Wildlife and Conservation Efforts 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

People around the world need to acknowledge that poaching can affect more than just the extinction of animals but can also cause many economic issues. If the average citizen was educated about poaching most likely it would not occur as often as it does now. Journals that are put into the world about poaching are very upsetting and emotional to read, but they can educate people around the world about how devastating poaching actually is. Not only are these animals endangered, but poaching can also affect the economy and disrupt the delicate balance of the ecosystem. A Harvard University graduate reported: “The loss of these species would have harmful effects upon the overall ecosystem and the environment's ability to provide"ecosystem services"such as soil stability and water retention”(Xie). Also there are many health risks that come from wildlife trafficking; “Experts have noted that increased traffic in animals will raise the risk of zoonotic disease transmission. Diseases such as Ebola, which is often carried by bats and other primates, come to mind. It is hypothesized that HIV is linked to the consumption of primate meat and that respiratory viruses may be found in smaller animals, such as civet cats”(Xie). These different diseases are very lethal to the human body and cause death if made contact

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.

18.  What role did Central Asian and West African pastoralists play in their respective regions?

Because of the poaching of game like the elephant, the number of species will start to diminish. What hunters brought to the villages of Botswana was the money and the meat from the animals to feed the many people that go hungry everyday. Hunters that would take animals such as an elephant wouldn’t take any of the meat for themselves but rather they give all of the meat to the villages in the area. However, when poaching starts to take over, there will be zero meat or money that will be put back into the community. Poachers that kill elephants are only after one thing and that is the ivory from the elephant tusks. After taking the tusks, the elephant is left to rot. Another animal that is sought after by poachers in Botswana is the rhino. The rhino is poached for their horns, which are supposedly an aphrodisiac in China so the demand is high. Because of these effects, groups like SCI are so important to different places around the world. The money brought in by the hunters is used to hire conservation officers to protect the rhinos and elephants and to buy land that will be put into game preserves so the numbers of these species will increase because there aren’t any pressures from hunting or

The !Kung bushmen of the Kalahari Desert in Southern Africa are one of the few bands of hunter-gatherers left in the world. They survive by foraging for their meals while traveling, never settling in one specific area. Hunting and gathering was the primary mode of survival until about ten thousand years ago. Anthropologists have made assumptions about the hunting and gathering lifestyle of current populations because it seems like a precarious method of living. Moreover, the Kalahari area where the !Kung live in was perceived to be baron because it is a desert. However, a study done over a period of years beginning in 1960 led by Richard Lee disproved the common misconception of the life of these foragers, proving that they were not

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

ALERT! ALERT! ANIMAL CRUELTY IN AREA! The following is an extremely important argument on the topic of poaching animals. If you do not approve of removing animals out of their natural habitats or destruction of the animal food chain, I suggest you continue reading immediately. Penalties for poaching should be severe because poaching is harmful, taking animals from ecosystems, destroying the relationships of which the energy flows in a food web, and harms animals in diverse biomes, demolishing food chains and animal populations. Penalties for poaching animals should be severe because taking animals from ecosystems destroy the relationships of where the energy flows in a food web, and harms animals in diverse biomes. When animals are taken from

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.

The continent of Africa provides a home to biodiversity unlike anywhere else. Many endangered species roam the various biomes that call Africa home. Trophy hunting has been a popular activity for many decades; many well known individuals such as the Theodore Roosevelt participated. Trophy hunting is hotly debated within the scientific community; Lucille Palazy, who works for the University of Paris, introduces this, “Trophy hunting is one of the most controversial issues in the field of biodiversity conservation…” (Palazy, Lucille, et al. 1). This debate has many main supporters and opponents; these include trophy hunters, conservationists, and the population of the country involved. Palazy elaborates on the

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

Bill Freedmen, author of “Endangered Species—Human Causes Of Extinction and Endangerment” notes, “scientists approximate that present extinction rates are 1,000 to 10,000 times higher than the average natural extinction rate.” These distressing numbers should be acted upon to save the endangered species and avoid the catastrophic change to this planet if these species were to become extinct. In order to produce change, people need to recognize that habitat loss, climate change, and poaching are all factors in why our animal species are going extinct.

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 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.

Desertification is defined by Scott E Spoolman and G. Miller in their book Living in the Environment as “the conversion of rangeland, rain-fed cropland, or irrigated cropland to desert-like land with a drop of agricultural activity of 10% or more”. To put this as simple as possible desertification is turning usable soil into desert. Dissertation is hard to observe but over time