity” (Siebert 353) of the attacks. In India, “nearly one thousand people have been killed by elephants between 2000 and 2004” (Siebert 353). Several frequent attacks were recorded in Africa and other villages where the denizens were forced to evacuate their houses. ‘nearly one thousand’ which accentuates the gravity of the situation in 4 years had gained a lot of attention from the elephants researchers. Seibert’s prime third perspective, Gay Bradshaw, Oregon State psychologist, claims that that “everybody pretty much agrees that the relationship between elephants and people has dramatically changed” (Siebert 353). The choice of diction ‘dramatically’ indicates that elephants are not being violent towards human beings but they are also doing it intentionally. Dramatic behavior changes over the years are now being explained in the elephants. “Bradshaw and several colleagues argued that today’s elephant populations are suffering from a form of chronic stress, a kind of species-wide trauma” (Siebert 354), due to “decades of poaching and habitat loss” (Siebert 354). Elephants are becoming more destructive and Bradshaw looked into combining “traditional research into elephant behavior with insights about trauma drawn from

Taking away guns is not enough of a punishment though, if people are going to kill the animals illegally then they will illegally get guns to continue killing the animals. Just like other things that are illegal, people will still do it so to cut down on the amount of people that do it increase the punishment for the crime. I think any poaching of any kind of animal should have some jail time and a minimum of two year hunting restriction. I think that the poacher should have all guns taken away during the time of the hunting restriction. I think the punishment for poaching endangered animals should be much more significant than for game

To begin with trophy hunting should not be allowed. The animals should be protected. In Junior Scholastic it say that “A million people have signed a petition asking Zimbabwe to stop issuing hunting permits to kill animals .” In the Associated Press passage it states that “ Only 20,000 lions are left in the wild.” Animals can’t protect themselves so humans should help protect them.

The book includes a clear outline of the history of conservation in Africa, coupled with stories of Africans involved in conservation management. The authors explain the issues around African conservation as well as including their own input and potential solutions. One of the main points presented is that the myth that Africans and wildlife being incompatible must be broken. It is evident that Africans are just as passionate about their wildlife like the rest of the world and the authors try to bring this across to the rest of the world. However, conservationists must make sure that rural people are acknowledged and that they engage in conservation efforts to make sure projects are successful. Due to the age of the book, several issues are more prominent than others, such as habitat loss and overpopulation, and that the solutions to these issues will have changed with the development of technology. Public awareness and the education of issues are now more achievable and effective due to the advancement in communication in the form of social media and the fact many Africans own a mobile phones. The involvement of local communities will always be important in conservation and most of the points brought across in the book about the past will remain relevant. An update or a companion book including discussions of new issues threats

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.

Planet Earth is the one and only home for humans, and it’s their natural duty to protect it and all of its inhabitants. For many people, the fate of animals is of little importance, especially when there are so many of their own species suffering throughout the world. However, only when one has respect for nature can he or she come to appreciate for his or herself. In the past few decades, some animals have progressively come closer and closer to extinction. When compared to demographics 30 years ago, less than 5% of tiger and rhino populations remain in the wild (Congressional). The main culprits for this abominable crime against nature are avaricious poachers who seek personal gain and profit. Poaching is the illegal killing of

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).

“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

There are 6.5 million species of land mammals. Wildlife biologists get the privilege of studying and spending time with these animals as their everyday life. I should be a wildlife biologist so I can study land mammals.